Chapter 16
Désirée’s heart fluttered too fast for her to catch a proper breath.
Before she could respond, Lucien muscled his horse forward. “She doesn’t belong to you. She belongs with us. We are her real family. She is our blood.” He turned his back without awaiting a reply. “Come, Désirée. We are leaving.”
“No.”
The lone syllable nearly unseated Lucien from his horse. “What did you say?”
“I said ‘no.’ I’m not finished here yet.” She held her ground. “Jack is talking tomeaboutmylife. What I do with it needs to be my decision.”
Bastien nudged his horse forward. “What do you want?”
Although those were the words he used, the ones he meant were,Who do you want?Her chest grew tight.
How could she walk away from the man she loved?
How could she walk away from the family she loved?
Jack lived the life that she wanted. He had a home he belonged to, a family who adored him just as he was, an entire village that cherished him. The dangling carrot saidthis could be yours, toobut the catch was having to turn her back on her own brothers to accept it.
Lucien and Sébastien had been just as terrified and grief-stricken as she was when they’d been forced from their home… but they hadn’t let her know. They told her everything was going to be fine. That they would always protect her. That no one would ever again have the power to separate their family.
All three of them had vowed to do anything it took to one day make it home.
Her whole life, Désirée had avoided hard choices by always siding with whatever her family wanted to do. By choosing unity over division. By choosing the group over herself.
Now, no matter which path she took, she would be choosing someone she loved over someone else she loved. The road had divided. She might be equal parts English and French, but she could not be in France and England at the same time.
Her brothers wanted the best for her. They always had and always would. They’d dedicated their lives to find a way to retrieve everything they felt she was owed. Status. A dowry. An aristocratic French husband.
Jack didn’t want anything from her. He didn’t need her dowry. He had his own land, his own money. He did not care about her status or want to change her in any way.
He just wanted to love her. For as long as their forever might be.
She gathered her reins with trembling fingers and turned to face her brothers.
“We did not choose to be siblings, but no sister could ask for better ones. I love you both to the heavens and back. I always have and always will.”
They exchanged relieved glances.
She sucked in a shaky breath. “But I cannot be something I am not, just because it is what you command. You seek ‘what’s best for me’ but do not ask whatIwant, whatIwould like best. I do not wish to divide our families. I wish to forge an even bigger one.”
Jack’s startled gaze met hers.
Désirée straightened her shoulders. “My family is Lucien. My family is Bastien. My family is Jack and Frederick and Annie. They demand nothing from me, but ask if I might carve out a space for them in my heart. I have already done so, willingly and happily. There is no need to ask. Jack, I love you, too. All three of you.”
His lips parted.
She was not yet done. She turned to Lucien. “I will go to France and present myself to the court with my brothers. But I will not stay, unless all of us stay. If Jack and the children wish to remain here in Cressmouth, in the home that they have made into my home too, then that is where I belong.” She held out her hand to Jack. “Here. With you.”
He did not take her hand in his. “I couldn’t forgive myself if marriage to me ruined your bond with your brothers.”
“Only a man who deserved her would say so,” Lucien said gruffly. “My perspective has not changed. Family always comes first. And now that I know this man and his children are your family…” He inclined his head to Jack. “Then they are my family, too.”
“You’ve just been given permission,” Bastien whispered. “Run off with my sister before he changes his mind.”
Désirée entwined her fingers with Jack’s, and they did exactly that.
