“Then by the power vested in me by me,” Elizabeth continued, touching the sword first to Stephen’s right shoulder, and then to his left, “and also fully and irrevocably bestowed upon me by my supportive family, who has agreed that I alone am equal to the task of knighting this and all future Wynchesters—”
“Didwe agree to that?” murmured Tommy.
“I don’t think we were asked,” replied Philippa.
“—therefore I hereby declare you a full-blooded Wynchester!” She pressed her fingers to her chest and lifted them toward the sky.
All of the Wynchester siblings did the same.
Elizabeth hauled Stephen to his feet and kissed him, then stabbed her bejeweled sword up to the heavens in victory.
Whistles and cheers erupted from the audience. She sheathed the sword. The students danced around them in glee as Stephen and Elizabeth’s family burst forward to give them happy hugs.
“Welcome to the family,” said Jacob.
Stephen’s heart swelled. He laced his fingers with his bride’s and swung their clasped hands high in the air before leaning in to give her another kiss.
“About that good part,” she murmured against his lips. “Think they’ll notice if we don’t attend our own wedding breakfast?”
He grinned back at her. “Let’s find out.”
EPILOGUE
Elizabeth stretched out on the sofa in the Wynchester sibling sitting room. She and Stephen almost hadn’t left their house today, because Elizabeth had awoken to her hips and joints threatening mutiny. But rather than continue with the planned fencing practice—or hole up and pretend nothing was amiss—Stephen had fed her pistachio ices in bed until she informed him she could at least make the short trip from their house to her siblings’.
The rest of the family had seen her in such a position countless times. Stephen was now part of the family, too. He not only loved every part of her, from the working bits to the not-always-working bits, but also believed she was a formidable knight at all times. Even when lying in repose atop a pillow-strewn sofa with her ankles in her husband’s lap so that Stephen could rub her feet.
The massages weren’t because he thought her weak. He rubbed her feet every night, no matter what percentage she was at that day. And all she had to do to be showered with ices was whisper the word “pistachio” and Stephen would be out the door like a shot.
“Wait,” said Jacob. “I cannot possibly have heard you correctly.”
“Stephen allows me in his workroom, even when he’s not there,” Elizabeth repeated, her voice dreamy. “He blows things up all the time, and told me to feel free to blow up whatever I please as well.”
Her siblings’ gazes swung toward Stephen, who shrugged indulgently. “What’s good for the goose…”
“Married life together is marvelous,” Elizabeth said with a happy sigh. “You should see my new dagger-sharpening device.”
“I’m never leaving one of our children alone with you in that workroom,” Chloe said sternly.
Elizabeth and Stephen squeezed each other’s hands in mutual relief. Chloe’s baby was nowcrawling. She and Stephen would rather be set upon by hornets.
They grinned at each other. Elizabeth was pretty sure her grin was wider. Even when her hips were at fifty percent, with Stephen she was always one hundred percent Elizabeth.
Graham glanced at him askance. “Now that you’re a Wynchester, I intended to offer you your own room in the western wing to do with as you please. We might have to add a ‘no explosion’ rule.”
“We have plenty of space at our house,” Elizabeth assured him. “Space to be ourselves.”
“And speaking of explosions,” Stephen added, earning a sideways glance from all the rest of the Wynchesters, too. “It’s not exactly a souvenir, but I finally had a chance to make a machine for the Faircliffe family.”
“Speaking of explosions?” the duke repeated dubiously. “Did we mention the baby?”
Chloe plucked her crawling devil-child up from the floor and clutched him protectively to her chest. “What kind of machine is it?”
“A combination clock and cradle. The weights powering the clock also drive pulleys that rock the cradle on curved feet.”
“Thatsounds… nice,” Faircliffe admitted.
Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Whatelsedoes it do?”
