Around the lake, Gabriel spun his wife, careful not to get too close to the water. Her loose hair fanned out around her with every dainty spin, and his breath stuck in his throat, refusing to come out.
He had never felt so much.
Nicholas had been right. Gabriel had always feltsomething,nevernothing. He felt every good thing at once, everything he had never thought would be his after he hardened his heart and all but tossed it away.
Sibyl was beautiful, a ballerina beneath his guiding hands, knowing exactly where to step and turn, how to hold her skirt, how to slip beneath his arm when she spun, how to place her hand when she came close to him again and again. They circled the lake several times, their eyes locked, and Gabriel wanted to make love to her right there and then.
Not some primal tumble or a quick hike of skirts, but genuine, skin-to-skin lovemaking.
It felt terribly romantic. It feltright.
When they finally slowed, Sibyl’s laughter bubbled up, tender and giddy, as if she had just had something fulfilled and couldn’t contain her joy.
“Sibyl,” Gabriel whispered without realizing it, pulling her down to the grass with him. “Sibyl, you are pure, pure joy.”
She sat up on her knees, blinking at him. “I am?”
He nodded. “You aremyjoy. My light. My—”My everything. Everything I did not know I needed or had been missing.
“You are flattering me too much,” Sibyl murmured, looking away.
But he caught her chin, directing her gaze back to him.
“No,” he told her. “No, Sibyl. I-I have shut myself off from the world for so many years, so fixated on avenging Letitia, and before that, saving her. You… You were not something I’d ever expected in my life. I did not think I could feel what I feel. For you, for Rosie, for this life we have discovered. And yet here you are, proving it as though it’s as easy as breathing.”
“It is not, though,” she whispered.
“It is not,” he agreed. “But that is how much you make me feel.”
He cupped her face and planted a languorous kiss on her mouth.
“For years,” he continued, “I have lived in anger, in fear, in vengeance. Every morning, I would wake up and wonder what my sister would make me endure through her addiction. I would then wonder where Ed—hewas.” He didn’t dare ruin the mood by speaking Edmund’s name. “Now, I wake up and think of you. Of what you will wear for breakfast, of going to your chambers and waking you up properly beneath the sheets, of how you might smile at me, of the fact that my day does not truly start until I hear your voice or see your smile.”
“Gabriel,” Sibyl breathed, as if she did not know what else to say.
For a minute, Gabriel worried he had overwhelmed her, but then she continued speaking.
“For years, I have feared men. I once loved my father deeply, but he has always been my mother’s shadow. He always succumbed to her pressure. And then there was Grenford, and then Edmund, and in between, every suitor who complained about missing their chances with my older sisters and havingtosettle for me.
“Nobody has ever provided me security. It was why I chased love stories, why I turned to books instead of reality. My sisters often laughed at me, even if I now know they treasured my softness. Iwantedthat softness, but with every dance I was forced into, with every touch I did not want or ask for, with every day I had to live in that cold, miserable house… that softness faded away. I could never become hardened or cold, so I was left with nothing. A shell. Hollow.
“Gabriel, you have breathed life into me again. You have given me a bookshelf and encouraged me to find that girl who loved reading, who loved writing poetry, and Ihave. You are making me remember Sibyl Dennis, knowing that she and the Duchess of Stonehelm can be one and the same.Areone and the same.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she pressed a finger to his lips, so he kissed the tip of it.
“I did not think you would ever want me,” she confessed. “Not in company, not in any way. I was ready for this marriage to remain convenient, cold, and distant, and yet… yet it has given me thewarmth I have always yearned for. You… You, Gabriel, have become my fairytale. I am sorry if that is a lot to take, but you have. You have put me in the books I read, the stories I ached for as a girl. You have made me a heroine who finds l—” She broke off.
Still, Gabriel realized what she had been about to say, for the same words hung on the tip of his tongue.
“It is not too much to admit,” he told her gently. “It is… It is a mirror of my thoughts. You have brought me back to life. I was living with one foot in the grave because of my sister, too focused on her pain to realize I still had my life to live. It feels unbearable at times to go on living without her, but you… You are helping me keep the best parts of myself alive. You are helping me remember that I can live with my grief instead of seeking revenge. You… you are helping me remember who Gabriel Redford is.”
“Sibyl Dennis and Gabriel Redford.” Sibyl giggled quietly. “What a pair we make.”
“A trio,” he corrected, nodding towards the window of the nursery.
He couldn’t make himself sayfamily.
“Gabriel,” Sibyl said, growing more serious. “I… When we were at the picnic with my sister and her family, I wondered… I…” She hesitated.
