She might have waited until later to do this, but she really wanted to know sooner rather than later if he liked his gift. And, in truth, she wanted a moment alone with Liam. It seemed they’d only had snatched moments here and there, between everything that had happened in London, and then once they’d returned here.
The staff, despite being offered their own homes and allowances, had decided to stay on, and worked miracles while they were away, fixing up the old hunting lodge at the edge of the estate. But as for the estate itself, there had still been so much to be done, even though she and Liam had spent days with Leonards, planning out a shockingly modern future for the Earldom.
And, of course, there was the construction of a new Thornhallow Hall to oversee, not far from the site of the old one, much simpler and smaller, but worthy of an earl and his countess nonetheless.
Ducking through the lodge, careful to avoid being stopped by anyone, Rebecca led Liam to the sunroom. He frowned, likely a little disappointed not to be led upstairs to their bedchamber, but she smiled and tugged him onwards. He watched every move she made as she unlocked the door and led him inside, towards the windows on the far side.
There, on the sill, sat her gift.
Liam froze when he saw them and she looked over at him anxiously, unable, for the first time in a while, to read him.
‘Are those...?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed, searching his face for any clue as to his feelings. Only, he was as still and stoic as she’d ever seen him, giving nothing away. ‘Gregory helped me save them,’ she said, looking back towards the two pots of roses. Barely more than seedlings, but resilient.
Such a silly idea.
‘I thought, we could plant one when the house is completed, and perhaps the other, with your mother, and Hal,’ she rambled on. ‘Do you—?’
I think that is a yes, then, Rebecca thought, her heart lifting as she melted into Liam’s fiery kiss.
Any, every doubt she’d ever had seemed to melt away when he touched her. She wasn’t sure what would have become of her if she hadn’t had him these past months. If she hadn’t ever found him at all.
Liam finally released her from his spell, though his hands still cradled her face. That light that had ensnared her from the first was there, as magnetic and transfixing as always. He told her often how she’d helped him through the darkness, but so had he. He’d given her things she had never dared dream of. Love, a home, family. The latter of which they were hoping to grow in the coming months.
A small smile appeared on her lips then, as she imagined it all.
‘It’s perfect,’ Liam said, and she reminded herself that he spoke of the gift, not of the image in her mind.
Though it is that, too.
‘She would have loved you,’ he whispered, his fingers idly rubbing the ring beneath her glove. His mother’s. ‘And Hal, too.’
Nodding, she turned her head and kissed his palm, unable to say anything.
They stood there a long while, simply basking in each other’s presence, and in the memory of those they’d lost, but who would remain with them always. They remained there until rowdy shouts and the sounds of a fiddle and flutes brought them back to the day.
Then, rather than do as she knew he wished to, sweep her upstairs, Liam led her back outside to their celebration, where they danced and laughed and sang well into the balmy night.
Then and only then did he carry his wife upstairs, and as he did, Rebecca knew that never would she regret having become the housekeeper of Thornhallow Hall.
For she had found Liam.
And with him a life of love.
