“None of that,” he interrupted. “You did everything to keep Emily. Hell, you even crossed an ocean to marry the man you thought had betrayed you just to give her the life she deserved.”
“You did not betray me, did you?” she asked softly.
He met her gaze, unflinching. “Never. I love you, Julianna. I think I loved you from the moment we met in the library. You were too young. My sister’s friend. Had yet to make your debut. I did not dare indulge my interest or my feelings. I tamped it down. Pushed it away. But I could only do that for so long. When I saw you again at Farnsworth Hall, I knew I could no longer resist the pull between us, the way I felt for you.”
Her heart was full. So full. Tears burned her eyes.
“I love you too,” she managed past the emotion threatening to clog her throat. “I am sorry for everything that has kept us apart.”
“No tears,chérie.” Her husband smiled, but his emerald gaze was shimmering too. “Only happiness for us, from this moment on.”
“Only happiness.”
It seemed impossible, a dream. But she wanted it, with him. Wanted to leave the past behind. To move into the endless possibility of a future with Sidney.
To give him her heart wholly and without fear.
Emily shifted, stretching her arms over her head, and her eyes opened slowly. Her gaze settled on Julianna first, a sleepy smile curving her mouth.
“Mama,” she said, then shifted to see who was holding her.
The cheek which had been pressed against Sidney’s chest as Emily slept was rosy. Julianna’s heart was impossibly fuller. It was the first time Emily had said mama so clearly. And for it to be now…
“Very good, darling,” she praised, and this time a tear did slip down her cheek. Not a tear of sadness, but of a heart that was finally whole.
Emily grabbed Sidney’s nose. “Papa no.”
Sidney grinned. “Yes, that is Papa’s nose. Excellent work, poppet.”
“Mama, Papa!” Emily proclaimed, releasing her father’s much-abused nose.
“Come here, Mama,” Sidney said.
She eyed his lap and her cumbersome dress. “There is hardly room for me there.”
“On the contrary, my love. There is always room for you here.” He held out his arm.
And she went. She settled herself on his lap, taking care to sweep her voluminous skirts to the side, feeling silly and happy all at once. His arm slid around her, anchoring her there. Emily let out a gleeful sound and clapped her hands in approval.
“There you are,” Sidney said, so much tenderness in his voice and his expression that she could not look away. “Just where you belong.”
The last of the ice within her melted.
She wrapped her arms around the two people she loved most, a deep and abiding sense of contentment claiming her.
* * *
The stackof letters waiting for her in her chamber after dinner that evening, bound by a single ribbon, had taken Julianna by surprise. After dismissing Briggs, she sat in the chair by the hearth and untied the knot.
Sidney’s familiar, bold scrawl slanted over the page.
Dear Julianna,
I will never post this letter to you…
She read.One letter at a time, their story was revealed, in heartrending truth. All the love, the anguish, the bitterness, the longing. The distance, confusion, the sadness. Two years’ worth. The first letter was dated just after she had left for America, and they were ordered chronologically.
By the time she reached the last letter, she was furiously blinking the tears from her eyes to clear her vision. It was dated today, she realized. At some point after the revelations they had made to each other in the nursery, Sidney had written her one more letter.
