Darling Julianna,
When you were gone, I dreamt of you. I wrote you letters I never intended for you to read. I tried to persuade myself I no longer loved you.
However, I never achieved success in that endeavor.
That long-ago day in the library at Farnsworth Hall, you claimed my heart. I did not realize it then—this hard head of mine required time to realize the truth, that I loved you. You with your bright eyes and fiery hair, all that loveliness and goodness. You thieved my heart with ease. I never even noticed it gone until it was too late.
But keep this heart, I beg you. It is battered and imperfect and scarred and yours. Always yours. I want to love you as you deserve to be loved, now and forever.
As Keats wrote, “Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all,
Withhold no atom’s atom or I die.”
Ever your most affectionate and devoted,
Sidney
P.S. I promise to do my utmost in keeping Emily—and all her siblings to come—from eating daisies, et alia, in the parterre. And I also vow to improve upon my vulgar tongue. Mayhap you have some other uses in mind?
As she read the postscript,Julianna pressed a shaking hand to her lips and laughed.
Oh Sidney, she thought.What fools we have been these last two years. All this time apart, longing for each other.
Never again, she vowed.
A knock sounded on her chamber door.
“Enter,” she called, already knowing who it was.
Him.
Sidney, the man who owned her heart. Husband. Shelbourne. Her love. Herhome.
She was on her feet and halfway across the Axminster before he crossed the threshold. He opened his arms, and she did not hesitate in throwing herself into them.
This was where she belonged.
* * *
Sidney held Juliannatightly to him, burying his face in the riotous fall of her unbound curls. Her arms were around his neck. She was soft and warm, the lusciousness of her curves fitted perfectly against him.
“Did you read my letters?” he asked.
When he had decided to leave them in her chamber, he had been hesitant at first. The epistles had never been meant to be read. But he had realized they were as much a part of their story as anything, and that all his pent-up emotions—his love, fury, resentment, yearning, and fears—had been poured into those letters.
“Oh, Sidney. Of course I did.” She tilted her head back so her gaze could meet his. “I am so sorry for the time we spent apart.”
He pressed a finger to her lips when she would have said more. “Hush. No more talk of the past. We are here together now, and that is what matters most.”
She kissed his finger. “I love you.”
Gratitude blossomed in his chest. He traced the bow of her upper lip. “I love you, Julianna. I loved you while you were gone, and I have loved you every minute you have been back in my life. I love you so much it bloody well hurts.”
“You have me, my love,” she murmured, so much love shining in her eyes, he almost had to look away. “I give you every part of myself.”
Hell.These were words to tuck into his soul. Words written upon his heart. He would treasure them—and Julianna—always.
“You have me, my heart, and every part of me, too,” he said. “Every atom’s atom.”
