The three of them stood huddled together in a slat of late-evening sun, happy, safe, and loved.
So very loved.
Epilogue
“The newest member of the Lady’s Suffrage Society looked absolutely beautiful tonight.”
Pippa met Roland’s gaze across the carriage with a teasing smile. “The Honorable Mrs. Thomas Burton? Why, I am rather vexed with you for taking note.”
He sent her a grin of his own. “No, Sunshine. I was speaking ofyou, as you are more than aware.”
Blessed heavens, her husband was a beautiful man. Sometimes, she still could scarcely believe he was hers and that the love they shared, which grew stronger and deeper with each day that passed, was real.
But he was, and it was, and Pippa had never been happier. Nor more content.
“I am reasonably certain The Honorable Mrs. Jonathan Burton is the newest member of the Lady’s Suffrage Society and not I.”
“I thought she was The Honorable Mrs. Thomas Burton,” Roland said, leaning across the carriage to settle his hands on her waist. “Has the chap got a twin?”
Hmm.Mayhap shehadconfused the name. They had spent the evening at a ball held by the Earl and Countess of Sinclair. All the members in attendance had been Lady’s Suffrage Society patrons in one form or another.
“I do believe he has a twin,” she lied, then bit her lip.
“And I do believe you are telling a tale, my darling wife.”
“If I am?”
His grip on her waist tightened. “If you are, then you ought to pay the price.”
He looked so very debonair in the low light of the carriage in his evening coat and black trousers, crisp white shirt and necktie, his silk waistcoat hugging his lean abdomen and all the slabs of muscle hidden within. Onyx hair combed back from his high forehead, highlighting the symmetry of his face, the slashes of his regal cheekbones and shaven jaw, the proud blade of his nose.
He had been the most handsome man at the ball this evening. However, it was not his physical attractions but rather his excellent character, his honor and love and devotion as her husband and a father to Char-char, his caring and understanding nature, and so much more, that made her love him most. That made her proud to be his wife.
“What price shall I pay?” she dared.
“You will have to spend the remainder of our journey home in my lap,” he decreed.
Her feet ached from the hours they had spent in revelry. She was also tired, which she attributed to her new condition. But a ride home in her husband’s lap sounded more like a reward than penance.
“Very well,” she allowed, raising a brow as a fresh sense of wickedness trilled through her. “I was lying about The Honorable David Burton. I have no notion of whether or not he has a twin.”
“Now it is David? I thought it was Thomas and Jonathan. Triplets?”
“Very likely there is no Mrs. Anything Burton,” she admitted. “I do enjoy teasing you.”
“I know.” His grin took her breath. “And in turn, I enjoy your teasing. Come. Tease me more.”
Gently, he pulled her to the edge of her seat. The carriage continued rattling over familiar London streets. They did not have far to travel. But there was something she intended to tell him before they arrived at their townhome where Char-char was already deep in the land of sleep, being watched over by her new nursemaid Rawlings, who had bonded so deeply with Charlotte that she had become the replacement for Croydon.
In the weeks following her ordeal with the former nursemaid, and so soon after the devastating revelations about George, Pippa had been exceedingly slow to entrust her daughter to anyone’s care. Gradually, Rawlings had convinced her to trust again. Just as Roland had taught her to love again.
Not everyone in the world was inherently evil. Not everyone was a liar or a danger to her. It was a fact she still repeated often, but if she had learned anything over the course of the last year, it was that keeping her mind and heart open to trust and love was paramount to moving forward. In doing so, she found healing and comfort. Naturally, the knowledge that Croydon and her son had gone away to prison and would never hurt another again aided in her peace.
“You are thinking of the past again,” Roland said. “Come back to me, Sunshine.”
His words were not judgmental. Nor were they angry. He understood her on an elemental level in a way no other person ever had or would. He knew when she drifted, and he knew how to bring her back. He knew how to love her.
And Pippa knew how to love him, too.
