“Why did you do this?” Caroline whispered. “Why did you leave, Prudence?”
“You know why I left.” Prudence’s eyes cut to Levi. “I couldn’t marry him. I’m sorry, Your Grace,” she added. “It was nothing personal. I never meant it to be. But I couldn’t do it. I wasn’t ready to marry.”
Levi nodded. All his anger at her seemed to have disappeared now that he was face-to-face with her. “There’s no need to apologize,” he assured her.
“No—I treated you abominably. I do apologize,” she said. “I shouldn’t have run out on you the way I did, and I am very sorry for it. I should have simply told you I didn’t wish to marry.”
“I don’t know if I would have listened to you if you had. My arrangement was with your father.” It felt funny saying those words now, because he knew that if this conversation had taken place back then, he would have felt completely justified and in the right. He would have staked his claim to Lady Prudence without question. But standing before her now and seeing how distressed she was, seeing for himself how she had felt the need to flee from him rather than face him, he could only feel ashamed of that.
“You married him in my place,” Prudence said, turning to Caroline. “When we saw the announcement…I’ve never been so ashamed of anything in my life. I knew I ought to come home, but I didn’t know what good it would do because the marriage had already taken place. It was too late to save you from it.”
“You don’t need to feel guilty,” Caroline assured her. “I’m perfectly happy with my fate, Prudence.”
“I know this wasn’t what you wanted either.”
“I didn’t think it was. I did marry him for your sake,” Caroline said. “But I’m content with the way things turned out. Please don’t torment yourself about it. You’re safe and well, and Levi and I are all right, and that’s all that matters. Will you please come home? Everyone has missed you terribly.”
Prudence nodded. “I will,” she said, and smiled.
Prudence agreed to return home in the days that followed. That night, though, Caroline and Levi went back without her.
They lingered together in the foyer of their home. Levi couldn’t help feeling as though there was something unsaid between the two of them; he just couldn’t put his finger on what it was. But it was Caroline who spoke first.
“Thank you,” she told him quietly.
“For what?”
“For letting me come along. I know how stubborn I was—and I know you didn’t have to do it. You could have stopped me.”
“You’ve been tormented by her absence,” Levi said quietly. “You deserved to be there when she was found.” He hesitated. “Did you mean what you said?”
“Which part?”
“The part about being happy in this marriage.”
“Oh.” Her cheeks colored. “I wouldn’t let it go to your head.”
“Oh, no?”
“I’m happy most of the time. I was happy before I married you as well.”
“But that wasn’t my question,” he said. He found himself leaning closer to her and shivered a little at the sudden proximity. He could smell her familiar aroma. He could feel the warmth of her. What was he doing? “What I asked you was whether you’re happy being married to me?”
“Yes,” she breathed, her eyes locking with his. “Yes, I’m happy. I like being married to you.”
It felt as if the sun was rising inside his chest. He was filled with warmth and heat. How could a simpleyesaffect him so powerfully?
He didn’t know.
And he didn’t care.
He closed the distance between the two of them, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her at long last.
She stiffened for just a moment, but then sank into the kiss. Her arms wrapped around him, her lips parted ever so slightly, and she let out a soft little humming noise that made his insides melt. He thought he might stand here with Caroline in his arms, indulging in his kiss, until the day death claimed him.
As it was, he couldn’t have said how long he stayed there with her.
He only knew that the moment they were in was one he would remember for the rest of his life. And when they finally broke apart, it felt as if it had happened far too soon.
