Frances leaned into his side. “So now, you need only enjoy it.”
And he would.
He would wake beside her. Walk these halls not as a ghost of duty but as a man fully alive. He would leave kisses in every room, laughter in every hall, and build something lasting—not just for himself, but for the family they would one day raise.
Johnathan Seton, the Duke of Hargate, had stepped fully from the shadow of the man he once was.
He belonged to the future they were creating.
And as the stars shone above them, he whispered softly, for her ears alone, “I am eager for forever.”
Frances brushed her thumb over the back of his hand, her grip steady and warm.
“Good,” she said. “Because you are stuck with me.”
He smiled.
“Then I am exactly where I’m meant to be.”
With the heavens above them, and the path forward unwritten, they stood together in the quiet certainty of a love that defied every obstacle.
