“I wantyou. I want you, Axel. And only you.” The emotional wounds inflicted by his father went far deeper than the cut on his face had gone. “I don’t care how long it takes me to convince you of this, but I have never known a better man than you. You are the perfect husband for me, Axel.”
He blinked and turned his head to the side.
Felicity held her breath while she watched a single tear escape and roll down to his jaw.
“Marry me? Please?” She added.
When he turned back to face her, his eyes were shining with tears but also something else.
Hope. “I’d be a foolish man indeed to deny you that.” He helped her to her feet, drawing her into his arms and burying his face in the curve of her neck. “I’m going to make you happy.”
“You already have.”
“Again,” Greys was peering around the door. “Hate to interrupt, but…”
“Yes. We’re coming,” Felicity assured him.
Westerley entered and picked the roses up off the floor. When he met her gaze, he smiled encouragingly and… with a brotherly affection.
“Mantis, do I have your permission to escort your bride to her father now?”
“Absolutely.”
Felicity stood on her toes and pressed her mouth against Axel’s before being rushed to the back of the church. Her father merely raised his brows but then gestured toward the sanctuary. “Shall we?”
“Absolutely.”
Epilogue
Summer at Stonegate Manor
“Umm…” Felicity leaned into the familiar arms that wrapped around her from behind.
“I pay people to do this, you know.” Axel’s voice growled where he nuzzled near her ear.
“I know.” In fact, more than one groundskeeper tended the gardens. “But I enjoy it.” It was one of the first things she’d noticed when her new husband had shown her around Stonegate Manor. “And you know I love the roses.”
After taking their vows, in what the London Gazette had written up as a most unusual ceremony, Axel and Felicity had been immediately faced with far more challenging concerns than most couples tackled in a lifetime.
The most pressing which had included what to do with the now Dowager Countess of Crestwood, and what would be best for Axel’s younger brother.
Rather than take up residence in the house on Farm Street, or travel to Tissinton Towers, Felicity and Axel, with input from Cordelia, had agreed it would be best to withdraw from London to Stonegate Manor. A new tutor had been hired, however, and Axel had begun teaching Conner some of his fighting techniques.
Rather than turn Louisa over to the local magistrate, Axel had made arrangements for her to be kept securely at an asylum. The institution was located less than a day’s drive from Stonegate, and that had been important in case she showed improvement. She was Conner’s mother, after all.
And one of the least pleasant of all, they’d had his father’s body packed in ice so that his eternal resting place would be the Stonegate family mausoleum.
“How did the lessons go this morning?” Felicity slowly turned in her husband’s arms, thrilling inside at the sensation of her belly pressed between both of their bodies.
“He’s coming along.” Axel’s mouth trailed around her ear. “You smell delicious.”
Felicity realized that even with the man dead, wounds left on her husband by his father were going to take a long time to heal, but she couldn’t help but believe that spending time training and helping Conner had done wonders.
What the two men had failed to ever get from their father, they seemed able to provide for one another—connection, brotherhood.
She tilted her head back and relished the sensation of Axel’s kisses down her neck to her shoulder.
“You are certain he’s ready to enter school this fall?” The family was officially in mourning. And although Axel had said Felicity need not wear black, she and Cordelia had dyed several of their gowns in order to do so for a minimum of six months. Axel, Conner, and the menservants wore black armbands over their jackets.
