“Ah, no, I’ve got it.”
“You are… ready?”
“Only for you, Violet.” His voice held both sincerity and laughter.
She turned and met his eyes—dark, warm eyes that were filled with love. In the setting sun, his shoulders and torso gleamed golden, with the perfect smattering of curling black hair across his chest and trailing down—
“Violet?” His voice brought her gaze back up to his face. “Will you take these?”
He had handed her his breeches and with a wink, her fiancé, who was also, incredibly, not a butler or thief or criminal, but the Duke of Blackheart, took off running to the sounds of hoots and hollers from his friends.
He had suffered that ultimate indignity so that he could marry her. And so that they could do so freely.
Today! He was marrying her today.
Violet stared out the window at the park and blinked away tears. But these tears were tears of joy.
He had told her he did not want a wager to taint his proposal.
He had done it for… them.
“If it makes you feel better, Violet, we covered our eyes.” Bethany’s voice brought her back to the present. Bethany was trying not to laugh.
“You did not.” Violet knew better. “You all watched.”
And what a sight it had been…
Bethany feigned innocence but then burst into giggles. “Oh, but it was indeed too tempting to miss.”
Violet agreed wholeheartedly.
The two ladies shared a moment of silent appreciation, and then Bethany turned serious. “You are happy?”
“I am,” Violet answered without hesitation.
And she was. She was enthusiastically, deliriously, one-hundred-percent happy. Simon could be maddening and mysterious and arrogant, but he was also compassionate, understanding, generous, and oh, so very charming. Regardless of whether he was a butler or a duke, he was the one—the person who owned the other half of her heart.
The carriage rounded the corner and rolled toward St. George’s. Again, violet peered out her window and this time, laughed right out loud when she saw the group of suspiciously familiar-looking people mingling outside.
“He wanted it to be a surprise.” Bethany sounded as pleased and excited as Violet was.
“It’s perfect.” Violet could barely speak.
Although she had agreed to marrying without any fuss so as not to take away from Greystone and Diana’s nuptials, seeing these faces filled her heart.
“You aren’t mad, then?”
“Of course not.” How could she be, when so many people cared about her and Simon? “I’m not sure there would even be a ceremony without all of you.”
“We are all somehow connected, aren’t we?” Bethany said.
“We are.”
Lord Chaswick and Greystone approached the carriage, looking dapper and pleased. Violet blinked away fresh tears. This was a moment she had given up on for herself.
Magic. Her own happy-ever-after.
She removed her handkerchief from her sleeve and dabbed at her eyes.
