Tessa looked at Fancy. “Why are you in your undergarments?”
Realizing that Knight’s jacket was hanging open, Fancy hastily buttoned it up. “I had to escape out a window, and it was easier to do it without all the layers.”
Tessa gave a sage nod. “I had to make a similar escape once—”
The door opened, revealing Knight and the other men. Fancy flew toward her husband, and he caught her, lifting her out of the carriage and crushing her against his chest.
“What happened?” she managed.
“We have Adelaide in custody.” His arms still surrounding her, Knight looked into her eyes. “She will answer for her crimes, as will her accomplices Erlenmeyer and, I’m sorry to say, your maid Gemma. Then there is Anna Smith, whose real name is Rosamund Becker. She was—”
“My mama’s midwife. Yes, I know,” Fancy said. “Adelaide told me everything.”
Knight studied her. “You do know what that means, don’t you, love?”
Given the danger, Fancy hadn’t fully contemplated the implications, but now she did.
“My father—my other one, that is—is still alive,” she said in wonder. “I have more family.”
“That too.” Knight’s lips twitched. “What I meant was that you are a princess and the heir to the Hessenstein throne. You always wanted a faerie tale ending, and I cannot think of a better one than that.”
“I can.” Smiling up at her husband, Fancy said, “The one you gave me.”
Knight’s eyes smoldered with emotion. “Tinker’s daughter or king’s daughter, I love you, Fancy. Now and forever.”
He kissed her, and her heart sang with the sweetness of their happily ever after.
Epilogue
A few months later
“Knight,”his wife gasped. “That’s sodeep.”
Severin dug his fingers into her silky-smooth bottom as he drove his hips harder.
“You can take it, love,” he grunted. “Keep playing with your pearl. I want to feel you come around my cock.”
Fancy moaned, her fingers rubbing her love-knot as he plowed her pretty pink furrow from behind. Her hips were draped over a pillow, her cheek pressed against the mattress, her lips parted. She was wanton and real, everything he wanted, and she was his.
Sometimes he couldn’t believe it. Sometimes he feared how much he loved her, how losing her would destroy his reason for living. Mostly, though, he just thanked the lucky stars that had given him his Fancy.
She closed her eyes, biting her lip, tell-tale signs that she was close. His duchess liked being tupped this way despite that one despicable time he’d used this position to avoid confronting his feelings. Now it was a regular pose in their bedchamber rotation, and he always made sure to end it the same way.
“Look at me,chérie,” he panted.
Her lashes lifted, and she gifted him with her beautiful brown eyes. In them, he saw his own devotion reflected, and that was enough to put him over the edge. Luckily, she flew over too, and they came together, their gazes connected, shuddering in the throes of love.
Afterward, he cuddled her in the firelight.
“We should get some rest,” he murmured. “We’re leaving early in the morning.”
Tomorrow they would be embarking on their journey to Hessenstein. Fancy had been corresponding with King Ernst, who desperately wanted to meet his daughter. His sister had confessed to her crimes and would spend the rest of her life in prison. King Ernst had struck her son from the line of succession, declaring his intention to officially recognize Fancy as the Crown Princess of Hessenstein.
“I don’t know if I can sleep,” Fancy admitted. “I’m too excited.”
Severin stroked her hair. “About meeting your father?”
“That too.” She tipped her head to look at him. “I asked the physician to come by this morning.”
