They shook hands—a brief, formal gesture—and then Sir Harold followed his wife from the room.
And just like that, it was over.
Serena stood in the breakfast room, surrounded by the family she loved, and felt tears streaming down her face.
“Miss Collard is crying,” Rosie observed, her voice worried. “Why is she crying? Isn’t she happy?”
“I am happy, sweetheart.” Serena laughed through her tears, gathering Rosie into her arms. “I am so very, very happy.”
Nathaniel crossed to her side and pulled them both into an embrace, his arms wrapped around Serena and Rosie together, Samuel and Ella pressed close.
“We did it,” he murmured against Serena’s hair. “We actually did it.”
“We did,” she agreed. “Together.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“You do realise,” Serena said quietly, “that everything has altered.”
Nathaniel looked up from his desk. She stood just inside the door, her expression composed but intent, as though she had resolved to speak plainly and would not be diverted.
“Yes,” he said. “I am aware of it.”
She came farther into the room. “You spoke before Lady Crane. You named me. You placed yourself beyond retreat.” A pause. “I wanted to be certain you did so knowingly.”
He rose at once. “I did.”
“No sense of being driven? No feeling of having acted from necessity alone?”
He shook his head. “I have never been more deliberate in my life.”
That seemed to settle something in her. She exhaled, slow and steady. “Then I wished to say this to you—without witnesses, without circumstance pressing us forward.”
She met his gaze fully now.
“I am not frightened of what we face,” she said. “Not of scandal, nor of scrutiny, nor of the losses we may endure. I amfrightened only of a life in which I might look back and know I turned away from what was offered me here.”
His throat tightened.
“And what is offered you?” he asked.
She did not look away. “You. The man you are, not the title you bear. The family you have built, imperfect and fiercely loved. A life that may not be easy, but would be real—and shared.”
He crossed the space between them, taking her hands with quiet certainty.
“Then we are agreed,” he said.
“Yes.” Her voice was steady. “We are.”
For a moment, they stood thus, hands joined, no more vows spoken because none were needed. The understanding between them was already complete.
Whatever lay ahead, they would meet it together.
“I should tell you something,” Serena said after a while, her voice soft.
“What is it?”
“When I wrote that resignation letter last night—when I was planning to leave—I thought my heart would break. Not just because I love you, though I do. Not just because I love the children, though I do that too.” She paused, her grey eyessearching his face. “It was because leaving would have meant giving up hope. Hope that I could belong somewhere. Hope that I could be part of a family again. Hope that I could be... enough.”
