“Even with all the scandal? All the whispers?”
“Even with all of it.” He cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs tracing gentle circles on her cheeks. “You are worth more than society’s approval. You are worth more than anyone’s opinion. You are worth everything, Serena. Everything.”
She kissed him then—not gently, not tentatively, but with all the passion and gratitude and love she felt. She kissed him until they were both breathless, until the world narrowed to nothing but this room, this moment, this man.
When they finally broke apart, Nathaniel’s eyes were dark with emotion.
“You will be the death of me,” he said.
“I certainly hope not. We have only just become engaged. It would be most inconvenient for you to expire before the wedding.”
“Inconvenient.” He laughed softly. “Yes, I suppose it would be.”
“Besides, I have plans for you.”
“Do you? What kind of plans?”
“The kind that require you to be alive and well for several more decades at least.” Serena smiled, letting her love for him show plainly in her expression. “I intend to grow old with you, Nathaniel Stone. I intend to raise children with you, and argue with you, and make up after arguing with you, and build a life so full of joy that we forget there was ever a time when we were not together.”
“That sounds like a very ambitious plan.”
“I am a very ambitious woman.”
“So I have noticed.” He kissed her forehead, then her cheeks, then her lips. “Very well, Miss Collard. I accept your terms. Several decades of life, joy, and the occasional argument. I can manage that.”
“See that you do.” Serena lay her head against his chest again, content simply to be held. “I would be most displeased if you failed to deliver.”
“I would never dream of displeasing you.”
They stood together in the firelit library, wrapped in each other’s arms, and let the silence settle around them like a blanket. There would be challenges ahead—Serena knew that. There would be whispers and judgments and all the complicated machinery of society grinding against their happiness.
But there would also be this. These moments of perfect peace, of absolute belonging. These arms that held her, this heart that beat in rhythm with her own.
It was enough.
It was more than enough.
It was everything.
“We should sleep,” Serena murmured eventually. “Tomorrow will be busy.”
“Tomorrow will be a beginning.” Nathaniel pressed a final kiss to her hair. “The first day of the rest of our lives.”
“That sounds rather dramatic.”
“I am feeling dramatic. I have just become engaged to the woman I love. Drama seems appropriate.”
Serena laughed softly. “Very well. Tomorrow is a dramatic new beginning. But tonight—”
“Tonight, we sleep.” Nathaniel released her reluctantly. “In our separate rooms, maintaining propriety until the wedding.”
“How tedious.”
“Very tedious. But necessary.” He walked her to the door of the library, his hand warm in hers. “Goodnight, Serena.”
“Goodnight, Nathaniel.”
She rose on her toes and kissed him.
