“It’s a funny word, isn’t it?” she asked. “Deserve?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Dane said something similar to me. Yes, I suppose it.”
“I hate it, actually. Deserve. At some point, my mother didn’t think you deserved me. That you weren’t good enough. But the opposite was true. I don’t think I was good enough for you.”
“How do you figure that?” he asked, his tone truly shocked.
“I have watched you since your return to me. I’ve seen your quiet strength, your kindness, your forgiveness of people who have wronged you.” She shook her head. “You are truly the greatest of men. And I am…not quite as good as you, I don’t think. I have people I can never forgive.”
Asher pushed a lock of hair away from her cheek and said, “There are some in your life who do not deserve forgiveness. That doesn’t make you less good, it makes you human. And that isn’t the kind of deserving we are talking about, is it? It is the idea of rank.”
She pressed her lips together. “Do you not think Rosalinde deserves Gray?”
He drew back. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Rosalinde was born of the same father as you were, whether anyone knew it or not. Gray was born of rank. I suppose, if the truth of her parentage came out in Society, there might be some who said she didn’t deserve him. Are you one of those snobs?”
“Of course not,” he said. “One only has to look at them to see that they belong together.”
“And Dane. Does he deserve Celia?” she asked. “His beginnings were dark and low, indeed.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “Of course he deserves her.”
“Then you are willing to allow your sisters more happiness than yourself?” she asked. She leaned forward and grabbed both his hands, lifting them to her chest, forcing him to lean closer. “Asher Seyton, I love you. And I know you love me.”
He stared at her a moment and her heart nearly stopped. He might not admit what she knew. He might deny it. She might even be delusional in seeing it. Wanting it so much she forced it to appear.
But at last he sighed. “Yes, I do. I do love you, Felicity. I have always loved you. Iwillalways love you.”
She smiled. She couldn’t help it. Now that those words had been spoken, she had no doubt she would convince him. She would fight until she did, even if he resisted out of some misguided attempt to protect her.
“I spent far too long being proper,” she said. “And doing what others expected of me. Of worrying what someone else would say was right. I will not walk away from our future, Asher. And more to the point, I won’t let you do so either.”
His lip curled up in the corner, a masculine sneer. “Won’t you? How will you stop me?”
She leaned in to cup his cheeks and kissed him. They had kissed so many times before, but this time was different. This time she didn’t hold back, she didn’t feel fear. She poured everything she was, everything she felt, everything she hoped for, into the kiss. And when he drew her against his chest and deepened the kiss, she knew he was hers. She was his. And that would be forever.
“Youarepersuasive,” he chuckled when they finally broke apart. Then his face grew serious. “And you are right. I know you are. Love and happiness were taken from us years ago. They were taken from so many we loved. It would be wrong to deny it, to deny what we could be and do together. I don’t deserve you, perhaps, in the eyes of some. But I love you. And I want you as my wife, if you will have me.”
Her eyes grew wide, for she hadn’t expected this moment. Not tonight. And yet here it was, Asher offering his life to her. His name. His future. She looked into his eyes and she saw the joy they would celebrate, the grief they would mourn, the children they would bear and raise…together. All of it together. All of it as a unit that was far stronger than the sum of its parts. She saw it all, and for a moment the power of it terrified her. But the moment passed and left behind only joy and love and hope.
“Yes,” she said, at first softly. Then louder and louder. “Yes! Yes!”
He laughed as he caught her and sealed their bargain with a kiss. Sealed their future. Sealed their happiness. And she knew, for the first time in what felt like forever, that all in her world was right at last.
Epilogue
A few months later
“Happy Christmas,” Asher said, pressing a kiss to Felicity’s cheek as he stepped up beside her. He had been her husband for just a few weeks now, but she was very happy being Mrs. Seyton rather than Lady Barbridge.
He looked over the room with her. Her heart swelled at all she saw. Her family was here, all of it. Celia and John sat at the piano, playing a duet as Rosalinde and Gray spun around dancing, despite Rosalinde’s rapidly rounding figure. Felicity had never seen her older brother so happy. Stenfax and Elise sat watching them, laughing together. This was her best friend, one she had lost for far too long. And her brother, who had carried this family on his back, now looked free of worry as he held his wife’s hand.
Their mother sat with them, smiling at the scene, as well. The past few months had not always been easy. There had been guilt and anger that came to the surface, but slowly Felicity and her siblings were repairing their relationships with their mother.
Next to her sat Seyton, who had joined the family for Christmas. He still didn’t look comfortable in his role as family, rather than servant, but his joy at being with his son and his long lost daughters was undeniable.
“Did John tell you the news?” Asher asked as he took her hand.
