She became caught on the pertinent part of that ramble. “I have a grandmother?”
She knew her voice sounded unpardonably small. But the news flummoxed her. She simply did not know how to take it. Her whole life she had insisted that she had no interest in a family. Especially a family that had no interest in her.
“Do you think—-”
“That she knows about you? I doubt it. If she had, she undoubtedly would have descended on that school like the Furies and swept you away.”
Felicity attempted a smile. “Is she a dragon as well?”
He laughed. “I believe she taught the other dragons. You’ll like her. She will love you. You have her spirit.”
Felicity closed her eyes, unwilling to take that step towards actual hope. She shook her head. “I think I shall put that revelation away for another day. This one has already been far too full.”
Flint pulled her close again and she let him, because she simply didn’t have the strength to resist. She wanted even a few more moments there.
“Felicity.”
Still she kept her eyes closed. “Shhhhhh. Let me enjoy this a bit longer before I have to go.”
She could feel him stiffen. “Go? Go where?”
“Where I belong.”
It seemed that was the wrong thing to say. Suddenly he pulled away, his hands clamped around her arms, his expression fierce as he glared down at her.
“How many times must I tell you that I will not have that kind of talk? You belong here, Felicity Chambers. In this house, with me. With my staff who will surely revolt if I drive you away. With my Aunt Winnie, who will need your strength and certainty.” Pulling her close, he rested his forehead against hers. “With me, Felicity, because even knowing I wasn’t supposed to, I’m afraid I’ve fallen quite in love with you and cannot let you go.”
She felt tears rise again. She battled the terrible pain of hope. “Why?” was all she could think to ask.
His laugh was breathless. “Damned if I know. All I know for certain is that if you leave this house, I must too. Because I cannot imagine living in it without you.”
She lifted her head and met his gaze to see more than she ever could have hoped there. “Are you certain? This will annoy your father terribly, you know.”
His grin was sudden and brash. “Yes,” he agreed, “it will. Won’t it?”
She pulled back a bit. “Isthatwhat this is all about?”
He scowled. “Did that kiss feel as if my father was all this was about?”
She thought about it a moment and was forced to smile. “No. No it did not.”
He nodded. “In fact, I have—” He reached into his pocket only to come up empty. “Blast. I must have dropped it when I caught sight of that tableau in Aunt Winnie’s room. Wait right here—-”
Felicity held on more tightly. “I don’t think so. I believe whatever it is can wait a few moments more.”
He tilted his head, his eyes sparkling, “Even if whatever it is involves emeralds and diamonds?”
Again, she made a show of thinking on it. “Even then.”
She kept her silence through another protracted kiss that left both of them breathless.
“However, I wouldn’t wait too long. Aunt Winnie will walk off with it.”
Aunt Winnie tried. But she was no match for a woman who had finally found a home for her heart, especially when the ring was accompanied by a broken gold chain holding a battered locket. The duke might have huffed several times when Flint finally slipped the square-cut emerald on Felicity’s finger and kissed her, but his outrage seemed less than sincere. In fact, Felicity had the strangest feeling that this was the ending the duke had planned for all along.
She found that she didn’t care. She was home.
Epilogue
