“Even let me get a dog like Tulip?”
He blinked. “Yes.”
“A cat?”
“Yes.”
“A parrot?”
He exhaled. “Even a parrot.”
She smiled then. It was bright enough to break him.
He leaned in once more, about to kiss her, when someone cleared their throat.
They turned. Gregory lay on the ground, wrists and ankles bound, face pale from blood loss. Elderman stood over him.
“We’ll take him from here, Your Grace,” Elderman said. “The law will have him now. Smuggling, murder, attempted murder—it’s enough to see him hang thrice.”
Theo nodded, his gaze still fixed on April. “I’ll join you shortly.”
Elderman tipped his hat and signaled the others.
As they disappeared into the trees, Theo turned back to her.
“I love you, April,” he whispered.
She took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. “I love you, Theo.”
This is the end of the war,Theo thought.And the beginning of everything that matters.
Epilogue
SIX MONTHS LATER
Theo rolled onto his side, the linen sheets warm and tangled beneath him, and looked down at his wife. Her hair was a wild halo across the pillow, spilling over her shoulders in dark curls and waves. One hand lay under her cheek; the other rested lightly between them.
She was snoring softly and inelegantly, and he loved her for it.
How is it possible to love someone this much and still find more room to love them in the next breath?
He bent and kissed the tip of her nose. Then, more softly still, her lips. She stirred faintly but did not wake.
“I will be back before you know I’ve gone,” he murmured, smoothing back a stray curl from her temple.
He dressed in silence, pulling on breeches and a shirt left unbuttoned at the collar. When he stepped outside the villa, thesea greeted him with the hush of gentle waves and the scent of salt and citrus hanging in the warm breeze.
The path to the beach was worn and sandy, winding between wind-bent trees and pale rocks, and with a smile, Theo proceeded. His boots were in his hand by the time he reached the shore. He stepped into the surf barefoot, the water cool and glass-clear, curling around his ankles like silk.
He closed his eyes.
No titles. No expectations. No shadows at his back.
This—this was freedom. And it had taken him a lifetime to find. He and April had been traveling through the Continent for weeks now; a journey neither of them had planned, but one they now could not imagine ending.
From Paris to Florence, and now the quiet coast of Spain, they had wandered without maps or expectations, and with each town they passed, Theo had felt more himself.
Gregory Roth had been sentenced by the Crown and would hang for his crimes. Loretta, stripped of her standing and exiled from society, had vanished into the shadows, and her name was now a cautionary whisper. The children—Samuel and Everett—had been taken in by Loretta’s kin, but Theo had ensured they were well provided for. He sent coin, toys, and even a tutor. They were, after all, blameless.
