Before he could speak or even think to respond – and much to his astonishment – Lady Susannapushed herself up onto tiptoe and kissed him. It was a gentle kiss, but it did not lack certainty, filled with the sweetness of all that had been lost and found again. Jonathan’s heart roared as he wrapped his arms around her, his head tilting as he deepened the kiss as gently as he could.
Lady Susanna responded just as he had hoped and, with their arms wrapped around each other, Jonathan felt the world around him slowly slot itself into place. This was where he had always meant to be. The scent of her perfume — honeysuckle, subtle and warm — filled his senses, and the warmth of her body against his was the only truth he needed.
Yes, he had allowed his own foolishness and the deceit of others to push them apart, but with Lady Susanna’s love and forgiveness, that could be forgotten and set aside, left only to the darkness of the past.
For the first time in many a month, there was no uncertainty and doubt, no confusion in his heart, no shadow lurking between them. In their place was joy, contentment, and the promise of happiness, bound together by the steady rhythm of two hearts that had finally found their way back.
“I love you, Susanna,” he whispered against her lips, his heart overflowing with all that he felt. “And I promise you, we shall never be separated again.”
She smiled, her forehead resting against his. “I believe you,” she murmured. “I trust you, Lancashire – and most of all, I love you.”
And then — quite without warning — Susanna laughed.
It was not a quiet, ladylike laugh. It was a sound that burst from somewhere deep inside her, bright and wild and almost startling in its force, the kind of laughter that could not be contained because it came from a place deeper than amusement — from relief so vast it had no other way toexpress itself. Her hands flew to her mouth, but the laughter would not stop. It spilled through her fingers, shaking her shoulders, and Jonathan stared at her for one bewildered heartbeat before it caught him too, spreading across his face like sunrise.
“What —” he managed, but he was already laughing with her, his arms tightening around her as his composure cracked and fell away. They stood in the middle of the room, holding each other and laughing like children, and it was ridiculous and it was undignified and neither of them cared. The tears were still on Susanna’s face — tears that had begun in grief and now finished in something she could not name, something bigger than happiness, something that felt like the physical release of a weight she had been carrying for so long that she had forgotten what it felt like not to carry it.
“We did it,” she breathed, when the laughter finally subsided to something softer, to trembling smiles and eyes that shone. “We actually — Lancashire, we are going to bemarried.”
“Yes,” he said, and his voice cracked on the word, and he did not care about that either. “Yes, we are.”
She pressed her face against his chest and felt his chin rest atop her head, and for a long, sweet moment they simply stood together, breathing, feeling the last tremors of laughter and tears settle into something quieter: certainty. After every forged letter and stolen seal, every eavesdropped conversation and sleepless night, every moment where she had feared that the truth would come too late or not at all — after all of it, this. His heartbeat steady beneath her ear, his arms steady around her, and the knowledge, bone-deep and unshakeable, that the worst was behind them.
EPILOGUE
“My lady?”
Susanna looked towards the door from where she sat at her writing desk, quill in hand. “Come in.” Setting her quill down and leaving her letter to Lady Ellen – now Lady Kettering – half finished, she took the letter from the butler. “I thank you.”
The butler smiled, nodded and asked her if there was anything further she required before taking his leave. Breaking the seal, Susanna unfolded the letter – and felt her breath swirl in her chest.
‘My dear sister,’ the letter began. ‘It has been three months since we were last in company with each other. I have thought every day of what I might say to you and it has taken me such a long time to even think of writing to you. I fear that you will discard this letter before reading it, once you realize it is I who writes to you.’
“My darling, are you quite all right?”
Susanna started in her chair, seeing Lancashire coming towards her, his dark hair mussed. “My love,” she said, her voice a little hoarse. “I was not expecting you in so soon.”
He smiled, lowered his head and kissed her temple. “The repairs to the tenants houses are all going as planned and there was no need for me to stay any longer.” His hand settled on her shoulder. “Not when I had you waiting at home for my return.” For a few seconds, he studied her face and then frowned. “You are upset, my dear.”
She shook her head. “I am not upset, only a little surprised. I have received a letter from Maude.”
Lancashire’s eyebrows shot towards his hairline. “Maude? The lady who frowned all through our marriage ceremony and did not want to be your bridesmaid?”
With a nod, Susanna looked back at the letter, reading the next few lines. “She – she is apologizing.”
Lord Lancashire hunkered down, his hand on her knee. “Is that so?”
“Listen.” Clearing her throat, she began to read. “‘I am now engaged to Lord Humphries who is an excellent gentleman in everything. There is a joy in our connection that I did not anticipate and, seeing just how wonderful such a connection can be, I realize how dreadful a thing I did in separating you from Lord Lancashire. I understand that my words might be unwelcome and they come very late indeed but I want to tell you that I am truly sorry for my actions. They were not loving, nor considerate nor generous. They were selfish, harsh, and cruel, and I am filled with shame and regret over what I did.’”
Lord Lancashire nodded slowly. “It does sound as if she means every word.”
“Yes,” Susanna agreed softly, as Lord Lancashire took her hand. “It does.”
“And you will forgive her, just as she asks.” With a sweet smile on his face, Lord Lancashire lifted her hand and kissed it gently, quickening her pulse. “I knowyou very well, my love, and I know your heart. You forgave me and so, you will forgive her.”
Pressing her lips together, Susanna looked back at the letter, silently reading the last few lines. Her sister’s words conveyed a sense of desperation – perhaps that her letter would be discarded and her apology along with it. She did not want that. The distance between them was a strain and the suffering Maude’s actions had caused still settled on Susanna’s soul.
“If I forgive her, if I write to her and tell her so, then there is nothing from the past that will continue to trouble us.”
