Then Emmeline’s lessons returned to him.
“Sit,” Rowan said.
Frederick blinked. “I beg your pardon?”
“Sit. If I am to hear this, you will not stand there like you are awaiting execution.”
Frederick sat, and Rowan rang for Juliet.
She came quickly, pale and anxious, stopping short when she saw Frederick, color rising in her cheeks at once. Rowan saw, to his own irritation, that the room changed when they looked at one another.
“Juliet,” Rowan said. “Do you love this man here?”
Her eyes flew to his. “Rowan?—”
“Do you?”
She swallowed. “Yes.” The answer was quiet but steady.
“Did anything improper occur between you?”
“No,” she said immediately, her blush deepening as her fingers tightened around one another. “Never. He was honorable. Always.” Her voice trembled on the last word, and her gazeflicked to Frederick with such open tenderness that it seemed to soften the entire room.
Frederick rose then, abandoning all pretense of patience. He went to her and took her hands carefully, almost reverently.
“Juliet,” he said, voice rough, his thumbs brushing once over her knuckles before his grip tightened. “I made a mess of nearly everything except loving you. If you can bear a husband who is foolish, vain, occasionally unbearable, but entirely, wholly yours, then marry me.”
Juliet’s lips parted. For a moment, she seemed too overcome to answer, her eyes searching his face as if she had spent weeks wanting this and still did not trust herself to receive it. Then tears filled her eyes, spilling over before she could stop them.
“Yes,” she whispered, then gave a broken little laugh as her hands clutched his. “Yes, Frederick. Of course, yes.”
Frederick’s breath left him. His face changed completely, all the restless charm falling away until only stunned, naked joy remained. He bent over her hands and kissed them.
Rowan looked away from the ache of witnessing something so simple and feeling how far he had driven himself from it.
Juliet and Frederick had made a wreck of everything, and still they stood there brave enough to reach for each other. He hadbeen given something precious in Emmeline, and at the first pain of it, he had stepped back into the cold.
Juliet turned to him, trembling, her happiness still shining through her fear. “Rowan?”
He looked at his sister. For a moment, he saw the girl who had run, the child who had needed him, the woman who had chosen for herself at last.
“You have my blessing,” he said.
She broke then, crossing the room to him. He stiffened as her arms went around him, then closed his eyes and held her back.
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “Do you forgive me?”
His throat worked. “I am trying.”
“That is enough for now.”
A small crash sounded from the hall before anyone could speak again, followed by Aaron’s voice. “She is awake!”
Rowan turned so quickly that Juliet stepped back.
At the same moment, the butler appeared behind Aaron, slightly winded. “Your Grace, Dr. Arbuthnot has arrived.”
Rowan was already moving.
