Thomas ignored him.
“Ashcombe stands because all of you held it. Because you harvested when your backs were breaking. Because you kept accounts, mended roofs, guarded gates, fed children, buried the dead, and rose the next morning to do the next necessary thing.”
His voice roughened.
“And because my betrothed saw what I could not.”
Amelia’s breath caught.
Thomas turned, and in front of everyone, lifted her hand.
“You did it,” she whispered.
His mouth brushed her hair. “We did.”
“No. You saved Sir Aymon. You chose another way. You saved Ashcombe.”
His arms tightened. “You showed me there was another way to choose.”
She drew back enough to look at him.
Thomas’s face was solemn, but there was light in his eyes now. Real light. No sapphire. No storm. Just the impossible brightness of a man who had been handed back his home and had finally let himself believe he might keep it and the woman standing in it.
“Lord Ashcombe,” she said softly, “you’re smiling.”
His brow lowered. “Am I?”
“Yes.”
“How unfortunate.”
“Devastating, actually.”
He bent his head and kissed her.
It was not the wild kiss in the tower after the portal closed. Not the kiss that had tasted of storm, fear, and seven hundred years tearing itself apart.
This was different.
This was a kiss in daylight, with cheering around them, with Ashcombe safe beneath their feet, with the future no longer a blade at their throats. His mouth was warm and sure, still careful enough for the children and the friar, but only just. Amelia’s fingers curled into his tunic. The yard roared louder.
Alyson shouted, “Again!”
“Hush,” Edith said, but she was laughing.
Thomas lifted his head, his forehead resting briefly against Amelia’s.
Behind them, Walter rose unsteadily, one hand still clutching the pardon.
“There will need to be copies. Several copies. The coffer must be secured. The chest inventoried. Witnesses gathered. The language concerning heirs is of considerable importance.”
“Walter,” Edith said.
“What?”
“Let them breathe.”
He looked offended. “Breathing has never required neglecting documentation.”
