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“Not for four months yet, though Frederick has already redecorated an entire wing of the townhouse as though the child might arrive tomorrow.” Anna rolled her eyes fondly. “He’s most insufferable about it.”

“I am prepared,” Frederick said, raising an eyebrow. “There is a difference.”

“There is not,” Anna countered.

Frederick laughed, unbothered, and pressed a kiss to her temple that made Laura’s chest ache with a wistfulness she hadn’t expected. It was not envy, but something more honest and close to the heart.

Nathaniel must have caught the shift in her expression, because his hand found hers, warm and steady and strong. When she glanced up at him, there was a question in his eyes.

Are you well? He seemed to ask, which she answered with a small nod and a squeeze of her hand. I am, I promise.

Kitty joined them, and they all settled on benches near the pond as the sky darkened fully and murmurs of anticipation rippled through the crowd.

“Would you believe that Lord Seymour stepped on my feet not once, but twice during the quadrille?” Kitty murmured to Laura with a huff. “It was obnoxious.”

“No more obnoxious than the woman with the peacock feathers,” Laura snorted, gesturing to an ostentatiously dressed woman in the distance.

“There,” Everett said with a satisfied sigh. “This is what I like to see. My oldest, grimmest friend surrounded by people who enjoy his company, in a public garden, without a single scowl. I ought to have this evening commemorated in a painting!”

“Don’t you dare,” Nathaniel warned, though there was no bite in it.

“I’m merely saying that a year ago, you’d sooner have set yourself on fire than attend an evening like this. And now look at you.” Everett gestured broadly, encompassing the whole scene—Anna and Frederick leaning into each other, Nathaniel’s hand still wrapped loosely around Laura’s where it rested on the bench between them. “Domesticated.”

“I prefer content,” Nathaniel corrected.

“Call it whatever you like. I call it a miracle.” Everett raised his glass toward Laura in a small toast. “Whatever you’re doing, Your Grace, please keep doing it. The world is better for it.”

Laura felt her heart flutter at the compliment, but before she could answer, the first firework cracked open overhead.

A burst of brilliant gold cracked open against the night sky, followed by delighted gasps and claps. Nathaniel shifted closer to her on the bench, his arm settling around her shoulders as the next firework bloomed crimson above them. She leaned into him, his body so warm and strong, watching the light paint gold and red and violet across his face.

I have never in my life imagined an evening like this one. Not in my wildest dreams.

“Thank you for bringing me, Nathaniel,” she murmured as another burst of light scattered sparks across the sky. “This is so lovely. Our company is so lovely. You… are so lovely.”

“Thank you for coming,” Nathaniel murmured back, pressing a kiss to her temple, the public display of affection not lost on her. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

Above them, the fireworks kept bursting in gold and green and brilliant white. Laura closed her eyes for just a moment, memorizing the warmth of his shoulder beneath her cheek, the sound of Anna’s laughter and Everett’s teasing and the distant orchestra still playing somewhere beyond the crowd.

Whatever comes next, whether it be Alden, Cumberlea, or my cursed father, I will face all of it gladly so long as I have him.

CHAPTER 23

“And then the gold one went up into the dark black sky,” Laura recounted over breakfast for the fifth time. “And everyone gasped in awe.”

“I must come with you next time,” Iris said as she finished her toast. “I know it was late, but I am old enough!”

“I suppose you are,” Nathaniel murmured, not looking up from the sealed letter he’d been turning over for the better part of five minutes. “Next time it is.”

“Thank you, Uncle!” she gushed before sipping her milk.

Laura watched him over the rim of her cup. He’d been distracted since they’d sat down, his coffee gone cold.

“Nathaniel?” He glanced up at her. “Whatever it is, it will still be there, whether you open it now or in an hour.”

“You are right.” He didn’t smile, but something in his shoulders eased. He broke the seal at last and scanned the contents. Then he refolded the letter and set it beside his plate. “Iris, would you go and ask Miss Borden to help you choose which books you’d like to bring back to Duskwell? I think it’s time we returned to the castle.”

Iris’s face lit up. “Truly? Is Buttons expecting me?”