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“There was always room.” His voice caught. “You are my family, too.”

She laughed, a little wetly, and pressed her face against his shoulder, careful of his bound arm, and felt him settle his good hand against the back of her head and simply hold her there.

“It took us both long enough,” she smiled. “Maybe the both of us were too stubborn to say it out loud.”

“If you love me the same,” he said. “Would you have told me, if I hadn’t been the first to?”

She considered his words for a moment, and then shook her head. “I would have been too scared to make the confession, and would probably convince myself that you don’t feel the same way. But I would have shown you, in every way possible.”

He softened at her remark. “I want Theodore to grow up in a house where he feels love, and that will only flow out of the two of us.”

Phillipa smiled at the thought. A house full of love.

“Does it…” she said, putting her hand in his. “Does it terrify you, in some ways? Now that we have laid ourselves bare like this… do you feel that too much is on the line?”

It wasn’t the most romantic question, but certainly one that would bother her if she didn’t get an answer.

“I think it’s too late now to turn back,” he said wryly again, “so we’re in this together. For better…or worse.”

“Never worse,” she said quickly. “It’s better with you, it’s always been.”

God. It felt so freeing to be able to express herself like this. She hadn’t realised it before, but holding back took a large amount of her energy. Now, it felt like the two of them were finally being transparent.

No more secrets between the two.

“I hope that you never stop loving me,” she said. “I want to hear it, every day.”

“Demanding, are you?”

“I am,” she replied, blushing.

“I like it,” he replied and kissed her again.

It felt like they were lost in a world of their own, everything else forgotten. She was grateful that Augusta and Ronan were present so that they could handle the guests at the ball.

“When this is healed,” he said, after a while, into her hair, “I think I should like to go… and grieve for her the way I have not let myself do yet.”

His confession hung in the air, heavy. She touched the top of his shoulders, and rubbed them gently.

“I could not, before. I find that I am ready, at last, to simply miss my sister. Without a single task standing between it.”

“I will go with you, if you will have me.”

“I will always have you.” He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

“I must go back down,” Phillipa said at last. “They will wonder, if the Duchess disappears from her own ball entirely.”

“You do not have to go anywhere tonight that you do not wish to.”

“I wish to finish it properly. For the children, if nothing else. They are to sing yet, and I promised Joan I would be standing where she could see me.” She smoothed her hands over the ruined blue silk.

“A change of clothes, perhaps, before?” he suggested.

“Oh, right.”

If she showed downstairs with this dress, it would invite more gossip.

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” he told her. “And you’ll be pleased, but I expect you to pay me back in kisses.”