Epilogue
S ilas and Arabella had been married for a month before they went to Vauxhall Gardens together.
Much had changed there in the six years since her first arrival when she had been filled with fear and uncertainty. Ownership had changed hands, some of the artwork had been removed. There were different performers and new delicacies being served. Time marched on, as it always did.
Arabella knew that so very well. Because much more had changed for her.
She was Arabella Windham first and foremost. Her happy marriage had indeed happened over an anvil in Scotland, but with her sisters and all of Silas’s siblings as witnesses.
She welcomed that her family was growing, and she celebrated Silas’s delicate steps toward closeness with his brothers and Phoebe.
Her father was dead and buried for almost two months.
She didn’t fully understand what had made him end himself rather than her, or take her offered alternative to death.
When she asked that question out loud, Silas always held her and murmured about madness.
That was true, of course, but she thought perhaps it was more, too.
Her offer to save him…maybe it had made him regret.
Maybe it had made him see, through his haze, just how horrible he’d been and he couldn’t bear it.
Whatever the reason, he was no threat to her anymore and so she was learning to grieve for what he was, as well as what she’d always wished he’d been.
Things had changed for her sisters, too.
Evelina had told her about Southwater’s refusal to help.
She could see it had changed their relationship.
And even though Evie hadn’t said so, Arabella had to believe that the betrayal would eventually end it.
When it did, Arabella would open the house she had been gifted all those years ago to her sister so she could have some time to herself before she decided her next steps.
Julia was already gone from that same house now. She’d found her next protector and seemed content enough with his company even though he didn’t seem particularly special to Arabella.
Arabella and Silas no longer lived there either. He’d bought her a new townhouse away from the past. A fresh start, they’d said to each other as they happily made love in every room to truly make the place their own.
There was still a place for the past, of course. It was what they visited now as she walked through the twisting paths, music and fireworks at her back, through to the grottos and their hidden delights.
She found him where she’d first seen him all those years ago. But Silas wasn’t with a lady, at least not yet. He was sitting on the wall edge, watching her come close, those green eyes dark and filled with sensual purpose. He stood as she reached him and held out a hand.
“Good evening, Mrs. Windham,” he said. “I assume you’ve come here for an assignation with a very wicked gentleman.”
She smiled as she stepped into his arms. “I don’t think he’s half so wicked as he pretends.”
“That sounds like a challenge,” he murmured as he dropped his lips to hers.
She laughed against him, but she knew, as she had known from the moment she said yes to his proposal, that the worst of the challenges were over. Now was the season for all her joy, all her hope and so much love that she was overcome by it.