To Love the Brooding Baron

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Six months later

Henry sat next to Arabella in his newly decorated study inside their home.

It had taken him and Dr. Stafford five months working with the Home Office to see that Dr. Gladstone and the others connected to him would never hold positions of power over others ever again.

When that was settled, he could wait no longer, and he and Arabella married by special license, changing his life for the better—and all because of her.

She’d insisted they delay their bridal tour until she’d brightened and changed every square inch of their home. She worked so hard that many nights she’d fall asleep in his arms after dinner while he read to her on the sofa. He tried convincing her to slow down, that there was no hurry, but she, of course, would not listen.

Sarah had been discharged from Bedlam but had asked to stay with Dr. Stafford’s mother in her home. She was not ready to return to a place where so many haunting memories of her childhood resided. Henry didn’t argue with her and only asked that he be allowed to visit her so they could try to rebuild what they had lost.

Arabella was his saving grace in that as well. She accompanied him on every visit, bringing samples of wallpaper or fabric and asking his sister what she thought or what she would like so that Sarah could feel a part of their household.

He was beyond grateful. Arabella was his greatest blessing in life, and he only hoped he was proving to be half as much in hers.

“Shall we begin?” Dr. Stafford asked, sitting in a chair across from him and Arabella.

“What do we do?” Henry asked, shifting uncomfortably on the sofa. Despite all the wonderful changes that had been happening, there was one thing that remained. The voice. It had quieted some, but it was still there, inside his head.

Arabella slipped her hand into his and squeezed, as if she knew where his mind was wandering. He looked at her, and she smiled with unabashed love in her eyes.

“We talk,” Dr. Stafford said. “And you hold on to what matters most in life.”

Henry took a deep breath.

“Men at some time are masters of their fates,” he quoted inside his head.

Julius Caesar, the voice whispered, and he chuckled.

Scooping Arabella into his arms, she squealed in surprise as he dropped her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her tight. “Well, then, I think I can do that.”