Epilogue
‘I feel as if I already know you!’ shouted Selina running towards the gangplank.
Helga bounced off the Jewel with a laugh and pulled her into a hug. ‘Of course you do! We have been writing to one another for months!’
Sonja followed shortly after with a little baby bundle in her arms, and Selina was quick to admire Helga’s son. ‘Oh! Isn’t he adorable!’
‘He is!’ declared Sonja and Helga in unison, before bursting into a fit of giggles.
‘Hello, young Fritz. It’s nice to meet you,’ Magnus said cheerfully peeking at him, as if he were introducing himself in a gentleman’s club.
Helga beamed up at her brother. ‘Isn’t he handsome?’
Magnus nodded briskly, his lips twitching with a smile, as he reached out and stroked the pale blond hair. ‘He has your colouring. Helga, you excel in everything—including babies, it would seem.’
Helga smiled and gave Magnus a hug. ‘You may have come second in producing an heir,’ she said and winked at Selina’s growing belly, ‘but I expect you will surpass me in number. It is one and done for me and Fritz Senior.’
Curious, Selina asked gently, ‘You are all happy with that arrangement, then?’ She’d been dying to ask the question but didn’t want to reveal such a private matter to Margarite during their correspondence, as it wasn’t her secret to tell.
Helga gave a rigorous nod. ‘We all are. Fritz Senior is as delighted as I am by our son’s arrival…his nephew, not so much.’
Sonja laughed. ‘No more than he deserves, especially after how horrible he was to poor Fritz! Now, let us get into the carriage and away before Fritz the Younger wakes up and decides he needs feeding!’
Magnus ushered them towards the waiting carriage, and they all climbed aboard. As always, Magnus insisted on handing Selina into the carriage himself.
Once inside, Helga added, ‘Fritz is a good man. We came to an arrangement that suited all of us, and honestly, we are all happier for it. We are an unusual trio, but we are incredibly happy.’
Magnus let out a long sigh of relief. ‘You do not know how glad I am to hear that!’
Helga reached across and took Magnus’s hand. ‘I am sorry I did not tell you sooner. I was so unhappy at first, and it took months for Fritz and me to trust each other fully.’
Magnus squeezed her hand back in response. ‘I understand, and I am sorry I didn’t realise sooner. I might have been able to help.’
Sonja stroked the white curls of baby Fritz’s head as he began to grumble and stir from his sleep. ‘It all worked out in the end.’
‘How is Hans getting on?’ asked Helga, already draping a scarf around herself so that she could feed her son.
‘He is doing well. I am afraid he couldn’t meet you today, as he had important work to do at the mines. But he will be back for dinner,’ said Magnus proudly. ‘I am confident geology was the best choice for him.’
‘Do you still want him to marry an English lady?’ asked Sonja pointedly, as she handed Fritz over for feeding.
Magnus shrugged. ‘There is plenty of time for him to consider a bride… No need to rush.’
The three women exchanged knowing looks and smiled.
* * *
The next day, Selina came rushing into Magnus’s study. ‘What is it? They said you needed to speak with me.’
‘Gracious! Not urgently!’ Magnus declared, rising to his feet, and ushering Selina over to a nearby sofa. ‘Honestly, I am going to ban anymore messages, if you keep running around like this!’
‘Truth be told, I wanted to see you!’ Selina said with a laugh.
Resting a hand on her slightly curved belly as she caught her breath.
She was some months into her pregnancy, but she seemed to be full of energy.
‘If Helga gives me any more gory details about her birth. I am going to run for the mountains!’
He draped an arm around her shoulders as he sat down beside her, allowing himself the pleasure of stroking away a loose tendril of hair from around her neck that was catching on the rubies at her throat.
She wore a crimson dress today, not the same as the first gown she’d worn; this was a simpler morning dress, but he loved her in it all the same.
The colour symbolised passion, and at this moment he wanted to be lost in her.
‘Would you like me to speak with her? Tell her to stop?’
Selina bit her lip thoughtfully, the catch of her flesh between her teeth sending a rush of excitement down his spine like a bolt of lightning.
He stroked the shell of her ear with his index finger running it along the edge and stopping where the lobe met her jaw.
She blinked, her pupils widening into an endless night of promise.
She sighed, reaching up and placing her thumb in the cleft of his chin as she held his jaw tenderly. ‘How can I think clearly when you touch me like that?’
He chuckled and leaned down to kiss her neck. ‘At least you will forget about what my sister said.’
‘True. I was wondering…what would have happened if you had simply asked me to dance at the earl’s ball?’
Magnus raised his head. ‘Why do you mention that?’
Selina shrugged. ‘I was thinking about what Sonja said earlier, about it all working out in the end. But if you’d asked me to dance, you might never have married me.’
‘How so?’
‘Well, you would have danced with me out of politeness, of course, and I would have found no reason to tease or find fault with you. You could be married to Charlotte or Anne by now.’
Magnus sank back against the cushions of the sofa. ‘That thought terrifies me. Thankfully, it would be false to claim such a thing.’
‘Why? If I hadn’t dropped my punch…or torn your shirt…or done any number of foolish things, it might have worked out differently—’
Magnus interrupted her before she went down one of her rabbit holes.
‘I did not dance with you at the earl’s ball because…
I did not trust myself with you. If I had allowed myself the indulgence of dancing with you, I would have been smitten before we’d made one turn of the room, and I would have thrown aside all caution and duty and married you in spite of myself. ’
‘In spite of yourself…how utterly unromantic.’ She laughed.
‘I think it is. Because the truth is that first waltz with you, devastated me for all others.’ He grinned wickedly and went back to kissing her neck. ‘Perhaps even before then, when you fell into me at the folly.’
‘You are wicked,’ she said and giggled, wrapping her arms around him. ‘I think I will tear your shirt off now.’
* * * * *