Bonus Epilogue
One month to the day after Charlotte’s twenty-first birthday, and one day short of one month to the day after payment of a long-standing, accidentally discovered wager, Julian took Charlotte’s hand at the front of the chapel adjacent to her childhood home and vowed to love her for the rest of his life.
That she did the same brought him greater joy than he’d ever imagined feeling.
He struggled to keep his focus on the guests at the wedding breakfast rather than being entirely engrossed in his own good fortune. He found himself simply watching Charlotte, awed and amazed to have her sitting beside him with a lifetime stretching out in front of them.
She caught him in an enthralled moment and, in very Charlotte-like fashion, laughingly smiled. “Do I have something on my face or a hair terribly out of place?”
He shook his head.
“Then I am at a loss to explain why every time I glance your way I find you looking at me.”
From her other side, her aunt Tottie said, “Have you not even the slightest idea?”
Julian met her eye with an amused look, which she returned.
Tottie had been wary of him at first, but she’d quickly warmed to him over the week he’d been at the earl’s country home.
Her mother, Charlotte’s grandmother, had declared Julian “shockingly handsome” and “an excellent conversationalist” within a couple of hours of his arrival and had seemed to approve of him ever since.
He had yet to meet Charlotte’s younger brother, but suspected he would like him quite a lot.
Julian had lost all his family, but had found in Charlotte’s the sort of family he’d always wished he had.
“Are you saying, Aunt Tottie, that my Julian is rather fond of me?” Charlotte asked with a hint of a laugh.
“He adores you,” Tottie said. “Which speaks to his intelligence.”
“And my innate good taste.” Julian took her hand in his and lifted it to his lips. “And tremendous good fortune.” He kissed her hand.
“I am feeling particularly fortunate myself.”
A few more times throughout the wedding breakfast, she caught him watching her and offered the same laughing smile as before.
And he kissed her hand each time. He did so again as they sat in their traveling carriage, riding away from her father’s home later that day.
They were to have a wedding trip before making their way to a small holding belonging to the earl.
Julian’s home— their home was still devoid of most of its furnishings and in need of some repairs.
Those things were being seen to, thanks to the ￡1,000 he’d recently come into possession of.
It would likely take generations to return the once-grand home to its full glory, but it would be comfortable and livable soon enough.
He and Charlotte could begin their life there.
“Are you still pondering your ‘tremendous good fortune’?” Charlotte asked, sitting beside him and leaning into his one-armed embrace.
“I am, indeed. That I made your better acquaintance, was readily forgiven by you for my ill-conceived scheme, and have somehow found myself loved by you is an amazingly fortuitous thing.” He pressed a kiss to her temple.
“Me falling in love with you is far less shocking. My heart was yours long before I had any idea that you’d even begun to lay claim to it. ”
“Do you not have any recollection of when you first fell in love with me?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Do you know when you first began falling in love with me?”
She nodded solemnly. A touch too solemnly.
“When?” he asked, not bothering to hide his grin.
“‘Languisce.’”
They both laughed, the sound so natural among them, so frequent, so easy. Life had been heavy for both of them for so long. To have found such joy was a blessing neither intended to ever take for granted. And they both fully intended to love each other every day for the rest of their lives.