Epilogue
His wife’s fingers trailed down the length of his spine as he lay half collapsed on top of her, his face buried into the pillow next to her head. All around them, the house was still, this quiet time just for them.
‘Are you asleep?’ she whispered.
‘No,’ he managed, his body heavy with contentment. ‘Am I crushing you?’
‘A little but I like it. Please do not move.’
He would in a minute, but he was more than happy to stay exactly where he was for now. Sophia’s curves were soft beneath him, and when he recovered his energy, he planned to spend yet more time exploring them with every bit of his body.
‘I enjoyed today,’ she said, her fingers making a loop of his shoulder blade. ‘Your family are lovely.’
‘Mm.’
‘I think Kate and Emily will become good friends.’ He shifted his head so he could look at her while she spoke.
They had not pulled the heavy curtains all the way across and he could see her face in the moonlight coming through the window.
She was staring at the ceiling, a soft smile at the corner of her lips. ‘I do not think I shall be lonely.’
He pushed himself up onto his elbow. ‘Of course you will not be. You will be with me.’
‘Yes, but when you are away on your travels, I shall need people to talk to and I think I shall enjoy their company.’
Christopher moved so that his face was directly above hers, holding himself off her with his forearms resting against the mattress. His hair flopped into his eyes. He pushed it back only for it to fall straight down again.
Sophia giggled, using the tips of her fingers to sweep it off his forehead and hold it in place.
‘If you think, for a moment, Lady Sophia, that I am going anywhere without you, you are very much mistaken.’
Her smile faded. ‘I have said all along that I do not want you to change. I will miss you terribly, but I still think you should go and see what you have always planned. You will regret it all your life if not and I do not want that for you, or for me.’
‘The only way I shall go is if you come with me.’
She froze. ‘Oh. Could I do that?’
‘Why not?’
‘Well. I…’
‘You…?’
‘I never thought I would. Ooh, but I could. I could get to see it all.’ Her excited wriggle set off a pleasurable reaction all through his body.
‘You could. We could. But if you do not want to, then we will not. Since Sebastian left, I have been chasing something, an elusive happiness that I didn’t think could be found in England.
I thought I would discover whatever was missing in adventure and excitement, but now I realise that what I was looking for was someone to love, and I do love you, Sophia.
I cannot get over the extraordinary luck that brought us together and I do not want to waste any time apart from you. ’
He saw his words hit her, saw the moment she heard the word love and he knew he would hold the joy in her eyes in his heart for the rest of his life. ‘I would love to see the world with you, to share in your adventures. I love you too, Christopher. I think I have almost from the start.’
He pressed a featherlight kiss to the corner of her mouth. ‘Not since the start; you were far too drunk on brandy to be able to form feelings at that point.’
Her laughter turned to more kissing and those were the last words they spoke to one another for a long, long time.
The End