EPILOGUE
Adrian pulled at his waistcoat. I told him he didn’t have to wear it, but he insisted, wanting to make a good first impression. Knowing it meant so much to him made my heart flutter.
We’d just arrived back to the castle a couple days ago. He wanted to give me time with my family before bombarding us. I’d come back a bit early, but no one had seemed to mind.
Since Paige was in fact without Octavio, there was some worry for me. So everyone was just happy I came back.
I glossed over a bit of the story, at least with my mother’s, only telling them vague details about traveling with someone I had met, and finding out more about the necklace.
I figured we could save the pirate talk for after they saw how charming he was.
So we had an impromptu family dinner and invited him. I’d never seen Adrian genuinely nervous, but it was basically leaking from his every pore.
“They’ll love you,” I said.
“I kidnapped you,” he replied.
“Yeah, but I didn’t tell them that.”
“How kind of you.”
I giggled as we walked into the main dining room. Everyone was already there, despite us coming so early.
All eyes were on us as we made our entrance. I could tell Adrian wasn’t used to it, but I was. So I led us to our spot, another chair added next to me for him to sit at.
“Your highnesses,” he said as he approached, bowing. “It’s great to meet you.”
He’d asked me so many times about different greetings to make sure he knew exactly what he was meant to do. I told him of course, but it didn’t matter to me if he messed it up. I wouldn’t let anyone give him grief about it.
“It’s nice to meet you as well,” Mother said. “It seems you’ve… caught our free bird.”
I rolled my eyes, how dramatic.
“What your mother means,” Mama Elsbeth chimed in, “is we were… surprised. Sage has never brought anyone home.”
“That’s not true, I’ve brought a lot of people home.”
“Not to meet us,” Sybil said, obviously irritated with the crude way I spoke. “I’m Sage’s sister, Sybil,” she said, putting her hand out.
“Nice to meet you,” Adrian said, taking her hand as well.
“You’re… different than what I expected,” Sorcha said from across the table, before even making a greeting.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked sharply.
“Relax,” she drawled. “It’s just Adrian looks like he… has a job. And doesn’t have his thumb up his rear.”
Adrian was mid sip and had to stop himself from spitting the entirety of it out.
“He does. He works on a ship.”
“That’s fascinating,” Mother said. “What did you do?”
“Cargo management,” he said.
It was the best title we could come up with outside of ‘Captain of the Violet Ghost.’
“Lots of counting then,” Zarios said. “I understand that pain. If I have to glance at one more balance sheet…”
“I couldn’t agree more,” he said. “But I do have some great talent around me to help.”
Dinner went over even better than I could have expected. Adrian was always charming, but he wasn’t who I was worried about. My family stayed relatively behaved. This was the most peaceful family dinner I’d had in months.
It seemed getting myself kidnapped had some benefits after all.
When everyone was done we retired to my garden. Everything had been perfectly tended to luckily, thanks to my notes, so every plant was looking lush.
“This is beautiful,” Adrian said, running his fingers over one of the ordelia vines.
“Thank you,” I said. “I love it.”
“And I love you,” he said. “And your family seems to like me.”
“I love you too,” I said. “And I think they do too. Which was half the battle.”
“I’d face any kind of hardship for you,” he said. “Even a little family drama.”
I laughed. “I know you would.”
And that was everything I’d ever wished for.