Epilogue
Five Months Later
“Where are you taking me?” Charlotte asked Wolfgang on an afternoon in early February, her hands tucked into a pale peppermint muff with snowy-white trim as they turned off Ludgate Hill and into a covered arcade lined with little jewelry shops, their wares sparkling in the windows.
Wolfgang lifted her over a puddle of slush and Charlotte gave a shiver of happiness. They’d been married for months now, but she couldn’t get used to his enormous strength and the many ways he used it to please her. “You’ll have to wait and see. I’m enjoying being a step ahead of you, for once.”
He escorted her down the arcade, stopping before a small, tidy-looking establishment with polished windows and a cherry red door, and Charlotte clapped her hands in delight. “Are we buying me a present? I must warn you, I’ve been planning one for you that you’ll never top.”
He tilted his head and studied her. “My darling duchess, are you trying to start a gift competition?”
“No!” Charlotte said at once, trying not to look too guilty.
There was no competition, but only because she’d already won.
She’d designed a pattern of damask just for him, heavy silk in a dark navy that was an exact match for his eyes, with a subtle scattering of star-shaped flowers—forget-me-nots, for John.
Josephine’s workshop was cutting the silk into a banyan for Wolfgang, and Charlotte planned to embroider the patch of flowers that would lie over his heart in gold thread, and also to recover his favorite armchair in the same pattern so he could keep John close.
Wolfgang pushed open the door and grinned at Charlotte’s whoop of joy at the glittering wonders winking up at her from black velvet trays.
The proprietor, a young, straight-backed man, gave a deep bow to Charlotte and then to Wolfgang, with whom he was clearly acquainted. “The items you requested are ready, Your Grace.”
“Thank you, Mr. Sykes,” said Wolfgang.
The proprietor locked the front door and led the way into a second room in the back.
“We get to see the workroom?” Charlotte bounced on the balls of her feet as they stepped into a darker, smaller, and more cluttered room with a table in the middle and a workbench to the side littered with pliers, tweezers, files of different sizes, and what looked to Charlotte like a coil of gold wire.
Built into the back wall was an enormous iron safe with a large brass wheel, and her breath quickened as the proprietor spun the heavy door open and reached inside for another black velvet tray, which he placed on the workroom table.
“Oh!” Charlotte’s eyes flooded, because laid out carefully on the tray and sparkling from a fresh cleaning were a pair of emerald drop earbobs, a ruby festoon necklace, a fat strand of pearls, a diamond brooch, amethyst hairclips, and a demi parure—all the jewelry that she and Lady Alice had sold at the beginning of the summer.
“Wolfgang! Gran’s emerald drops, my diamonds—how did you find them all? I was told it was impossible to track them down.”
“The talented Mr. Sykes found them, but that’s not all.” Wolfgang nodded to Mr. Sykes, who seemed strangely nervous as he brought over what looked like a curving gold frame, with a shape that felt oddly familiar.
“Mr. Sykes, would you leave us for a moment, please?” said Wolfgang.
The proprietor bowed again and closed the door behind him.
“You mustn’t think I stole the design. I spoke to Josephine and she gave her permission on behalf of the mill.
In fact, she pointed me to Sykes and told me he’s the most promising young jeweler in London.
He’s started on the frame, but he’ll melt it down again if you don’t want it, or he’ll show you his beryl so you can pick out the stones. ”
“It’s… is it going to be my feather brooch?” Charlotte snatched up the twist of gold to examine it, but her eyes flooded once more and the room went blurry. She threw herself at Wolfgang and buried her face in his chest. “I adore it. I adore you. I’m so pleased I can barely speak.”
Wolfgang’s eyes gleamed. “Do I win your imaginary competition?”
Charlotte considered. “Perhaps for now, but—”
“What if I tell you the brooch is just the beginning? Sykes is looking for a partner, you see, and if you expand the business, it would be a good place of work for some of the wounded men from my regiment. So I’m prepared to—”
“Good Lord.” Charlotte blinked. “You’re not simply buying me jewels, you’re offering to buy me my own jewelry atelier?”
“I want you to have the whole world,” he said gruffly. “I only hope it’s big enough for you.”
Charlotte’s heart thumped hard, and she felt it expand beyond the boundaries of her chest, beyond the confines of the little workroom. Her heart got larger and larger, until it outgrew London and stretched on toward the sea.
“I want your world to be enormous, too,” Charlotte said, but the sentiment was a bit too sweet, so she wrapped her arms around Wolfgang’s shoulders and leaned in close to whisper, “Otherwise, how will you possibly fit?”