Epilogue
Four months later…
Summer was fading into memory as autumn descended on Shropshire. Ensconced in the small bedchamber of the hunting lodge, Cecily stretched like a cat on the bed.
The room was a bit more luxuriously appointed than it had been during their previous stay.
More furnishings had been added. The rough bedding had been traded for a down-filled mattress and the softest of linens.
And the repast that had been prepared for them by Mrs. Collinsforth would have done even the king proud.
“I have a confession to make,” Malcolm said.
“You always seem to be making confessions in this room,” Cecily mused.
He laughed. “So I am. This one is more easily forgivable, I hope… the wheel on the carriage is fine. I simply wished to spend one more night here with you before we make our way back to London. I’m not eager to forsake our short sojourns here for ballrooms and musicales.”
“Neither am I, but we cannot hide away forever… no matter how much we might wish to. Gossip can only be eradicated once it is faced… otherwise, we will simply have to keep dreading the eventuality of it,” she reminded him.
“It still pains me that you know that. That you bore the brunt of gossip after our failed engagement so long ago,” he whispered, then placed a kiss on her bare shoulder.
“We cannot change the past,” she reminded him, turning to face him. “And we have so much to look forward to in our shared future.”
“More detours to the hunting lodge?”
She shook her head. “I’m afraid such journeys may be limited when we return to Sedgewick Hall next summer. I imagine it will be very difficult to get away from your very demanding son.”
He stilled completely, not even breathing for several seconds. “Cecily, are you with child?”
“I am… and while I cannot be entirely certain, I imagine that by spring, we will welcome our first child,” she told him.
“A fiery-tempered little girl with her mother’s red hair,” he said.
“Not a son?”
“Eventually,” he said. “We will have a son to carry on the title. But the world would be an infinitely better place with more of you in it. I hope she is just like you.”
Cecily laughed then leaned in to kiss him, savoring the rough feel of his whiskers on her skin. “You will never know a moment’s peace if you get your wish.”
“Peace is a poor consolation treasured by those who do not know happiness. And I know happiness, Cecily… to the very depths of my soul.”
The End