Epilogue
The Duke of Rivers uncorked the bottle of champagne and poured out the bubbling liquid into several crystal flutes.
“The first is done,” he declared, feeling damned proud.
Fennyman sat down in his green leather chair, propped his booted feet upon his impressive desk, took a glass of champagne from Rivers, and lifted it in salute. “The first of many,” he said.
“It didn’t go quite as smoothly as I thought it might,” Rivers confessed.
“Nothing in life ever does,” Fennyman replied.
Harlowe eagerly took a glass of champagne and sipped at it. “Your Grace, Mr. Fennyman? A triumph,” he enthused.
“You too, Harlowe,” Fennyman praised, his voice a deep rumble. “You got word out to those maids faster than a greyhound at race day.”
Harlowe inclined his head with modest pride as he turned his gaze to the wall with all their lists and plans and possible matches. “Well, I did believe that if the duchess did not see the benefits of love, it would all fall apart.”
“You were right, of course,” Rivers said, allowing himself to savor the champagne. “The power of family is really quite impressive.”
Rivers frowned. “Do you think he would’ve had the courage to defy it all and to marry Agatha even if his mother hadn’t helped?”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Fennyman said. “But if you want my tuppence, yes, I think he might have. But it would’ve been a much harder and crueler existence without her going along with it.”
Like Harlowe, Rivers stared at the wall with all the couples that he hoped to put together.
He marveled at the events they’d put into play.
“Who would’ve thought that not only would we make a duke happy but also a lady who had never known happiness or pleasure in her life?
I like this love-matching business. I think that nothing will get in our way now. ”
“Right,” Lord Philip announced from the door, his top hat in hand, his eyes gleaming with excitement. “Who is next?”
And then Rivers looked at the next name on his list. An earl, a defiant, cheeky earl who liked to say the most outrageous of things and who clearly had a very broken heart.
Many, many years later
The Duke of Westfort’s house was never silent. Oh no, it was full to the brim with dogs romping, visitors wandering, musicians playing, and his family.
Yes, the Duke of Westfort and his wife had many children.
They had many other houses, they had many coaches, they had many horses, but most of all, they had each other.
The love that filled their hearts and their days sustained them through the ups and downs of revolution, of kings dying, of princes attempting to rule, of wars that seemed endless, and poverty that struck people down.
But together, side by side, hand in hand, arm and arm, they did everything they could to make people’s lives better.
But most of all, they tried to make each other’s lives better, because they understood that it was the love that they held for each other that made it possible for them to fill other people’s lives with love.
Adam understood now that his family had gotten it very, very wrong. They’d thought that by avoiding love, they could keep power and ensure that that power never left, but love was the greatest power of all, and love was the best way to change the world and the people in it.
And as he gazed upon his wife as she played with their grandchildren, teaching the youngest how to hold their violin, he knew that he and his family would always have that great power.
And what a gift it was.