Epilogue
The Duke of Rivers, Fennyman, Harlowe, and Philip could not stop dancing about the chamber and drinking champagne. This had been a particularly hard task. This had almost gone pear-shaped, but they had won in the end. And Nathanial Allworthy, that pain in the arse?
After a quick exchange of letters, whereupon he had made his opinion quite clear to the man’s ducal father, it had been decided that Allworthy would be bought a low commission under Major Durrel, in the Army.
Durrel was a man renowned for handling and improving rotten men.
And if anyone needed handling and improving, it was Nathaniel Allworthy.
Yes, they had prevailed!
As a matter of fact, Rivers rather wished that he could dance a reel, but he never looked dignified doing so. So Rivers stopped, let out an exclamation of delight, turned to the wall of pictures and ribbons and lists, and said, “Right, who shall we do next?”
Fennyman let out a groan. “Surely, we should celebrate this one for at least a week. My God, that was trying. I certainly earned my money on that.”
“I think I might like to go for a week to the sea,” Harlowe suddenly said. “This was a bit harrowing.”
Philip let out a guffaw and slapped Harlowe on the back. “Fancy a little sea bathing, do you?”
Harlowe nodded. “Yes. For a moment, I thought I was going to have to follow the young lady to Italy to ensure that eventually she turned around and came back for the earl.”
Rivers folded his arms over his chest, triumphant, one hand still cradling his champagne. “I should never have doubted. We’re never wrong,” he said. “It might feel like we’re wrong, and there’s a moment in which we’re all sure that we’re failing, but that moment will pass and we will triumph.”
Fennyman groaned again. “I fear that you are going to grow deluded and not understand that it doesn’t always work out.”
Rivers let out a loud roar of delight. “That’s not true, Fennyman. I’m the Duke of Rivers and it always works out for me, so it will always work out for you, and it will always work out for Harlowe.”
“Yes, yes,” Philip said grandly. “And it will always work out for me.”
Rivers nodded. “Exactly. Everything will always work out for the Marriage Managing Society, and Viscount Skyburn is about to find that out.”
The marriage license had been obtained posthaste.
Not because they needed it, but because they had no desire to wait, and what better way to end a house party than with a wedding?
The Duke of Rivers had seemed pleased as punch, and her aunt had seemed pleased too, of course. As had her cousins, Roland and Delia, because they were about to be the family of an earl and the world would open up to them.
Her friends had seemed thrilled too. Because if she could marry an earl, then, heavens, anything was possible.
Ernestine had never expected to have so many opportunities and to suddenly feel as if the ground wasn’t going to be yanked out from under her feet at every moment.
She had not realized that she could seek a life of sunshine here in England.
The rain didn’t really matter because it wasn’t the actual clouds or the rain that had worried and hurt her so.
It had been the way her own heart had kept her alone, even with her friends.
But now she knew she never would be alone again.
She couldn’t be alone again. She’d actually never been alone.
It had just been silly thoughts and a silly mask that she had worn, and a pain she’d never truly allowed herself to feel, which had kept her a prisoner of the past.
But now those thoughts were gone, the mask was taken off, and she was finally free, hand-in-hand with Victor.
Oh, Italy was still on the horizon.
He was taking her there for their honeymoon, and they would spend at least a year traveling that peninsula.
They’d already secured a villa for her dear friends to live in for at least a few months during the worst months of the English winter.
And Victor had insisted that if they wished to come back to England, he would happily find them all husbands.
But if they preferred to stay single and live in Italy, he would set them up quite well, because, after all, she never could have survived those years without her friends, and how could he not celebrate them for that?
He celebrated Delia and Roland too. And finally, after years of just getting by and living on the edge, it seemed as if the Fates had arranged the perfect match.
For not only was she not alone, but her aunt, Delia, and Roland were swept up in Victor’s kindness too.
She loved how good he was, she loved how generous he was, and she loved how she was going to spend the rest of her life with him.
And much to her amazement, for she had never considered it before, she could not wait to meet the children they would have, children who would carry on her mother and father’s spirit.
Those children, herself, and her husband? They would be the luckiest people in all the world. Because in her heart of hearts, Ernestine knew that the sun had come to her life and it would never leave again.