Epilogue

One year later

* * *

“Where are we going?” Lucian asked.

“It is a surprise,” Eliza answered again.

He’d been asking ever since they borrowed her brother’s carriage and drove out of New Orleans.

They had arrived a month ago because Lucian needed an adventure, which Eliza had promised. She was especially looking forward to seeing ghosts because apparently New Orleans was filled with them, not that Lucian had encountered one and rather hoped that he didn’t.

Whether there were ghosts or not, Eliza was now inspired to write another novel to take place on a plantation and was learning all she could about the area, especially the superstitions. It would be her next novel, after she finished writing a magical story about fairies or brownies that wish to steal a person’s possessions before taking their souls. She claimed to have gotten the idea when she first took up residence at Greenhaven Cottage when her stocking, handkerchief, glove, and necklace went missing. Those were eventually found, but in the belongings of the man who had been watching her. He’d taken them when she was away. Lucian had been concerned when she started writing about that frightening time, even though he had been more afraid for Eliza than she had been. She assured him that writing was her way of putting the past away.

Perhaps she was correct.

As for Lucian, he was happy to have sailed out of England and to America, something that he never thought he would do. He also enjoyed his visit with Eliza’s older brother, and his friend, Oliver. And while he did not mind indulging Eliza in her adventures, this one had him concerned.

“What kind of surprise?” he asked.

“If I told you what kind, and you guess, it would no longer be a surprise.”

“How far away is this surprise?”

She frowned. “Oliver said it could take an hour, possibly. He could not remember.”

“If it will be so long, I have an excellent idea of how we can pass the time.”

They may have been wed for a year, but Lucian could still not get enough of Eliza and anticipated that it might always be this way. At least he hoped that was the case.

“You always have excellent ideas.” Eliza leaned forward and pressed her lips against his. Most of the time it was Eliza who initiated the kisses before he had a chance, and that was likely not to change either.

Lucian scooped her up and onto his lap and kissed her deeply as he started to drag her skirts up. Just as he touched a thigh, the carriage came to a halt.

Eliza pulled back and smiled. “We must have been closer than I realized.”

She slid off his lap and quickly straightened her skirts before the driver opened the carriage door.

Lucian stepped out first then assisted Eliza before he looked around.

“Why did we drive this entire way to visit the river. There is one going through New Orleans.”

“This is a better location for what you are going to do.”

“What am I going to do?” If this was Eliza’s surprise, he still didn’t know what it was.

“It is said that if you are lucky, agates can be found along the river.”

“Agates?”

“Or carnelian or jasper,” she said. “I have a list of locations we can visit where they may be found but was told that they are usually found along the riverbeds.”

The one thing that he had always wanted to do was explore and seek out gems, rocks, and fossils and Eliza had made it possible.

He leaned forward, cradling her face in his hands and then kissed her. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome.” She smiled up, her grey eyes filled with love but an instant later they grew wide and she pulled away and ran behind the carriage where she tossed up her accounts.

He hated that she suffered like this but had been assured that the sickness would soon pass. Truthfully, as often as they were intimate, Lucian had been surprised that she hadn’t started increasing sooner but was also glad to have time with Eliza without more pressing responsibilities. The babe would likely arrive in seven months and as neither of them wanted to sail with an infant, as soon as Eliza was no longer ill, they planned to book passage home. Though, that still worried Lucian and he would likely not stop worrying about her health until they were once again in England.

“Shall we search for agates?” she asked as she came back around the carriage and held out her hand to him.

“I can think of nothing better that I would like to do.”

She arched a brow. “Nothing?”

“That is something we will discuss later, in the privacy of our chambers.” He chuckled.

As they stopped at the river’s edge, Lucian looked out over the vast body of water, awed at how different his life was now from little over a year ago when Eliza took up residence in Greenhaven Cottage. He had been a fool to fight his attraction even though he had no idea that one person could make him so happy.

“I love you, Eliza,” he said.

“And I love you,” she whispered as his arm came around her waist and she leaned against him.

He wasn’t just happy, but content, and looked forward to a life of having Eliza in his arms.