Epilogue

E pilogue

"I don't like it."

"You aren't supposed to like it. No one is."

"No, I mean I really don't like it."

Hunter Mortimer groaned as he dropped himself into the chair beside his wife, extending his feet towards the warm fire. "Darling, I don't have any say in this. I am only telling you what I have been told. Pearl is going to meet Bichard under a guise that will not make her a candidate for marriage."

"Pearl," Lucy spat, "is in no condition to do anything. By your own account, she isn't even active anymore. It is too risky."

Hunter rolled his head to look at his wife in his full and complete fatigue. "I shouldn't have even told you about this. I've broken so many confidences already."

Lucy gave him a dark look. "Are you more concerned about the confidences to your associates or to your wife?"

A strange tingling started at the back of Hunter's ears as well as in his shoulders and the soles of his feet. He knew this feeling, and he knew it well.

He was walking into a trap.

"Trick question," he finally said, pointing at her and narrowing his eyes. "You are trying to draw a line and make me stand on either side, but I refuse to stoop to that level."

Lucy rolled her eyes and slumped in her chair moodily, reaching her fingers towards his and linking a few. "I don't want her hurt," she said softly.

"I know." Hunter rubbed her fingers gently, just the way she liked best. "She volunteered, my love. She believes she can do it, and I think we have to let her. And the only reason I know any of this is because of my previous assignment. I wouldn't even have an inkling if I were anyone else."

"Well, thank you for being you." She looked over at him finally, as beautiful at this time of night as she was in the glorious light of morning. "How do you enjoy the new assignment, Hunter? Truly."

He exhaled rather heavily, pursing his lips. "It's been a fortnight of being in the League, and I won't deny that it has taken some adjustment. You remember, I've been working alone for years and years. Never accountable to anyone, able to call upon my own resources, do as I judged best… I did not have a private life because I was so invested in the world I had delved into."

He wouldn't tell her how many fights he'd already had, mostly because it didn't matter, and they had resolved quickly enough. He missed being on his own entirely, and desperately so, but there was enough independence and autonomy in the London League to satisfy him there, and they only worked in pairs when it was required. As yet, it had not been required of him to work with anyone. So long as he remembered to write up the reports and inform Cap of what he was doing, all was well.

And having this joyous life with Lucy to come home to every night…

It was bliss that he could not have ever imagined himself enjoying.

And it was well worth the sacrifice of his career. After all, in most respects, he was doing exactly the same thing, just in a different way. A more creative way, his sister had suggested just a few weeks ago. It had taken little convincing of any of the powers that be to make this happen, and the objections over his change in position and status were minimal and fleeting.

All in all, there had been no downside, apart from not having an operative in the same sort of deep cover in those parts of London at all times. But between himself, Trace, Gent, and Rogue, they had a decent amount of coverage, and Martin did not know Hunter, so he was the smallest risk of compromise.

Which meant he was still working on uncovering Martin's trail and towards his capture.

But now he would not have to do so alone. He could call upon his new brothers-in-arms, and they would be there. Not only that, but their desire for vengeance upon the man they had trusted for so long was particularly useful fuel for him to feed on.

It was all going to work out very well, once they were adjusted to their new positions and roles.

And once he adjusted to having an actual home to return to.

"When do you need to be back at the school?" Hunter asked his wife as he continued to stroke her fingers.

"End of the week," she replied softly. "Miss Bradford has kindly let me remain here this long because of our wedding, but much longer…" She sighed and he could hear the tears in it. "Are you certain you want me to do this?"

Hunter sat up and turned more fully towards her, reaching for her other hand as well. "That is not the question I want you to ask, my love. Do you want to teach?"

With damp tears, she nodded, but then she tilted her head until it almost touched her shoulder. "But not at the expense of leaving you," she whispered.

He groaned and tugged on her hands, pulling her out of her chair and into his lap, wrapping his arms around her tightly. She tucked her head under his chin and pressed her lips to his throat as he stroked her hair.

"You are not leaving me," he told her, letting his fingers run through her long, dark tresses soothingly. "You are choosing to do something that makes you happy. And I want you to choose what makes you happy."

"You make me happy," she insisted, gripping his shirt in her hands.

Hunter smiled and kissed her hair twice. "And you make me happy, love. The happiest I could be, happier than I ever dreamed, happier than I deserve. But the two are not mutually exclusive. Miss Bradford has said we can live in the cottage on the school's estate when I can go there and will allow you the carriage to return to London when you like. She will work with you and create a flexible schedule that suits you."

"I don't want you to resent my being away," Lucy admitted against his chest. "I want to be here when you come home every day or from a mission. I want—"

"I am not going anywhere," Hunter overrode gently. He lifted her away from him just enough to see her face. "I am yours, Lucy Mortimer. We only have a few years at most before the viscountcy is ours, and then it will be impossible for you to teach. It will be hard enough for me to continue my work, but possible. So do what you want to do now, while you can, because I don't want you to be Lady Fordham and bemoan a life that was not lived."

Lucy bit her lip as she ran her fingers over his jaw. "And we'll make this work? We'll see each other often and be husband and wife, and you won't love me less for being away?"

Hunter kissed her then, his heart aching for her insecurities and her fears, for her belief that love was fleeting and connection temporary, and that she was not worth sacrifice. Or worthy of devotion.

She would learn, though. He would teach her over the years and years that they would spend together. The children that would eventually come, if they were so fortunate. The life that they would share together. He would teach her that she was worth everything he had to offer and more. That he would give her everything he could and more. That her happiness was his sole purpose in life.

That her love was the most precious thing he had.

She would learn. And one day, he hoped, she would believe.

"I love you," Hunter vowed when his lips parted from hers. He cupped her face in his hands and touched his brow to hers. "I love you, Lucy. I will never love you less than I do right now and am certain I will only love you more. Do you not know that my life is only worth really living now that you are in it? Do you not know how much I need you? Do you not understand that I would go to the ends of the earth and back again just to make sure you smile?"

"Hunter…" she breathed, brushing at his bottom lip with her thumb.

He kissed her thumb, then her lips again, tenderly this time. "I love you enough to want you to do exactly as you dream. To make a slight complication of schedule in part of our lives. To travel distances to see you and to make up for the kisses we've missed in between."

"But I love you enough to stay," Lucy told him. "If that is what you want."

They were always going to come back to this, Hunter realized. Which meant there was only one thing to do.

"What about this?" he began, settling his head next to hers as they stared into the fire. "We do this term with you teaching and my being here, just as is set for now. If either of us is truly miserable, then we will make adjustments and find another way to do this. We don't have to commit to a lifetime of our careers at this moment. We only have to decide that we want to continue our lives together, and finding the best way to do that is going to take time."

Lucy was nodding before he even finished. "Yes. Yes, I like that. We can find a way through all of this and decide on the life we want. So long as my life is with you, though, I will be happy."

"Your life will be with me, Mrs. Mortimer," Hunter reminded her, bouncing her on his lap a little. "That is already done. This is simply deciding on which happily ever after we like best."

"The part where you kiss me senseless and I fall asleep in your arms," Lucy said at once, her eyes going dark as obsidian as she inched her fingers back to his hair. "That's my favorite."

"Is it?" Hunter purred, twisting her hair around his fingers. "What a coincidence, I rather enjoy that one as well."

He drew her closer, his lips brushing against hers slowly, temptingly, the almost maddening way that he knew would drive her wild.

Lucy's breathing deepened and she gripped his face between her hands. "I still don't like Pearl going back into the field," she rasped as she caught his bottom lip on her own.

Hunter tightened his hold on his wife, grinning against her mouth. "I'll put in a complaint on your behalf, my love."

"When?" she breathed as her fingers rubbed against his scalp.

Losing himself rather rapidly to the bliss of his favorite happily ever after, Hunter ran his lips along the curve of his wife's jaw. "Tomorrow," he promised.

And the conversation ended there.