Epilogue

EPILOGUE

A nna sunk deeper into the tub, enjoying the silky feel of the hot water.

Already, Lord Downton and his alcohol-laden breath were but a memory.

Almost.

She lifted a hand to her throat, gingerly touching the sore places there. There would be bruises, she thought, but nothing permanent. That was the best thing to say about this particular incident. Nothing permanent would come out of it.

She was home now. Odd how this place did feel like home. Octavia had cried when she learned that Lord Downton had come in while she was away, and Emily and Daphne had only stared, horrified and appalled.

By the time explanations were given, and Theo had promised that Lord Downton would not bother them again, the day had gone by. Now, it was dark—Anna could see a sliver of the night sky through the high window of her washroom.

Sighing, she submerged herself again all the way up to her nose. The water loosened aches and pains in her body that she hadn’t even realized she was experiencing. It was soothing.

A floorboard creaked outside of the closed washroom door.

“Your Grace?”

“What is it, Mrs. Haunt?”

“I have a note here for you, from the master. He said to leave it on your bed and you would read it when you were finished with your bath.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Haunt. Tell me, when is Kitty coming back? I was rather disappointed to come home and find that Martha had already taken her to Theo’s uncle and aunt’s.”

“In a day or two, I believe, but you’d need to speak to the Duke about that. I suppose he thought it would speed up your recovery. Don’t fret, Your Grace, Kitty knows that you’re home and safe, and I’m sure she’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

Anna relaxed a little. “Oh, I’m glad.”

There was a pause, during which she did not hear Mrs. Haunt begin to walk away. Of course, most of the servants didn’t know about Lord Downton’s attack, except for Mrs. Haunt and Timmins.

“We’re all glad you’re home, Your Grace,” Mrs. Haunt said, eventually. “Perhaps it’s not for me to say, but I think you’ll make the finest duchess we’ve ever seen.”

Anna swallowed hard, a lump forming in her throat. “Thank you, Mrs. Haunt. That means a lot.”

She could imagine the diminutive woman smiling to herself on the other side of the door.

“Very good, Your Grace. As requested, I shall leave your drying sheets out here, and you can dry yourself. If you’re sure, of course.”

“Quite sure, Mrs. Haunt. Perhaps it’s not very duchess-like to dry and wash oneself, but I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being bathed like a child.”

Mrs. Haunt chuckled. “You shall be a new type of duchess, Your Grace, make no mistake.”

Anna smiled to herself, listening to the woman tip-toe out of the room and close the door. She played in her bath for a few more minutes, making shapes out of suds, until curiosity got the better of her. She climbed, steaming, out of the bath, wrapped herself in drying sheets, and padded back into her room to find the note Theo had left for her.

There it was, written on good, cream paper, folded twice, with her name written on the front in slanted copperplate. Anna.

She unfolded it, her heart thudding, tension coiling in her gut.

Come outside as soon as you see this.

Please.

T.

Excitement and nerves washed over her. Anna moved over to the window and peered out onto the lawn, but there was no sign of him out there.

She dried and dressed herself quickly, choosing a loose, comfortable muslin dress and one of her old coats in favor of anything fancy. After a moment’s thought, she put on her boots. There might be walking involved.

The house was mostly dark, in the process of quieting down for the night. She passed the doors to the library and countless other small rooms, mostly closed, some ajar with maids doing a last-minute clean up before supper and bed. Some of them smiled and curtsied as she went back, and she always smiled back.

When she reached the front door, the night footman, already on duty, cleared his throat.

“His Grace said you should meet him by the brook, Your Grace,” he said. “Turn to the right outside the doors, circle the house until you reach a cluster of trees, and head towards it.”

“Don’t worry,” she said, flashing him a smile. “I know where I’m going by now.”

That earned her a grin from the footman. “Of course, Your Grace. It is rather a walk, I’m afraid.”

“Yes, I’m not sure why my husband couldn’t simply arrange for a picnic. Thank you… James, isn’t it?”

The man beamed. “Yes, Your Grace, I am James.”

Feeling pleased with herself, Anna stepped out into the cool evening air and set off.

Anna soon spotted the trees, and she could actually hear the sound of a smallish brook. The trees clustered together, very old, thick with moss and winding vines. She ducked her head to get through the dangling fronds of an ancient weeping willow tree and stopped dead.

Theo was there, sitting in the center of a wide, patchwork blanket spread out on the grass and littered with pillows and cushions. A lantern was sitting on a flat rock near the head of the blanket, its yellowy light casting a faint glow over the scene. A small hamper sat nearby, and Anna was willing to bet that it was full of food and wine. The unseen brook gurgled nearby.

“I thought you might like a picnic,” Theo said, breaking the silence. “Instead of a stiff, formal dinner in the dining room. I hope this isn’t too much. It’s a warm night, and I thought we might want some privacy.”

Something skittered down her spine at that. Privacy .

“It’s lovely, Theo, thank you,” Anna managed. “I wasn’t expecting it… it’s lovely.”

He smiled, and she realized then that he had been nervous , afraid that she wouldn’t like what he’d done. Theo beckoned her over, and her legs moved of their own accord, propelling her towards him.

They sat down, side by side on the blanket, and Theo turned away rather hastily—if she hadn’t known better, she might have said shyly—to rummage in the hamper.

“I brought wine, bread, cheese, some grapes, some… strawberries—I believe they are—and some assorted cakes and tarts from the kitchen. Oh, and a meat pie.”

“What a feast.” Anna laughed. “Would you be very hurt if I said I wasn’t particularly hungry?”

He laughed ruefully. “I suppose I should have checked before I packed all of this. How are you feeling?”

“Much better. I’m still a little shaken. I think I’ll have some bad dreams for years to come.”

He bit his lip, glancing away. “I suppose I owe you an apology.”

“You suppose ?”

Theo snorted. “I do owe you an apology. If you hadn’t gone to your mother’s house, he would never have caught you alone like that. I spoke harshly to you when we parted ways, and I… I wish I hadn’t done that. The truth is, I didn’t mean what I said, but how were you to know that?”

Anna was silent for a moment. Around them, the night-time sounds of the woodland were starting up—the chirps of birds roosting for the night, owls hooting, the rustlings of small creatures on their nocturnal travels—and above them, through the gaps in the willow tree, she could see the stars.

“I’m not angry,” she said, at last. “I never was. I just… just wanted you to talk to me. To be open with me. I know it’s not what we agreed on, but?—”

“Well, we’ve already agreed to leave those rules behind. Most of them.”

“Most of them,” she agreed, smiling.

Glancing at Theo, she found him looking at her, something intense in his gaze. He took her hand, lifted it to his mouth, and pressed a soft kiss to her knuckles. She could feel the rasp of a day’s worth of stubble on her skin, and it made her shiver.

“You are more than I have ever deserved, Anna,” he said, his voice low and shaky. “And everything I could have dreamed of for Kitty. Please stay with me.”

“I will,” she said, without thinking twice. “I will stay with you, I promise.”

A smile spread across his face, slow and unguarded, and warmth bloomed in Anna’s chest at the sight of it. She reached out a hand, her fingertips tracing the curve of his lower lip.

“I’d like to see you smile like this more often.”

He kissed her fingertips. “I only smile for you, my dear. Really smile, I mean.”

She had to grin at that.

Theo leaned forward, his hand sliding around the back of her neck. Anna closed her eyes, waiting for the kiss to come.

When it came, it was soft and gentle, almost chaste.

“Keep your eyes closed,” Theo said, his breath tickling her ear.

She obeyed, flinching to find herself gently lowered down onto the pile of pillows and cushions. It was comfortable enough, and a shiver of anticipation rolled through her.

Theo kissed her again, his touch growing more intense. His fingers skimmed the length of her body, lingering around the swell of her breasts and around her hips. He leaned over her, supporting his weight on his elbows—or so she assumed, since her eyes were still closed and she was not getting crushed—and she loosely wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders.

Theo’s lips ghosted over hers, trailing down her jaw to the column of her throat. She kept her eyes closed, concentrating on the sensations.

She felt him shift his weight downwards and shivered at the feel of warm fingertips on the bare skin of her thighs, still ever-so-slightly damp from the bath. Cool air rushed under her skirts, and Theo nudged her legs apart a little, the curve of his shoulder under one knee.

“What are you—” Anna broke off with a gasp when he pressed his lips to her inner thigh, tantalizingly close to her sex.

She felt rather than heard him chuckle, the vibrations traveling through her skin. She knew what he was going to do before it happened.

Anna’s eyes flew open when he kissed the core of her, his stubble scratching her inner thighs.

She wasn’t entirely sure how long it lasted—a moment or two, perhaps?—before he lifted his head and crawled over her body. She was vibrating with pent-up energy, her climax near but not there yet.

“I thought I said,” Theo said, his voice slightly raspy, “to keep your eyes closed.”

“And I thought we agreed,” Anna responded, wrapping her arms around his neck, “that the rules were not working for us.”

“Fair,” he acquiesced and then bent down to kiss the side of her neck. “At least now you know why I was so keen on us having privacy.”

She let out a bark of laughter. “Indeed, I do.”

He lowered himself, pressing against her but not allowing his weight to crush her. Anna wrapped her arms around him, hugging him to her as tight as she could manage. The closeness wasn’t enough, not quite. He entered her slowly and carefully, and she let out a shocked gasp at how perfect it all was, as if they were made for each other.

Like before, Theo began with slow, careful movements, which Anna grew tired of much more quickly than he did. Hooking one leg over his hip—her skirts were rucked up somewhere around her waist now, crushed between them and getting hopelessly creased, not that she cared—Anna buried her forehead in the side of his neck, squeezing her eyes shut.

The world fell away gradually, as if she was only losing her balance. And then, as Theo sped up his thrusts and she rolled her hips to meet his, everything disappeared at once—everything but the two of them. It was like standing on solid ground, only to have the earth fall away beneath one’s feet, leaving only that dizzying, lurching sensation of dropping.

In a good way, of course.

Later, Anna would notice with annoyance that pieces of grass and one intrepid ladybird had made their way into her hair, which was still damp and tangled, almost beyond saving.

For now, though, she could think of nothing but the warmth of Theo’s body and the rolling spasms of pleasure that shot through her, more and more intense until she thought she might actually die.

She met her climax in a rush, digging her fingers into the meat of Theo’s shoulders and tangling them in his hair. He growled low in his throat, nipping her collarbone without causing pain, and she felt him finish inside her, both of them lost in a haze of pleasure.

The moment seemed to drag on for eternity. At last, Theo pulled back, red-faced and disheveled, and rolled onto his back, his arms spread wide. He glanced at her and made a beckoning gesture.

In a flurry of skirts, Anna rolled over to rest her head on his chest. His arm wrapped around her waist.

“I think,” he said after a long pause, during which they tried to catch their breath, “I might have done something to my back.”

She let out a gurgle of laughter. “I’ve got a ladybird in my hair. It’s still alive.”

“The risks of outdoor lovemaking, I’m afraid.”

“Well, I wouldn’t know. You are the expert.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Would you rather we confine our marital activities to our beds, in the future?”

Anna was quiet for a moment. “No, I don’t think so. This was… well, it was nice.”

“Nice, you say? What high praise. What every man hopes to hear from his wife.”

She playfully slapped his chest, laughing. “Oh, come on, Theo. You know as well as I do that I had an excellent time.”

His arm around her waist tightened.

Anna closed her eyes, resting her cheek on his chest and listening to his heart thud beneath his clothing. Clothing which, she now realized, neither of them had removed. A small oversight, one she would certainly remedy next time.

“We could be a real family, the three of us,” Theo murmured, his voice soft, almost dreamy. “I’d almost given up on having a real family.”

She tilted her head to look up at him. “For what it’s worth, Theo. I love you. I love you properly, like a woman loves a man, and I don’t believe that will change. Even when… when I thought you didn’t care for me, I couldn’t stop the feeling.”

He swallowed, and she saw a new emotion flash behind his eyes.

“Well, Anna, I love you. I want to be a better husband, a better father, a better man . Will you stand by me?”

She nodded. “Of course, I will.”

“I think I’ve been in love with you since the moment you burst into my house in that awful wedding dress.” He paused meditatively. “In hindsight, perhaps that was a sign.”

“You should have run while you had the chance,” she said with a throaty laugh. “You are stuck with me now, Your Grace .”

He chuckled, leaning down to kiss her. “Unfortunately, my dear, I am irrevocably in love with you.”

“Oh, dear,” she sighed, smiling against his lips. “I suppose we’ll just have to make the best of it, then.”

The End?