Epilogue

EPILOGUE

A melia and Max’s entwined hands swung together as they walked through the halls of Blackwood Manor.

They had just returned from London, where they had married in front of the few from the ton that Max could suffer, as well as Amelia’s friends, both magical and artistic.

To say that there had been a few raised eyebrows was an understatement, but neither of them cared. Max told her that after facing a curse and a scorned witch, the opinions of the ton were nothing.

“I hope Charlie was not too disappointed in our marriage,” Max said to her now as though reading her mind – which, often it seemed, appeared to be connected to his.

“Perhaps at first, but I think he soon realized that he and I were not to be, that we will always be friends, but nothing more,” Amelia said. “Actually, at our wedding, he met one of my friends from my other committee. A woman who seemed vaguely familiar to him. That should be an interesting pairing.”

She grinned, and Max wondered what she had done to encourage the coupling.

“It certainly shall.”

They stopped at the entrance to the ballroom, and Max met her gaze.

“Are you ready?”

“I am. And you?”

He nodded as they entered the ballroom-turned-art-gallery, slowly making their way along the number of family portraits that lined the wall. Amelia turned her nose up at Max’s great-grandfather, her heart beating faster until they stood in front of Max’s grandfather’s portrait.

The one he now shared.

Amelia’s breath caught in her throat at the image before her.

Edward remained, and while he was dressed in the same clothes as he had always been, he was no longer alone.

Unlike most portraits that would have been painted of couples in the previous century, they were not properly posed.

They were locked in an embrace, in the very same way that Amelia had painted herself and Max. Isolde’s fiery hair flew out behind her, while Edward gazed at her with a hunger that Amelia well recognized from Max.

“I’m glad to see that Edward overcame his anger towards Isolde,” Max murmured.

“I think it was all such a misunderstanding,” Amelia said, looking up to him. “They did truly love each other. They just allowed so much pain to get in the way of it all.”

“I agree,” he said, turning his attention away from the portrait and toward Amelia. “Thank you for everything that you did for my family. For me. For helping us all see clearly, to appreciate the truth, and to be willing to give so much of yourself. It is hard to believe that the curse is finally broken.”

“Every bit of it was worth it,” she said. “I would do anything for you.”

“And I you,” he said. "I'm a very lucky man."

As he took her in his arms, music began to play from elsewhere in the manor. They had no idea if it was Isolde, or another spirit that had taken up residence, but Amelia knew that it no longer mattered. Max had welcomed it all. Had welcomed her.

And she had found her forever home.

“Max?”

“Yes?”

“I have something for you.”

He lifted a brow as he waited, and she crossed the room to where Whitaker was waiting with her gift.

She lifted it in her arms and held it toward him. He couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face. For there was the painting she had created of the two of them – the one she had used to break the spell.

“I told you that I wanted to paint you – and I am still going to have you pose for me.” Her lips widened in a smile as she pictured just how she would pose him. “But I loved this one of us together. I thought we could put it here,” she said. “Beside Isolde and Edward. What do you think?”

“It’s perfect,” he said, his smile now warm and sincere. “Forever together.”

“Forever entwined,” she declared. “As it should be.”

Dear reader,

I hope you enjoyed Max and Amelia’s story! The Cursed Portrait combines my love of Regency, paranormal, and gothic romance. Would you like to read more stories like this? Let me know! Please email me at [email protected] , post in my facebook group or, of course, leave a review.

If you love gothic romance, keep reading for a preview of Always Your Love , a standalone beauty-and-the-beast, arranged marriage Regency romance.

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Ellie

Always Your Love

A scarred soldier. A dutiful daughter. An arranged marriage in an empty house with its own stories to tell.

Lady Hannah Blackburn has always been an obedient daughter, doing exactly as she is told. So when her sister runs off with a footman and her parents decide on a hastily arranged marriage for her, she agrees. But when she kisses a stranger in the library on the same night her fiancée has a tryst of his own, everything changes.

Lord Edmund Marshville, a former soldier and the second son of an earl, has one desire — to be left alone with his scars and his memories in his remote Hollingswood Estate. When he gives in to his mother’s plea to attend his brother’s engagement party, he doesn’t realize how life altering one night can be.

When Hannah and Edmund return to Hollingswood after their arranged marriage, it doesn’t seem like they will ever be connected in anything more than name, until they begin to uncover secrets hidden for decades. Will attempting to reunite lost loves help them find their way to each other, or do the fates have other plans for them?