EPILOGUE

One year later…

Emilia moved through the corridors of Bellebrook Manor, looking about her at the decorations and Christmas colours on every surface.

Her mother had arrived a few days before, and they had spent many happy hours ensuring the manor was exactly as it needed to be for her first holiday as the countess of Bellebrook.

As she tweaked with a ribbon on the back of one of the chairs, a low chuckle sounded behind her, and she turned to see Adam leaning against a doorway, watching her with a soft expression.

“It is quite straight, I assure you. Everything looks perfect.”

She arched a brow at him, but he simply laughed. “I am merely ensuring I do not disgrace you,” she said with mock irritation as he came toward her and took her into his arms.

Bending down to give her a long kiss, he pulled away, smiling at her cheerfully.

“Is that what you are in danger of doing?” he asked. “And all this time, I believed it was I who might disgrace you .”

She hit him playfully on the chest, taking his hand and pulling him toward the drawing room where the rumble of voices could be heard. They had a variety of guests staying with them this holiday season. After the success of her mother’s party the year before, Emilia had insisted that Bellebrook Manor would be the location for the next Christmas.

The intervening year had been the most wonderful of her life. She and Adam’s feelings had only grown stronger and brighter since their confessions on Christmas Day, and everything about their time together had been beyond perfect.

Emilia still laughed at the memory of her first day visiting Bellebrook Manor before the wedding had taken place. Adam had been so nervous that she’d had to reassure him that nothing about a house coulddissuade her from marrying him. He had spoken of placing a pianoforte in every room, much to her amusement, and even after many months together, it was still his favourite pastime to listen to her while she practised.

As they entered the drawing room, Adam grinned at Lionel, who stood by the window looking at his wife with consternation. Charlotte was holding something up for him to try, and Lionel leaned away from her in disgust.

“But they are honeyed chestnuts, dearest,” Charlotte was saying. “You surely cannot dislike them.”

Charlotte placed a nut in Lionel’s mouth, and he grimaced, making Emilia laugh heartily at them both as her friend shrugged and took a handful for herself.

“I do not understand him,” Charlotte said as she noticed Emilia in the doorway. “They are just delicious.”

Lionel had proposed to Charlotte as soon as he heard Adam and Emilia’s happy news, and the two couples had been nearly inseparable for the past year. Emilia and Charlotte spent as much time as they could together, and if they were not at each other’s sides, they were writing letters between their homes.

Bellebrook Manor had also changed beyond recognition with Emilia’s influence. To Adam’s surprise, she had never begrudged him the time he needed to spend on matters of the estate. She had understood very quickly that he would always have business to attend to—but it was the room he worked in that she objected to.

Only two months after they were married, Emilia had transferred everything from the library into his study and vice versa. He had her to thank for his beautiful study, looking out over the ground of his estate with long, high windows that let in light from every angle. His aunt had commented more than once on how gloomy the old space had seemed, and Emilia would smile fondly at her, giving Adam a knowing smile.

“Are you alright, my love?” Emilia asked, pulling Adam from his thoughts and he kissed her hand gently, putting an arm over her shoulders.

“I am quite alright, thank you. I had just realised I had not wished you a merry Christmas.”

Emilia laughed. “You did this morning. Three times!”

He kissed her all the same, and she grinned up at him as he pulled back. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas, my Lord,” she said mischievously.

“Will you have a roasted chestnut?” Charlotte asked, holding the bowl under his nose. “I cannot understand why Lionel will not have one.”

“The same reason Adam does not eat fruit cake,” Emilia complained as Adam took a handful of nuts to placate Lady Spencer.

Adam looked over at Lionel who was leaning against the counterpane with a weary smile, his eyes fixed on Charlotte, as they often were when she was in the room. Adam had never seen him so at peace, and they had spoken often over the intervening year about how much their lives had changed for the better.

Anastasia was still a part of Adam’s pastand always would be, but any guilt he had harboured about his love for Emilia had long since disappeared. Emilia asked him about Anastasia oftenand insisted on keeping her memory alive, even in his new life with her. It had helped him move past his feelings of pain and guilt and remember the happier, more wonderful sides of his old life with her, even as he basked in the new.

They all made their way to the front of the room where Lord and Lady Sternwood were speaking to Charlotte’s parents as Augusta sat in her armchair sipping a cup of tea.

The fire was crackling fiercely in the grate and keeping the bite of cold from the room, even as the snow continued tofall outside in great sheets.

Emilia chuckled as Adam took her hand and dragged her over to the pianoforte.

“Everyone is demanding carols,” he said blithely, placing a hand on her back as she settled into her seat.

“Everyone?” she asked with a smile.

“Can you not hear their clamouring?” he asked.

“I believe they are all rather distracted my love, are you sure you do not simply wish to sing?”

“Whatever makes you say so?” he asked cheerfully, but she took her seat as she always did and smiled up at him as she began to play a Christmas tune.

It was not long before the whole room was singing, their guests gathered around the piano, candles sending flickering light about the room bedecked with holly and ivy on every surface.

Emilia sighed happily as Adam’s hand came to rest on her shoulder, and their voices rose in harmony, ringing through the halls of the home they had built together.

As her fingers moved effortlessly over the keys, she thought of all that had passed between them in the last year.

Frederick had been exiled from any decent society after his conduct at the Sternwood’s house party, his debts and his reputation finally catching up to him. It did not help that the duke quickly distanced himself from Frederick in all respects.

There were many rumours of his fate and several reliable sources had said that he had fled with his mother to a remote family estate where he was living out his days quite alone, avoiding the bailiffs.

Emilia looked up at her mother’s smiling face as her parents joined in the chorus and felt a rush of contentment at the sight. Over the past few months, they had grown closer again, Adam and Lady Sternwood had grown very close over the past year with the absence of his own mother.

Camilla Sterling had confessed that she had not understood Emilia’s true feelings toward the duke, insistingthatif she had told her, she would never have forced them together. Emilia had accepted it, even if she found it hard to believe. Her mother would always be a social climber and had greatly enjoyed her return to society over the last season.

Lady Seraphina Cheswick was now Lady DeGore and had married very well. Her husband barely spoke at all but seemed content to listen to his wife chatter endlessly to everyone in his vicinity. Emilia rather suspected it was a love match and was happy that there had been a positive consequence to their tumultuous year.

As the carol ended, the whole room erupted in applause, and Emilia chuckled when Adam remained at her side.

“I believe they wish for more, my love,” he said firmly.

“I will play for as long as they will listen,” she replied.

“I could stand beside you forever like this,” Adam said softly. “I may never allow you to rise from that stool.”

He leaned down swiftly and captured her lips in a brief kiss right in front of everyone in the room, and Emilia blushed fiercely. Adam’s hand moved briefly to her rounded belly, where the promise of new life to come completed their Christmas picture.

Charlotte and Lionel came to stand beside them, and they all joined ina rousing chorus as the fire crackled merrily and the snow glittered at the window.

~ The End ~

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