Epilogue

Four years later

L eona Vale hummed to herself as she moved between the henhouses, collecting eggs for breakfast.

Today is the day. Delilah is coming home!

It was the first time in ages that they would all be together again at Black Hill—though, of course, their numbers had swelled with husbands and wives and children. Lucy and her Eddleston had arrived yesterday. Felicia and Bernard, Cornelius and Alice, Roderick and Helen, and Aubrey and Henrietta were all coming over in the afternoon and would stay for dinner. Antonia was even hosting a ball next week, and everyone who was anyone in Blackhaven would be there, from the Earl and Countess of Braithwaite to the visiting Lord and Lady Launceton and their family.

Before then, Leona would have to find a way to tell Lawrence her secret. Separation had been hard when he first went to university, but actually, it was good to stand on their own feet rather than on each other’s. There was still an unbreakable bond, and she would not change that for the world. But now there was a change of emphasis, a possibility that it would not always be the most important bond in her life. Or his. And that was good, too. If it did not hurt Lawrence.

Delilah is coming home…

Delilah had always held a special place in their hearts, part mother, part sister, all friend. And she had found her soulmate in Lord Linfield. At least, Leona hoped that was true. It had been when she last saw Delilah more than a year ago, but…

“They’re coming!” Lawrence yelled out of his bedroom window. “I can see the carriage!”

Leona bolted into the kitchen, depositing the eggs, unbroken more by luck than by care, and ran through to the front of the house, all but clashing with Lawrence in the doorway. Laughing, they exploded together through the front door.

In front of them, the formal garden now looked brilliant, alive with color and beauty, thanks to Antonia’s eye and art.

Cornelius was riding hard across the fields toward them, his baby in one arm.

Julius and Antonia appeared beside Leona.

“I think that’s Rod and Aubrey riding behind the carriages,” Julius said, grinning. “They must have seen them arrive through the town.” He moved forward for a better look. These days, his limp was almost gone, his injured leg troubling him only in very wet weather. And this summer, unlike the summer of 1816 that had seen so many of them married, was idyllically warm and sunny. “Yes, and Felicia’s there, too!”

Leona laughed with sheer joy, desperate for Delilah to be there and yet afraid suddenly that she would be different. She lived such an exciting life, traveling the world with Linfield, the king’s special ambassador, mixing with the most powerful of princes, politicians, and generals. Surely that would change anyone, just a little…

The carriage arrived at the gallop, and it had barely stopped before Delilah tumbled out, her arms already reaching for the twins in a massive, rare but wonderful Delly-hug, before she embraced Julius and Antonia, and Leona was left to gaze at her niece and nephew clutching their father’s hands.

Denzil extricated himself from his children’s clutches to shake Julius’s hand.

“You’re twins,” remarked George Talbot, beginning to smile.

“So are you,” Lawrence said, gravely offering his hand while Leona gazed at little Delia.

“Hurray!” Delia said, laughing and seizing Leona by the hand.

Lawrence had dragged forward their stepbrother, Antonia’s son, now a strapping lad of ten. “This is Edward. He’s not a twin, but he’s great fun despite that. Are you hungry? Our cook’s making a huge breakfast…”

An hour later, the siblings were all together in the drawing room. Leona and Lawrence sat on the floor, their backs against Delilah’s knees. She didn’t object and no one told them off, even though they were nineteen and grown up. Edward had taken the Talbot twins—so known to distinguish them from the original Vale twins, the Eddleston twins, and the Aubrey twins—to explore the house, supervised by Antonia and Lord Linfield, and hindered no doubt by Julius’s own lively offspring. Laughter drifted with thuds from various places, making Leona smile.

“And breathe,” Felicia said. “While you can! Once all the children are here, it will be utterly hectic.”

“Like our own childhood,” said Aubrey. “How did our father transport us all over Europe—in wartime—without going insane?”

“Love, of course,” Lucy said.

“And Delilah,” Roderick said, raising his coffee cup to her. She looked surprised, and blushed. “Though Jules and I were older, she always took responsibility for the younger ones.”

“She did,” Julius agreed. “While I ran off to sea.”

“You came back,” Cornelius said. “We had a good childhood. I like to think our own children do, too, however unconventional we might be.”

Delilah smiled, looking about her at the drawing room, which had changed little except in the small, comfortable ways that Antonia had initiated to make this home—for Leona and Lawrence as well as their own children.

“It’s good to be home,” Delilah said. “Do you ever look back on that summer in 1816 and think it was magical?”

“That wasn’t magic, that was the twins,” Aubrey said. “Interfering little—”

“Worked for you, didn’t it?” Lawrence retorted.

“It did,” Aubrey admitted. “Worked for all of us. In fact, I’ll admit I’m dashed glad you manipulated and deceived us all into going to the ball that night. We all got married on the strength of it!”

“Except the twins,” Delilah pointed out, ruffling their heads. “You’re the only two of us left unmarried. Which of you will be the first?”

“Leona,” said Lawrence promptly. He held her surprised gaze, and she realized he already knew her secret, that it wasn’t a secret at all. Neither should it be. And he didn’t mind. He didn’t mind at all. His lips quirked, and she read his happiness for her. Everything really would be fine.

“We are lucky,” Leona said, her voice only slightly husky. “So very lucky…”

“We are,” Julius agreed. “Welcome home, my family.”