He smiled, resting his brow against hers. “For everything. For freeing me. For loving me.”
“The feeling is entirely mutual,” she said softly, tilting her head up to catch his lips with hers. “And I do,” she added. “Love you, I mean.”
He smiled against her lips. “As I love you.”
As they sank into a deep, slow kiss that burned more fiercely than the swollen sun overhead, Olivia held onto him as tightly as she dared, grateful that they had found their way back to one another. Indeed, after their difficult beginnings, in which neither had wanted love or marriage and both had shields up around their hearts, it was nothing short of a miracle that they were there at that moment, kissing one another, having fallen hopelessly, wonderfully in love.
But happiness, like daisies, could spring up in the most unexpected places, and in the nourishing soil of their affection and the sunlight of their joy, she prayed that they would always bloom together.
EPILOGUE
Three Months Later…
“Inow pronounce you man and wife,” said the reverend, waving a reverential hand across the couple who stared up at him with smiles upon their faces and the future in their eyes. The happy pair held hands and squeezed a signal of excitement to one another as the vows were bound and sealed before the eyes of God.
Behind Evan and Olivia, the congregation erupted into applause, led raucously by the four ladies who had pride of place in the second row. Caroline and Amelia joined the merriment, whooping and clapping as if their lives depended on it. Even Olivia’s mother decided to be a little wild for once, beating her palms together with a resounding percussion that matched the thunderous thud of Olivia’s heart. Indeed, only the gentlemen seemed determined to be sedate in their congratulations, though Olivia noted a few amused smiles among them.
“Shall we, my sweet Marchioness?” Evan whispered, bringing her hand to his lips, kissing it gently.
Olivia grinned. “I would not be much of a Marchioness if I did notmarchwith you toward our joyful future, now, would I?”
“That was terrible,” he groaned.
“I never vowed that my jests would be good, but you did vow to love me through everything life may hurl at us. As such, you must always laugh, even if my jokes are atrocious,” she told him, her heart so full she thought it might burst.
He chuckled. “It shall be my pleasure, though there might be a roll of the eyes first. Please, my love, never take offence to such a thing.”
“I swear it.” She squeezed his hand, and, with that, they made their way back up the aisle together, smiling and waving at their dearest friends and family. Indeed, there was almost a relief to the moment, for the pair had waited so long for the day to come when they could finally be wed, after ensuring the banns and all of the associated formalities were done properly.
But there was one face that was notably absent from the congregation and would likely remain absent from society, for the rest of his days. Evan’s father.
In the aftermath of Evan’s meeting with Martin, the scandal sheets had gone ahead and printed the story of Martin’s evil deeds. It had been the story of the season, if not the decade, shining a light upon something that society had not previously dared to speak of. But after Evan’s bravery, more letters and notes had flooded into the scandal sheets, most of them anonymous but not all, detailing their own suffering at the hands of unkind parents. It had even reached the real newspapers, in the end, sparking a necessary discussion.
Olivia doubted that anything would truly change when it came to how some people would raise their children, but she could not have been prouder of her beloved for telling his story, even if it possessed a few white lies. Still, those untruths had smoothed any ruffled feathers regarding her renewed engagement to Evan, leaving her reputation as a courageous young woman intact. And, thus far, Martin had accepted his punishment, retreating further into his solitude; he had not even sent a letter about the wedding, though there was no possible way he did not know about it.
“Can you fathom it?” Olivia gasped, tilting her face up to the bright sunlight. The seasons were changing, and the air had a nip to it, but the sun had come out in force, just for them.
Evan turned to her. “Fathom what, my love?”
“That we are married, and we have not killed one another yet, though we have had ourselves a full courtship?”
He laughed. “I have thought of nothing else for three months, my love. Yes, I can fathom it and, what is more, I am so overjoyed I could leap a fence or snare a boar with my bare hands.”
“Please, do not,” she teased. “Let us leave the poor boars alone.”
He nodded. “Quite right.” Closing the gap between them, aware that the congregation would soon be emerging, he stole a sweet kiss from her lips. “There is only one thing I wish to hold with my bare hands.”
“And if you do so here, you shall be set upon by everyone for causing yet another scandal,” she said, grinning as she stole a kiss from him in return.
And not a moment too soon, for the crowd within the church was beginning to trickle out into the beautiful morning.
* * *
“Well, I never thought I would see this day, when one of our number became someone’s wife,” Matilda said, hiccupping into her cup of punch, “and I certainly never thought it would make me misty-eyed. Goodness, you are a handsome pair. It is quite… In truth, I do not know whether to be charmed or offended.”
Olivia chuckled. “I suggest “charmed,” orImight take offense.”
“Charmed it is!” Matilda cried, raising her cup and spilling half. It was Amelia’s fault, really, for she had given her servants strict instructions to keep everyone’s cup full at all times. And, in her desire to not be rude, Matilda had been drinking every drop.
