And as he bent to kiss her, it was as though they had spoken the words aloud, as if she had actually told him what she wanted. He understood her that well. She didn’t even need to speak for him to understand.
He has always understood me. He knows me better than anyone else in the world, even though we’ve known each other for such a short time.
It was wonderful to realize that someone knew her so well, to know that he saw the person she truly was and loved her for it.
He stepped back just enough to look into her eyes, not releasing his hold on her. “Shall we go in?” he murmured. “I wouldn’t want your aunt to worry and send Duncan out looking for us.”
She smiled. “Perhaps we can stay just a few moments longer.”
“I like the sound of that,” he said with a smile, and he pulled her close and kissed her again.
Epilogue
“Istill can’t believe you chose to have the wedding at Woodsford Manor,” Aunt Alberta said. “You know we would have hosted your wedding ball at Earlington. It’s much larger. You could have had a much bigger and more elaborate party.”
“Yes, I know that,” Valeria said. She was standing with her aunt in the foyer of Woodsford Manor, waiting to greet her wedding guests. Thomas had gone to assist the kitchen with a question, and Aunt Alberta had seized her moment.
“Then why did you choose to have the party here?” Aunt Alberta asked. “I hope you didn’t think you would be inconveniencing me at all. I would have loved to throw your wedding for you.”
“No, of course that isn’t it,” Valeria said. “You’ve been nothing but kind to me, Aunt Alberta, and I know you would have done whatever I required to give me the wedding of my dreams. It’s just that when I chose to marry Thomas, I was choosing everything about him. I was choosing a life here in Woodsford Manor. And I want him to see that. I don’t want to begin things by making him think that this place isn’t enough for me.”
She would never forget the fact that, before their courtship had begun, Thomas had believed that she hadn’t wanted him because he was a Baron. She wanted to be sure that he never had to think such a thing again. She wanted him to know that he was enough, and always would be.
Thomas came back in from the kitchen beaming, wearing the smile that was never far from his face these days. He hurried over to Valeria’s side. She glanced over at her aunt to make sure that Aunt Alberta knew the conversation was closed. There would be no discussion of these matters in front of Thomas. She wouldn’t say or do anything that might make him feel badly today.
“Apologies,” Thomas said. “I never meant to leave your side today, but the kitchen is having some sort of fish emergency.”
“Is everything all right?” Aunt Alberta asked.
“Oh, yes,” Thomas said with a laugh. “My cook mistook the number of portions and he’s been cutting them too large. I’m afraid they might not look as beautiful on the plate as we would have hoped, since he’s being forced to re-cut everything.”
“It will taste just the same,” Valeria said.
Thomas wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “That’s what I told them,” he said, beaming. “This is the happiest day of my life. I don’t care what the fish looks like.”
Over Thomas’s shoulder, Valeria saw Aunt Alberta raise her eyebrows. But she didn’t care. Thomas was exactly right. If she could have dreamed up the perfect marriage as a child, if she could have imagined the ideal husband for herself, she would have chosen someone like Thomas.
It was impossible not to compare him to Richard, who had been the only man in her life for so many years. It was impossible not to see the differences every time she looked at him.
Richard had been obsessed with image. All he had cared about was how people saw him. Valeria knew that if he had been hosting a party, he would have chosen the nicest available Manor to have it in. He would never have understood her choice of Woodsford over Earlington.
And he would never have been able to laugh about the debacle with the fish, the way she and Thomas could. To the two of them, Valeria knew, this would always be just a funny story. Something strange that had happened at their wedding, something that had alarmed Aunt Alberta, maybe, but that they hadn’t cared about because they had been so happy to be together.
Nothing could take away Valeria’s happiness. Not today.
Guests were making their way up the steps and through the open front door of the Manor now. Valeria stood beside Thomas and welcomed them as they arrived, smiling at each person she was introduced to. She was meeting many of them for the first time. She’d still been living here for such a short amount of time that she hadn’t fully gotten to know the people who lived nearby.
Thomas leaned over to her between greetings. “How are you holding up?” he asked.
“Very well,” she said, smiling at him.
“Because if you need a break, you know we can step out into the garden,” he said. “I know that being around a lot of people can sometimes cause you anxiety.”
Valeria smiled. She loved that he knew that about her. She wasn’t feeling any anxiety today, though. She was happy to be here with him.
“It doesn’t matter now,” she said. “It doesn’t matter what people might be thinking about me. All that matters is that I’m with you.”
“No one who was invited tonight thinks badly of you,” Thomas said. “Or of me, for that matter.”
