“You’re lucky we didn’t,” Lord Noble said, brushing his hair away from his face. “I think I have a black eye.”
Mr. Kingston huffed. “The coachman’s a fighter.”
Lord Helston brandished fists. “Not fighter enough for the coffee cavalry! Oh! No, no, no.I’ve got it. The Merriweather Men. Like the Merry Men. In Sherwood Forest. And Clearford’s Robin Hood. But with knives, of course. And our wives’ surnames used to be Merriweather. Do you see? Quite a clever little pun. Imogen will be impressed.”
Clearford’s brothers-in-law groaned, and the coachman helped Emma’s father drag Parkington toward the coach and heft him inside.
Her father popped his head out just before shutting the door. “Emma, my dear girl, I hope we can put this ugly episode behind us. You have done me proud, marrying a d—”
“Damn you straight to hell.”
Samuel gasped. “Emma,language.”
Her father grunted and slammed the door, and soon the coach rattled south. The road rumbled into silence, and with exquisite slowness, Samuel gathered Emma into his arms, his knife dropping to the dirt and dust. Hers, too. His hands in her hair, up and down her arms and her spine, everywhere he could reach.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded.
She shook her head. “You understood. You came.”
“Of course I did.” He nuzzled her neck. “How else were you going to marry me without that pink handkerchief in your pocket? I had to reunite the two of you.”
She hugged him tight. “I knew I had to get out of the ballroom before my father made a scene. And I knew you would come. As soon as you could.” She tipped her head back to grin up at him. “And I knew you’d bring your knives.”
“So, um… I think we’re done here,” said an American accent. Ben Bailey tilted his face toward the star-strewn sky. “I’ll be returning to Pru now.”
He clapped Samuel on the back and mounted a horse tied to a tree branch nearby. Kingston and Noble did the same, and Mr. Trent and Helston jumped into a curricle. When only one horse remained, Samuel led her to it and helped her mount, then swung up into the saddle behind her. He held her close and kissed her neck.
“Are you truly unharmed?” he asked, nudging the horse into a slow walk.
“Suddenly tired. Terribly relieved. I might cry a bit on the way home. Do you mind?”
“Cry all you need to. I have a handkerchief if you need it.”
She twisted and kissed the tip of his chin. “Will you really pay my father? For my sisters’ freedom?”
He kissed the shell of her ear. “I will.”
She melted into him. She would never have to wander through the world, alone and weary-hearted, ever again.
“I’ll ensure you never regret it,” he said.
“Regret what?”
“Marrying me. The risk you are taking.”
“Oh, Samuel.” She twisted and cupped his face in her hands, rubbed her thumb along his lower lip. “I love you. I cannot regret you.”
He rested his forehead against her, his lips hopping toward a smile. “Because I have made it my life’s purpose toeducateyou?”
“Sweet Samuel. I love you because you have the biggest heart of any man I’ve ever known, because you make me feel indestructible. Because you worry over me and make me laugh. Because of how much you love. A man who loves as much as you do deserves just as much love in return. I have not said it until now, but I love you, and without you, my future is entirely blank.” She grinned, then kissed him. “As for education, I have books for that.”
The kiss happened despite the laughter, because of the laughter, happiness and heady desire, lovely relief, lifting them up and scattering their mirth across the night sky. Perhaps her father heard them through the coach walls and the groans of his travelling companion. Perhaps the Merriweather men heard and quickened their paces along the road to get to their wives’sides. Their beds. For there were others in the world to hear them, censure them, worry them, but held in arms both strong and kind, they only need worry about themselves. Two hearts tangled together, beating as one.
Epilogue
One month later
The coach sat squat and heavy before Clearford House, laden with trunks filled enough to supply the newly married Duke and Duchess of Clearford across the English Channel and through as many countries as they desired to travel. But Samuel passed it by, his wife on his arm, their sisters trailing behind them, as he clipped a path toward Hyde Park.
