Olympia watched her son leave, the two cats following him although Lure kept looking back as if he worried that she would stay and he would have no one to curl up with on the bed. Of course, if Brant was here for the reasons she prayed he was, Lure was going to find it a little too crowded in the bed from now on. She doubted Brant would want to share her with a cat.
The moment he stepped into the garden her heart began to race. Olympia told herself not to be silly, but that did not help. She needed him, needed him to belong wholly to her. As she watched him walk toward her, the hope that he was hers and only hers grew. There was a difference in his step, an ease that had not been there before.
Before she could even say hello, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her. Olympia sank into his embrace, as hungry for him as he was for her. When he broke off the kiss, he did not release her and she stared up into those beautiful eyes of his, eyes made all the more beautiful by the absence of shadows.
“You did it,” she whispered, pleased for him and worried about what it meant for her, for the future she prayed he was going to offer her again.
“I did.” He took her by the hand and led her to a bench, slipping his arm around her shoulders when they sat down. “I admit, I thought you were all talking nonsense. It made no sense to me. Clean my heart. What the devil did that mean, I kept asking. But then Orion gave me a little advice. I did what he suggested and it worked.”
“What did he suggest?”
“Relive it all. Look at it all and see that my guilt is misplaced. Toss away all the what-ifs for they are useless. It hurt like hell, to be blunt. But it worked. And then, I went to say a true and final farewell to Faith.” He smiled when she took his hand in hers and kissed the back of it.
“I understand that you loved her. I can accept that. Do not think you must never speak her name or the like.”
“I know. I did love her and I think we would have had a very good life together, but I did not love her as I do you. She was in my heart and will always hold a little corner of it for she was my first taste of love, but you are in my heart and soul. You are my perfect match. I would have been a good husband to Faith but I realized that life would not have been all it should have been if I had married her for she was so sweet, so ready to do whatever I said or wanted.” He started to smile as Olympia began to frown at him, and then kissed the tip of her nose. “You will make me live, Olympia. You will not allow me to settle. Life will be full and fun and vigorous with you. That is what I want. I want that life as much as I want to take my next breath. So, Lady Olympia Wherlocke, Baroness of Myrtledowns, will you marry me now?”
“Oh, yes.”
Instead of the kiss she expected, Olympia found her finger weighted down with a beautiful sapphire ring and Brant towing her back into the house. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you to be married. You said you would marry me without hesitation and I mean to hold you to that. I also mean to make love to you until you cannot remember your own name and I will not do that here, in your son’s house, unless we are married.”
She was given barely enough time to fetch a pretty bonnet before he had her, her son, Agatha, Aunt Antigone, and Enid in the carriage with Pawl sitting up beside the driver. As they pulled out she glanced out the window to see her cousin Tessa and her whole family in their carriage waiting to pull in behind them. She looked at Brant.
“You were very confident.”
“Hopeful,” he said. “Very hopeful.”
The vicar was waiting for them and Olympia realized that she did not care if she had a fancy wedding. She was surrounded by people who cared about her, standing beside the man she loved more than life, and about to start on that future she had been dreaming about. It was, she decided, the perfect wedding. All she missed, but only briefly, was her brother to give her away. She just hoped Argus would not be too angry about missing that chance.
It was barely dark out when Brant pulled her free of her celebrating family and took her up to her bedchamber. She had been unable to fully hide her blushes for she knew they were all aware of what she was about to do and her confidence had wavered for just a moment. Reminding herself that she was now a legally married woman and Brant was her husband eased that surge of embarrassment.
“I have missed you,” he whispered as he began to undo her gown. “We did not share a bed often, and I always had to creep away before anyone could catch us together, yet I found my bed very empty at night.”
“As did I,” she admitted as she helped him out of his coat and began to undo his waistcoat. “I also missed you in the morning, missed seeing you across the table.”
“It pleases me that I was not alone in that.”
And then talk ceased as they both worked as quickly as possible to shed their clothes. Olympia knew the need she had to be flesh to flesh with him was shared. The moment the last of their clothing hit the floor he picked her up and placed her in bed. They both trembled faintly when their bodies finally touched, warm skin against warm skin.