From the north to the south.
From the east to the west.
Every mountain, every valley,
Every bush and bird’s nest!”
As he finished, she shook her head. “I don’t . . .”
Broderick rose from that bench, unfurling to his full, towering height, and then fell to a knee. “Regina Marlow, I love you with all I am and all I want to be. Will you marry me?”
A faint click snapped her attention away from him, and the earth swayed.
Broderick caught her about the waist, steadying her.
The trio in that doorway—three men, different with time but familiar in every way—smiled back.
“Papa,” she whispered, pressing a fist to her mouth. Each of them, Cameron and Quint, older but still smiling and dear. So very dear.
“My girl,” he whispered.
With a sob, Reggie sprinted across the room.
Her father caught her against him, folding her close. She clung to him, sobbing against his jacket front. The lemon-drop scent of him the same. “Shh, my Regina,” he said into the top of her head.
“I . . . how . . . ?” She glanced over at Broderick.
“This gentleman came all the way to find me,” her father explained. “He said he couldn’t marry you unless he had my permission and my presence.”
Another broken sob escaped Reggie.
All he’d ever longed for was a link to the peerage, and yet he’d chosen her.
“I love you,” Broderick said hoarsely. “I want to spend my life with you. Your music hall and anything else you desire to do or be, I’ll support.” Her heart melted. “As long as you do those things as my wife and share your life with me.”
She struggled to see him through the sheen of tears glossing her eyes, and she dashed a frantic hand over her eyes.
“Well, poppet?” her father demanded, a twinkle in his now rheumy eyes. “Answer the lad?”
“Yes,” she exclaimed, on a half laugh, half sob. She raced over to Broderick, and he caught her in his arms, swinging her in a wide arc. Reggie captured his face between her hands. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
Broderick claimed her mouth, and she returned that kiss, pouring all the love she’d carried for this man into that embrace.
She looked at her loves: her brothers, her father, then at Broderick. Tears pricked her lashes. Because of her and Broderick’s love, they both had an entire world of people they loved and could depend upon. Neither of them ever need face the world alone again.
Reggie smiled.