Page 145 of Regency Whispers: Scandalous Matches

‘I have a question for you, one I hope you will say yes to.’

She frowned, puzzled.

Carefully he took something out of his jacket pocket and held it up so the light glinted off it. ‘Alice, will you do me the honour of continuing to be my wife?’

‘Is that my ring?’

‘Yes.’

‘How did you get it back?’

‘The scoundrel who stabbed you was caught and brought before the magistrate a few days later. It seems he was wanted for a whole string of crimes. I talked to the magistrate, and they allowed me to search his possessions. He still had the ring on him when he was arrested.’ He held it out. ‘I will understand if you wish to have a different ring. We can choose one that does not have such memories associated with it.’

‘No,’ Alice said quickly. ‘That is my wedding ring. That is the ring you placed on my finger when we married.’

Simon smiled and carefully slipped it onto the ring finger of her left hand.

‘My beautiful wife,’ he murmured and then leaned in and kissed her.

The wind whipped Alice’s hair about her face, and the sand coated her skin, but Alice barely noticed. She was lost in the kiss of the man she loved, the man she had fallen for that very first night she had met him on a magical Midsummer’s Eve.

Epilogue

Northumberland, Midsummer’s Eve, 1818

Alice adjusted her mask, ensuring the ribbons were tied securely behind her head, and then she stepped out into the middle of the ballroom. The guests had been arriving for the last half an hour, and now Westcroft Hall was filled with chatter and laughter and music. Most people were wearing masks, delicate demimasks that barely concealed their identities, but it added to the sense of excitement.

‘Good evening,’ came a low voice from behind her, and Alice spun, a shiver running down her spine. Simon was standing there, dressed in a black jacket and gold cravat, easily the most handsome man in the room. ‘May I have this dance?’

Alice inclined her head, and they walked to the dance floor to share the first dance of the evening.

Everyone was watching, but for Alice it felt as though they were the only two there, twirling around the ballroom as they did when they were the only two people in residence. For the duration of the dance she gazed into Simon’s eyes, and even as the music swelled and then died away, she found it hard to tear herself away.

‘You’re going to tell me I cannot have the next dance with you now, aren’t you?’ Simon said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Alice leaned in closer. ‘If it were up to me, I would dance every single one with you, but we must fulfil our duties as host and hostess.’

‘Can I tell you a secret?’ Simon said, leaning in so his lips brushed against her ear.

Alice nodded.

‘I would be willing to be labelled the worst host in the history of society balls if it meant I got to spend my evening only with you.’

‘That is hardly a secret,’ Alice said. She had the urge to kiss him and found her body swaying towards him.

‘Everyone is watching,’ Maria said as she glided over gracefully. ‘If you ravish your wife here in the middle of the dance floor, you will never be able to show your faces in society again.’

‘I would never,’ Simon said, his eyes still locked on Alice’s. ‘A mere kiss, however...’

Alice felt helpless to resist and even began rising up on tiptoes until Maria gripped her arm.

‘I am borrowing your wife, Simon. I’ll give her back to you once you are no longer the centre of attention.’

Maria slipped her arm through Alice’s and led her from the dance floor.

‘This is marvellous, Alice. The most incredible ball I have ever been to.’ Alice flushed with pleasure. It had been Simon’s idea to host a ball on Midsummer’s Eve, two years from the date they had first met, but Alice had been the one to remember all the details that had made the last ball so special and then to add in many more of her own.

The ballroom was beautifully decorated with fresh flowers spilling out of vases on tables and plinths around the room. Candles twinkled in the chandelier above their heads and in the sconces around the walls. It made the whole room look like a magical faerie glade, and their guests had embraced this theme with the women wearing floaty, flowery dresses and even some of the men tucking a rosebud or similar boutonnière.