“You are not selfish,” Lavinia said, voice hushed. “You have never been selfish.”
“I have been foolish, though.”
She gave a short laugh, coming closer towards him. On impulse, he reached out his hand, and she put hers in it.
“I won’t argue with you about that,” she said, smiling. “And the answer, by the way, is yes.”
His smile widened. “You will marry me? Penniless as I am?”
She gave a dramatic sigh and grinned up at him. “Somebody must, I suppose. And, unfortunately, I love you too, William Willenshire.”
The carriage door opened again, and Lord Brennon came tumbling out.
“What on earth is…” he paused, seeing William standing there, hand in hand with Lavinia. His eyes bulged.
“Oh,” he managed. “Oh.”
Epilogue
One Month Later
William stared down at the neat little envelope, his name written briskly across it in his father’s handwriting.
All of his siblings had gotten a similar letter on their wedding days. He’d invited them all into his room, all of them in their wedding finery. There was a taut sort of silence hanging in the room.
“My letter was strangely comforting,” Katherine said at last, breaking the silence. “He said that he always hoped I would marry Timothy. That shocked me, a little. That he could know me that well?”
Alexander huffed. “Well, he toldmeI was his greatest disappointment.”
“I don’t know what I’d rather hear,” William muttered. “I don’t know if I want to read it.”
“Would you like me to read it for you?” Henry offered. “I could read it in my head, and aloud, if I think you’d like to hear it.”
William bit his lip. “That’s kind, Henry, but no. What I mean is… well, I don’t know if I want to read it at all.”
There was a silence after that. His siblings exchanged looks.
“You aren’t him, Will,” Katherine murmured, reaching across to put a hand on his shoulder. “Whatever you choose, we will support you.”
He smiled weakly at his siblings. “I’m grateful to have you three, you know. I don’t think I particularly understood just how grateful. I… I know I haven’t always been the finest older brother, or the best Duke of Dunleigh, but…”
“Well, you certainly weren’t the worst,” Alexander put in, making the others laugh. William chuckled, shaking his head. He glanced down at the envelope again, and the smile faded from his face.
Picking up the envelope, he crossed the room to where a fire blazed in the hearth. He glanced over his shoulder at his siblings.
“Aren’t any of you going to stop me?”
“It’s your letter,” Henry said firmly. “Your letter, your wedding day. You can do what you like, and we’ll support you. We will.”
He nodded, turning back to the flames. Letting the envelope dangle over the fire, he held his breath.
He let go.
The envelope landed in the edge of the grate, one corner beginning to smoulder and blacken, a single tongue of fire beginning to eat up the white paper.
William muffled a curse, darting down to snatch the letter out of the fire. It smoked, and he gave it a little shake, putting out any residual embers. When he dropped it back on the desk, only one corner had burned up. The contents, he guessed, would only be lightly blackened.
“Well,” he said heavily. “That didn’t work.”
