“No, thank you,” she said.
Her father tilted his head, as if he had misheard. “What do you mean?”
Then she turned back to Lucien. “I quit. Give the seat to someone else.”
Her father stood there gaping at them. “I… I don’t understand.”
Alex managed to tear herself away from Lucien and took her father’s hands in her own. “I want to thank you for everything you have ever done for me. But it’s time for me to move on and do something else.”
He looked so pitiful in that moment that Alex felt her heart wrench. “Are… are you sure?”
At another time Alex might have been swayed to take back her words, to do whatever it took to make her father happy. But not now. Not any longer. He was a grown man and perfectly capable of running this business without her.
Alex nodded and glanced at Lucien. “Quite a bit more than that.” Then an idea struck her. “What about Potts? No one else knows my job as well as he does, nor the way I think. He would be an excellent replacement.”
“I’ll consider it,” her father said reluctantly, but Alex knew that was just for show.
She pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you, Papa.” Then she looped her arm around Lucien. “There’s one more thing. We need your blessing.”
He looked between the two of them. “You do? You mean… it’srealthis time?”
Lucien squeezed her arm and smiled at her. “Yes, sir. Entirely real.”
Alex grinned back at him. “And for the rest of our lives.”
Her father clapped his hands and let out a happy shout. “Oh, but this is wonderful news! Though your Aunt Winifred will be cross that she didn’t have a hand in it.”
“She will recover,” Alex said.
“And your mother will want a double wedding.”
“Absolutely not.” Then she gentled and turned to Lucien. “Unless that is what you want.”
He chuckled. “Heavens no. Something small.”
“And private,” she added.
“Why not the church in Bunbury?” her father suggested. “So that Mr. Taylor might easily attend?”
They both looked at him and then each other, and in that moment it was decided. A small, private ceremony at the church in Bunbury.
“That sounds perfect,” Alex said. And for the first time in her life, she was genuinely excited at the prospect of attending a wedding. How very convenient that it was her own.
Epilogue
December 1896
Park House
London, England
The ballroom of Park House was nearly bursting with guests for Phoebe and Will’s wedding breakfast which, given it was now well after dark, had spilled over into more of a wedding supper. Alex stood with Lucien by the edge of the dance floor, taking in the happy couple as they waltzed for what must have been the sixth time that evening.
“Do you wish our wedding had been like this?” Lucien murmured by Alex’s ear.
“Of course not,” she replied, instantly repelled by the idea, then met his gaze. Lucien had been her husband for almost two months now, yet she still hadn’t grown used to the feeling. She woke up most mornings worried it had all been a dream until she saw him sleeping soundly beside her. No, this was real. This was her life. “Our wedding was perfect forus.”
He gave her a slow smile and drew her even closer to his side. “I agree.”
