“Of course. You must realize by now that I love you, Prudence. You must not have any doubt left about that.”
“But… but what’s changed?” she asked him. “If you were so worried about how it would affect you to feel something for me, what made you decide to come back and give things a chance after all?”
“Because it’s too late,” he whispered. “What I feel for you is already beyond my ability to control. I can’t take it back now. I love you, Prudence. I’ve loved you for a long time, and going away to the country can’t change that. I gave you the chance to leave me because I believed you would do it. But if you won’t, I certainly don’t have the strength to leave you.”
He pulled her ever so slightly closer, and Prudence’s breath caught as she looked up into his eyes.
“I won’t,” she said softly. “I’m not leaving this marriage unless you’re forcing my hand, Leonard. Because I love you too. I never wanted you to go at all, and now that your back, I’ll do whatever it takes to get you to stay.”
“You don’t have to do a thing,” he replied. “I’m sorry I couldn’t admit to my feelings the moment I walked in the door. I always have a guard up around myself, and it has sabotaged us at every turn. I know that now. And I promise you, I’ll do everything I can to change that because you deserve so much better. I’m going to give you everything you deserve from now on, Prudence. I promise you that.”
She pressed a finger to his lips, amazed at her own daring. “Shh,” she said. “No more talking. Kiss me.”
And to her tremendous joy, he did exactly that.
EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
“The fact that this day has come at all is a shock to me,” Gabriel said, taking a seat opposite Leonard. “I never would have thought I would live to see Peter married.”
“I never would have thought that Lady Rosamund would accept him,” Leonard said, watching his brother lead his new bride out onto the floor to open up the dancing. “Prudence and I were hopeful we would be able to help her see his merits, of course, but in the end, I’m not so sure we did very much at all. We visited with her a few times, together with Peter, but I never saw the moment her mind changed.”
“Yes, she was quite opposed to him for a while,” Prudence agreed with a smile. “I don’t suppose I everreallydoubted, though. In the face of ardor like Peter’s, I suspect most women would eventually succumb. He really does love her, you know.”
“Well, that’s another thing I never thought I would live to see!” Gabriel said. “Truly, Your Grace, you cannot fathom how odd it is for those of us who have known Lord Hall for years to see him suddenly soenamored.He really was the most incorrigible rake you’d ever want to meet. And now, suddenly, he’s practically a family man!”
“I look forward to seeing what awaits him,” Prudence said.
“As do I! Will they be living in the city?”
“No,” Leonard said. “I’ve given Peter and Rosamund the country house, and they’ll be setting up their own home there.”
“You mean to tell me that Peter Hall is moving to the country?” Gabriel asked.
“I know it seems shocking. I could hardly believe it myself when he accepted the offer,” Leonard agreed. “I was sure he was going to tell me that he simply had to stay in the city. I would have thought everything that mattered to him in this world was here in London.”
“But of course, that isn’t true now,” Prudence spoke up. “What would he need to stay here for? So that he can go drinking at pubs? He doesn’t need to do that, and I’m sure it will have lost a great deal of the interest it once held now that he has Rosamund to think about instead. There will be nights when he may wish to go off to a pub, but he’ll be just as happy to stay at home with her. Indeed, I’d think that will make him much happier than exploits in town ever could.”
Leonard looked at her meaningfully. “I suppose you would be the expert when it comes to that,” he observed.
She blushed, but her eyes twinkled merrily as she understood what he was implying.
It had been just a week ago that Leonard had surprised her with a fresh set of peasant clothes. “We’ll do it together,” he’d told her firmly. “It’s not safe for you to go out on your own. If any of those men discovered you were among them, I shudder to think what might happen. But I know this is a part of your life that’s important to you, and I want you to have it.”
She’d flung her arms around him, and they had gone to a pub that very night. Leonard had hung back and allowed her to make her own way through the crowd, to go to the bar and buy a drink the way she had done in the days before she’d been married, when she had come here on her own. And though Prudence had known full well that his eyes wouldn’t leave her for a moment, she had also been confident that he wouldn’t interfere. Not unless she was being threatened.
Finally, he had learned to trust her. To feel comfortable with her insisting on her freedom.
And the most shocking part of all had been the realization that Prudence really didn’t need this anymore. Leonard had learned to trust her, yes—but she had also learned to feel at home and empowered in her role as duchess.
So Leonard was right. Shewasthe expert when it came to understanding that the pleasures of home—and of love—could be even more satisfying than adventures in town. Though she was deeply grateful to have both in her life.
Gabriel, of course, understood none of it and didn’t even realize that a secret communication had taken place. “What a transition,” he said. “You would hardly recognize Peter.”
“Indeed,” Leonard agreed. “My brother has come a long way from the man he once was, and I credit Lady Rosamund with much of the change I’ve seen in his character—though, of course, Prudence here must take her share of the credit as well.”
“Me?” Prudence raised her eyebrows. “I can’t see what I had to do with it.”
