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Olivia listened to their voices and felt an ache of gratitude she could scarcely describe.

Tomorrow she would stand beside James and promise him her life, but tonight she belonged only to her sisters.

Epilogue

Olivia stood at the entrance to the church, and for one extraordinary moment she could not bring herself to take another step. The London church was filled with flowers, sunlight streamed through the tall windows, and before her waited James, dressed in dark formal evening clothes, his broad shoulders straight and his blue eyes fixed upon her.

She could see her sisters seated together with their husbands and children, and the sight nearly overwhelmed her.

Marina sat beside Evan, the Duke and Duchess of Pemberton, with eleven-year-old Lilly sitting properly beside them while five-year-old Ruben fidgeted and two-year-old Suzanne was held securely upon her mother's lap.

Bethany sat beside Robert, the Duke and Duchess of Mansfield, with little Alexa beside her and Nadia seated just behind them, while Amelia and Gabriel, the Duke and Duchess of Anderton, sat with Valerie and young David, with their four-year-old son George nestled between them.

Olivia's heart gave a painful little squeeze when she realized that everyone who mattered to her was there, except the parents who had so often made her feel unwanted and Aunt Jane, whose absence did not trouble her nearly as much as she had once thought it might.

"You look frightened," Louiza said with an amused smile as she fussed with the folds of Olivia's dress.

Olivia breathed a nervous laugh and tightened her fingers around her bouquet.

"I am not frightened," she whispered, although her trembling hand betrayed her immediately. "I am merely trying to comprehend how I arrived here."

Louiza smiled and said, "Then I should advise you not to comprehend it until after the ceremony."

Olivia laughed.

"Ready?" Louiza asked.

"Yes," Olivia said.

Louiza gave her one last embrace and then took her seat among her sisters. The music began and Olivia marched down the aisle.

As she walked toward James, every uncertainty seemed to fall away. This was not the hurried ceremony at Gretna Green, performed because circumstances had left them desperate for a solution. This was the wedding she had dreamed of, the one where she could look into James's eyes before the people she loved and choose him without shame, secrecy, or pretense.

James watched her approach with an expression that made Olivia's heart stumble. He had never looked at her quite like that before, and she knew at once that he was thinking the same thing she was.

When Olivia reached his side, James offered his hand, and she placed hers within it. "You are beautiful," he murmured, leaning slightly toward her.

Olivia smiled through the sudden tears gathering in her eyes. "You had better say that again after I have been married to you for twenty years."

His mouth curved. "I fully intend to, every day."

The vicar stepped forward, and the church gradually became silent as everyone settled into their places. Olivia glanced briefly toward her sisters and saw Marina smiling through tears, Bethany already wiping at her eyes, and Amelia holding George's hand while Gabriel watched with quiet amusement. Louiza nodded reassuringly.

The sight of them gave Olivia strength. The vicar began the service, his voice calm and solemn, "I welcome those gathered to witness the marriage of James Delves, Duke of Glenmore, and Olivia Shirley Delves. Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the presence of this congregation, to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony."

Olivia listened as the familiar words continued, but her thoughts drifted briefly to the girl she had once been, the daughter who had been told she was troublesome, reckless, and unworthy of tenderness. That girl would never have believed that one day she would stand in a church surrounded by sisters who loved her, with a husband who had told her she was one of the best things that had ever happened to him.

She glanced at James, and he squeezed her fingers reassuringly.

"Olivia Shirley Delves," the vicar said, turning toward her, "wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband, to live together after God's ordinance in the holy estate of matrimony? Wilt thou love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all other, keep thee only unto him, so long as ye both shall live?"

Olivia swallowed against the emotion rising in her throat. "I will," she said clearly, and James's thumb moved gently over her knuckles.

The vicar then turned toward James and repeated the question, and James answered without hesitation.

"I will."

Olivia's heart filled with such happiness that she feared it might burst. The vicar instructed them to repeat their vows, and James turned fully toward her.