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Louiza appeared behind them with two glasses in her hands and raised an eyebrow.

"How touching," she said. "Although I must warn you, James, that you have made a grave mistake."

James turned toward her. "Have I?"

Louiza nodded solemnly. "You married Olivia, which means you are now stuck with a twin sister for the rest of your life."

James glanced at Olivia, then back at Louiza. "I had gathered as much."

Louiza smiled sweetly. "Good. Because I intend to visit frequently."

"You are welcome whenever you please," James replied. "Though I suspect you and Olivia together may prove more troublesome than any enemy I have faced. I shall have to hide the vases."

Olivia laughed, and Louiza placed a hand dramatically against her heart. "Did you hear that? He has already discovered the danger of being married to one Shirley sister."

James slipped an arm around Olivia's waist. "I will take that danger any day. We are family," he said, looking at Olivia with such affection that her teasing smile disappeared. She suddenly thought about their family. Felix.

Felix. My dear little boy.

"We must leave tomorrow," she announced.

James looked at her with amusement. "Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" Louiza asked with surprise.

"Yes," Olivia insisted. "I miss him dreadfully." Her voice softened as she thought of Felix's tiny face and the way his fingers curled around hers. "I want to see our little one."

James's expression immediately gentled. "Then tomorrow we shall go home."

Olivia smiled, resting her head briefly against his shoulder. "Thank you."

He kissed her temple and drew her closer. "There is nowhere I would rather be."

Olivia realized that the word home no longer meant a particular house or estate to her. It meant James. It meant Felix. It meant the little family they had created when neither of them had expected to find one.

"I shall miss you sister, but I know how much Felix is loved. I came to love him too. You must return to him immediately," Louiza said as she embraced Olivia.

The long journey to Northumberland seemed to Olivia as though it would never end, and by the time the familiar hills and winding roads of Glenmore appeared beyond the carriage windows, she could scarcely remain seated.

She leaned forward, her hands clasped tightly in her lap, watching every familiar stretch of countryside rush toward them. Felix was so close now that she could almost feel his tiny arms around her, and the thought made her chest ache with longing.

"We are going straight to the cottage," she declared, turning toward James with such determination that he could only smile. "Not the house, not dinner, not even to change our clothes. I want Felix."

James reached across the carriage and squeezed her hand. "Then straight to the cottage it is, Your Grace."

The moment the carriage stopped, Olivia was out before the footman could properly open the door. She gathered her skirts and hurried along the path, scarcely noticing the chill in the air or James calling after her to slow down.

The cottage door opened, and she ran inside to find Mrs. Harris standing near the nursery, while Felix was awake in his little cradle.

The instant he saw Olivia, his face brightened, and he began to squirm with cheerful excitement, waving his little arms as though he had been waiting for her all day.

"My darling boy!" Olivia cried, lifting him into her arms, and she spun around with him until his delighted noises filled the room.

Felix clung tightly to her, his tiny fingers gripping the fabric of her gown, and Olivia pressed kiss after kiss upon his soft hair.

"Mummy has come back to you," she whispered, her voice trembling with happiness. "Oh, my precious little Felix, did you miss me? I missed you every moment. I thought about you every mile of the journey, and I shall never leave you for so long again."

Her heart nearly broke with tenderness as she held him against her breast. She had spent the past days imagining him here without her, wondering whether he had cried for her, whether he had looked toward the door expecting them to return.