The Heart That Wins (Regency Spies Book 3) (23 page)

“You might be sent after Bonaparte?”

“I don’t know. I shall sell my commission as soon as I can and then we can go home. My father has always said I would have the house in Sussex when I married. We will go there.”

“I have always liked that house. It’s a good place to bring up children”

“I know you liked it. That’s why I asked him for it many years ago. He’ll be glad that you are going to take up residence there. He called me several kinds of fool for losing you.”

“That’s over,” she said, finally joining him on the bed. She held his hand. “It will be well,” she said. “We’ll make it well together.”

“Oh, my love.”

He kissed her and Sophia wondered how they would keep his promise of discretion. The nights for the next two weeks until they could be married would not be enough.

“Picnics alone,” John murmured into her ear. “Boat trips. Your sitting-room, my sitting-room.”

His lips moved over to her neck and it was the work of a moment to remove her nightgown and then his. He smiled at her as he snuffed out the candle and then settled into the bed.

“You don’t smile enough,” she said.

“You can’t see my face.”

“I don’t need to.”

He raised his head from her breast and she regretted her words.

“Is that a condition of your love?”

“No.”

“Would you have me parade my feelings before the world?”

Sophia laughed.

“You would not be you if you did that.”

“Then you want more smiles for yourself.”

“I ask only to know that you are happy.”

“Oh, my Sophia, I doubt there is a man happier than me alive this night.”

His hand cupped her cheek and his lips touched hers. Gently he brushed away her tears.

“I’m happy, too,” she sobbed as he hugged her to his chest. She felt him laugh rather than heard it.

John lowered them both onto the mattress until she was crying with her head on his chest.

“I think I may promise to smile at you once a day.”

Sophia kissed his chest and dragged her fingers down his belly.

“If you do that, I might make it twice a day.”

His voice had that raw edge she had noticed before.

“I think it’s time you gave me a reason to smile,” she said.

So he did.

Brussels 10
th
July 1815

My dear Meldon,

You will find this letter unusually long for your worst correspondent. You will know by now that John has survived the last encounters with the French unscathed and that he became engaged to Miss Arbuthnot. He and Sophia were married today. I thought it best to have them married as soon as possible, as Mary and I leave soon to travel to Provence. We believe her cousin Alphonse is living there. John will shortly be released from the army and he and Sophia will return to England. I believe your brother-in-law has given them a house in Sussex, which will be good for them. It seems Arthur has known longer than the rest of us how this must end. I now have to change my estimation of him again and find him increasingly a husband worthy of your sister.

For the sake of the love I have for you and your sister I have interfered in John’s life more than I should and I trust that he will forgive me for that. He is a fine, if impulsive, young man, who might one day become great, but that I leave to the intelligence of his wife.

I have a confession to make and this time it is your forgiveness I must beg. I am the man for the love of whom Sophia turned down John, for it is, of course, her he has always loved, as his father saw before John knew it himself. She conceived a love for me I could not return, being bound up in my own stupidity with the Frenchwoman. I kept that from you, because I was not ready to find out which of us is the better with a sword. I think we both know I would never have fought a duel with you using pistols, although I’m ever hopeful that your aim will improve.

Sophia is a fine young woman and I hope that you do not hold her mother’s behaviour against her. I know Lady Caroline does not. Sophia’s knowledge is broad and, where she chooses to exert herself, exact. I have told her that, if she wishes to impress you, she must learn about sheep. She is a little frightened of you, so I’m sure that, when they visit Meldon Hall, she will be able to converse as easily and knowledgably with you and Lady Anna about your flocks, as she does with me about glass. She and John will be happy together. They have been friends long enough to know one another well and their love has not made them blind to one another’s faults. John will want your help in a venture. I have promised finance, but your name will be as valuable. It is a cause you and Lady Anna can support with as much energy as you can spare from your sheep and your children.

I have news for Lady Anna. Please tell her that it is finally over. I shall have more to tell you when we return to England, which I think will be in September. My father has expressed a desire to have less of the burden of running the business, so I shall go to Birmingham before one of my brothers thinks to make Father’s burden lighter by running the business himself. They all worry too much about who will take it over, so it’s probably time to tell them that I’ve been running it for some years.

I am sorry to have to report that I have denied you your opportunity to kill the real murderer of Lady Anna’s brother. I found I had a prior claim to that right and I have exercised it. Again, I will provide you with any detail that you wish to have when we meet. You will understand from this that I intend to spend some time with you and Lady Anna before we go north, either at Meldon Hall or in London.

Mary, Freddie and Philippe ask to be remembered to you. You will meet Elizabeth soon enough, but be warned, she will steal your heart away, as she has stolen mine.

I will admit to you and you alone that I did not think it possible that I could know happiness again after Emily died, but I do and such happiness. I am blessed in my wife and my children and also in my friends. I have never thanked you for staying with me during the two darkest nights of my life, but I think you must know the result had you not. Thank you.

I find myself in the unusual position of having to cross the paper. Freddie has just asked me to remind you that you promised him a certain book before he goes to school. He can’t remember which one and neither of you mentioned it to me. I think he will go to school next year, as I can put it off no longer. I once promised Mary that she could stay with us until Freddie went to school. I’m glad I was wrong. My hope is that he finds there a friend as true to him as you have been to me, although I hope it will not be necessary for that friend to save his life as often as you have saved mine.

I remain, as always, your friend,

Edmund Finch

THE END

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