Page 78 of A Counterfeit Courtesan

He shook his head. “It was never a game,” he said softly.

“Thendo you love me?” she repeated.

His breath exited his lips in a long, unsteady sigh. “Yes,” he admitted. “I love you. I love you with my whole heart. I love you in all your forms and expressions. I love you with all that I am. All that I wish to be. I love you for now and forever.”

She couldn’t help the wide smile that broke across her face, the first time she’d truly felt happy since the moment Ellis had slipped from Harcourt’s window all those days ago. She also couldn’t help the tears that fell down her cheeks. Because this man she adored was hers.

“Then you can’t say no to me,” she declared. “I won’t allow it.”

“Perish the thought that anyone could say no to you,” he said with a laugh. “Marry me…even though I cannot promise to be perfect.”

“You only have to promise you’ll be mine,” she said, and leaned in to claim his lips and the future they would share from this day until the end of their days.

Epilogue

Five years later

The children squealed as the cold seawater rolled up on the sand. They scattered up the beach toward their fathers, who were gathered together no more than an arm’s length away from their beloved charges.

Juliana sat on the blanket farther down the shore, her sisters on either side of her, and she smiled at the picture the three men, three best friends, created. It had taken a long time to get there, but they were close now.

Rook stood on the far left, balancing Thomasina’s youngest on his shoulder while her father, Harcourt, herded the other children nearer: his and Thomasina’s oldest, a boy named Solomon, and their middle child, a little girl named Angelica. They were joined by Juliana’s daughter, Violet, who rushed to her father at full speed.

Ellis was slow to kneel and leaned heavily on his cane as he did so. He had never fully recovered from the bullet that had nearly destroyed their lives, but he was whole and here and hers.

That was all that had ever mattered.

So much had changed since the events of the summer that had changed all their lives. Harcourt had carefully invested Thomasina’s dowry, building their fortune back through hard work and careful consideration. Their father, of course, had refused to pay additional dowries for Anne and Juliana. Their confrontation at Ellis’s bedside all those years ago had been the last time they’d seen him.

But it didn’t matter. That gem, the one that had nearly torn them all apart, had never been tracked back to a rightful owner. They’d sold it off, taking some of the money to support themselves and using the rest, the bulk, to start a school for foundling children. Supported by their family, as well as Marcus’s in-laws, the Flynns and their friends and in-laws, the Woodleys, they took in children like Rook, Marcus and Ellis had all been. Offering them the chance those three had once been compelled to take by force. It gave Juliana such pleasure to see how much it moved them all to be a part of it.

Rook had turned his creative talent for woodcarving into a business. He and Anne split their time between their island and London, where he sold his wares.

For Ellis, it had been more complicated. Juliana had watched him struggle with his injury. Watched him struggle with losing the mantel of Handsome Ellis Maitland and his place in the underworld. But he had found his way, at last, thanks to Marcus Rivers. After Rivers himself had married, he’d asked Ellis to help him run the club. He had taken to it instantly and he, Paul Abbot and Rivers were a strong team. Juliana loved to watch him blossom. And loved the benefit that they could slip away to the Donville Masquerade any time they wanted and play a few love games with each other.

“Look at that little family.” Thomasina’s words drew Juliana from her musings. Thomasina laughed as she leaned back against the blanket. “How did we ever get so lucky?”

“Well, I take all the credit,” Anne said as she poured a glass of wine for herself and Thomasina. Juliana shook her head when offered and reached for a container of tea instead, for she had been limiting herself as her second pregnancy blossomed.

She rested a hand on her swollen belly and laughed. “You mean because you ran away from home, you get to take the credit for everyone’s happiness?”

Anne shrugged. “It’s true.”

For a moment, the three considered that suggestion. And then they dissolved into giggles.

“I cannot argue the logic,” Juliana said. She caught up her tea and raised it. “To the Shelley Sisters. And to the very happy lives we somehow managed to build against all odds.”

“To us,” Thomasina and Anne repeated in unison. Then they clinked glasses, the joy of their futures far surpassing any sorrows of the past.

And so true love conquered all.