Page 133 of Lord Wrath
Epilogue
Her soon-to-be sister-in-law,Constance, could not have joined Adelia’s family at a better time. After Owen, Constance, and Thomas read her stories, Adelia was confident they were good enough to be published.
Although Thomas’s fiancée had now quit both her jobs, preparing for her role as Countess of Dunford, she would help Adelia through the publishing process and have the books printed at her old place of employment. Thus, Adelia’s publisher was to be Samuel Beeton, who she learned with strange and wondrous coincidence had been the first British publisher ofUncle Tom’s Cabinthat very year.
“That’s why your brother and I went to that particular play,” Constance told her. “My employer was very excited by its success, as it spurred book sales tremendously. Perhaps one of your novels will be made a play.”
The idea! To have her story published was beyond thrilling, and Adelia was happily penning her latest one when Owen came into the study.
She sat back with a sigh of pleasure and smiled up at her handsome man.
“What are you grinning about, wife?”
She shrugged. “Life is so good, and we have so much to look forward to.”
“Such as?”
“Such as children,” she reminded him. Notwithstanding, she had not been at all bothered each month when her courses came on schedule, for she was thoroughly enjoying every day as Viscountess Burnley.
“Speaking of children,” Owen said, “my parents went with Lady Jane and have decided to adopt two sisters, five and seven years old.”
She nodded at the off-handed way he’d told her, rather subdued. Privately, she thought it was marvelous, but his expression kept her from a grand display of excitement. “How do you feel?”
He raised his brows but nodded at her understanding. “I thank you for your consideration, my love. I am truly pleased for my parents and for those girls whose lives will be transformed. I shall be a dutiful brother to them, more like an uncle, at this point.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his tone sounded thick with emotion. “But I must confess, in my heart, without Sophia, I won’t feel as if I truly have a sibling. That sounds unkind, I suppose.”
She shook her head. “I do understand. You may no longer have your sister, but you do have Lord Whitely and Lord Westing, and Lady Jane and my brother, too. And soon, Miss Moore. We shall be as one big family.”
He nodded. “And someday, we’ll start our own.”
Bending low, Owen kissed her prior to taking a seat at his own desk on the other side of the room. Sharing his study was one of her greatest delights, and he never seemed to mind listening when she read aloud a particularly sticky passage with which she was struggling.
Glancing down at her work, she rifled through the pages, going back to the beginning, and picked up her pen. Across the top of the first page, she wrote:
Dedicated to Lady Sophia Burnley, without whom this writer’s life would not have changed for the better. She brought me the greatest love of my life, and she touched the hearts of many.
Adelia decided she wouldn’t show it to Owen until the book was published. It was the simple truth—his sister’s life had not been in vain nor wasted. Lord Wrath had been banished along with a silly wallflower who’d been avoiding her tomorrows as she had wasted her yesterdays, too fearful of what other people thought, people who didn’t truly matter.
“Lord Burnley,” she said.
Raising his head, he gave her a questioning look. “Yes, Lady Burnley?”
And she opened her mouth to tell him how much she loved him again, just because she could.
