Page 45 of A Wife for the Beast (Scandals and Second Chances #6)
"I thought she might appreciate knowing that her former charge was well settled and happy," he explained with growing pleasure at her obvious approval of his methods.
"She has asked me to convey her congratulations on our marriage and her hope that we might visit Hertfordshire when travel becomes convenient. "
"Oh, we must!" she exclaimed with enthusiasm that reminded him how much she valued connections to her family's history and the people who had shaped her character. "I should love to see her again, and to show you the places where I grew up."
Her excitement at the prospect of sharing her childhood haunts filled him with warmth that had nothing to do with the fire crackling in the library grate and everything to do with the growing intimacy that marked their partnership.
Each revelation about her past, each connection to the experiences that had formed her remarkable character, felt like a precious gift that deepened his understanding of the woman he had been blessed to marry.
"There is something else," he said with growing nervousness about how she might receive the final element of his surprise. "Something I hope you will consider appropriate to our current circumstances."
From the desk drawer he withdrew a slim volume bound in new leather but bearing an inscription in a hand she would recognize immediately: "For my dearest Evangeline, may these pages remind you always of the love that shaped your earliest understanding of literature and life.
Your devoted father, Captain Edmund Hartwell. "
"His journal," she breathed with such wonder that it confirmed his hope that this particular discovery would prove most meaningful of all. "But how? I thought it was lost with everything else."
"Mrs. Darnel had preserved it separately, recognizing its particular significance to your family's history," he explained with satisfaction at having recovered something truly irreplaceable.
"She was most eager to ensure it found its way back to you, along with her assurance that your father would have been proud beyond measure to see how well you have established yourself in your new circumstances. "
Evangeline accepted the journal with trembling hands, opening it to pages filled with her father's careful observations about military life, family history, and most touchingly, his hopes and fears regarding his daughter's future.
The sight of that familiar handwriting, preserved when she had thought it lost forever, finally released the tears that had been gathering since she first glimpsed the restored library.
"Lucian, this is beyond anything I dared to hope for," she managed through emotions that seemed to overwhelm her capacity for coherent expression. "To have these pieces of Papa back, to be able to share them with you and perhaps someday with our children..."
The reference to their future offspring sent a jolt of pure joy through his chest, confirming hopes that they had only recently begun to discuss openly.
The possibility of children who might grow up surrounded by the books and stories that had shaped their mother's character felt like the perfect completion of a circle that had begun with tragedy and loss but was culminating in love and renewal.
"There will be children, then?" he asked with hope that marked discussions of dreams too precious to be taken for granted.
"If we are blessed," she replied with the sort of radiant confidence that suggested such willingness was more than merely theoretical.
"Though I confess myself curious about whether you have given thought to how we might combine your family's traditions with the educational approach Papa used in raising me. "
"I believe our children will benefit immeasurably from exposure to both influences," he said with growing excitement at the prospect of sharing the parenting responsibilities with a woman whose wisdom and strength would complement his own efforts.
"Your father's dedication to intellectual development, combined with the Hollowbridge commitment to honour and service should make them quite formidable individuals. "
"Indeed they should," she agreed with the sort of maternal satisfaction that transformed her features into something approaching luminous beauty. "Though I suspect they will also inherit their father's stubbornness and their mother's tendency toward managing other people's affairs."
"A daunting combination," he observed with mock concern that could not disguise his genuine enthusiasm for whatever challenges their future offspring might present. "Though I suppose we shall manage somehow."
She moved to press herself against his chest with the sort of trusting intimacy that still filled him with wonder at his extraordinary good fortune, her arms encircling him with possessive tenderness that spoke of love too deep for casual expression.
"Thank you," she murmured against his throat, her breath warm against skin that bore its own scars from their shared battles.
"Not merely for the books, though they mean more to me than I can adequately express.
Thank you for understanding what they represent, for taking such care to restore something I thought lost forever. "
"Thank you for teaching me that some things are indeed worth preserving," he replied with growing emotion at how completely she had transformed his understanding of what life might offer.
"Your father's influence, our shared history, the possibility of building something lasting and meaningful together, they are all gifts I never thought to receive. "
The kiss that followed sealed their mutual gratitude and continuing commitment. When they finally separated, both were breathing unsteadily, their careful composure entirely destroyed by emotions that seemed to intensify rather than diminish with familiarity.
"Shall we begin planning that visit to Hertfordshire?" she asked with practical enthusiasm that reminded him why he had fallen in love with her directness and capability.
"Immediately," he agreed with satisfaction at having successfully surprised the woman who had become his greatest source of happiness.
"Though perhaps we might first spend some time exploring your father's journal together?
I confess myself curious about his thoughts regarding his daughter's future and whether his hopes have been adequately fulfilled. "
"More than adequately," she assured him with such conviction that it warmed him to his very core. "I suspect he would have been rather amazed by the specific path those hopes ultimately took."
As they settled together on the library sofa with Captain Hartwell's journal open between them and the restored books bearing silent witness to love's capacity for healing old wounds, Lucian reflected upon the curious journey that had brought them to this moment of perfect contentment.
What had begun as a practical arrangement born of mutual necessity had evolved into something far more precious—a partnership built on genuine understanding, strengthened by shared trials, and sustained by love that had proven equal to every challenge.
The future stretched before them bright with possibility, promising years of shared discovery and the sort of deep contentment that marked the finest marriages in any age.
And if their love continued to grow as it had these past months, perhaps their children would inherit not merely books and traditions but the sort of unshakeable foundation that could support happiness across generations.
Outside the library windows, the Yorkshire moors rolled away toward distant horizons, vast and enduring as the love that had finally found its proper home within the walls of Ravenshollow Manor.
And in the days to come, that love would continue to light their way toward whatever adventures awaited two hearts that had discovered, against all odds, that convenience and passion need not be mutually exclusive, but could instead combine to create something rarer and more precious than either had dared to hope for when their story first began.
The End