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It was Lilah who was glaring the most. “You still cost us time. Money. Effort. Heartache.”

“I know,” I said swiftly. “And I'm sorry. I really am. I want to make it up to you all.”

My heartbeat raced—or was that Briar’s pulse, throbbing as her hand held mine tightly?

“You’re an ass,” Lilah said flatly.

I nodded. “Indeed.”

“Of the highest degree.”

“I'm not arguing with you, Lilah.”

“I hope you know what this means,” said Kineallen dryly. “I'm going to have to offer you a place in the club again.”

Something akin to hope leapt in my chest—but it was quickly quashed by reality.

I’d made enough mistakes. Time to stop before the next one.

“Thank you, but no,” I said quietly.

Briar’s hand squeezed mine. “You’re quite sure?”

“You’re being ridiculous,” was my friend Kineallen’s only response.

“You really don’t want to rejoin the Gambling Dukes?” Lilah said. Her suspicion was potent, her every word dripping with it.

I looked up at them.

Kineallen, Georgiana, and Lilah. The people who made me who I am today, for better or for worse. They had stood by me, but gave up when it got too complicated. When I got too complicated.

I loved them, but I couldn’t work with them again. Not after everything that happened.

Surely not.

“I have to do something on my own. Earn my own money, actually go into trade properly,” I said ruefully, trying to ignore Briar’s snort of laughter.

“I’ll always be ready to consult, of course.

But actually join the club again?” I looked at each of them, my heart breaking.

Only now I was no longer a part of it, and it was no longer a part of me, could I see it clearly.

Yes, I desperately wanted to return, no matter what my words said…

but there was no place for me here. My home was elsewhere.

In the hand that had slipped into mine. “I’ve got different plans. ”

“Your plans are idiotic,” said Lilah frankly, raising an eyebrow. “You honestly can’t tell me you don’t want to be a part of this. Part of the wager. Risk it all?”

I hesitated. “I can’t risk it all. Not any longer.”

Not now I had something worth risking.

“Then risk something. Risk it on your own terms,” said Kineallen quietly. “We’re not just friends, Markham. We’re family. You’re a part of the Gambling Dukes whether we want you to be or not.”

“And there are some days that I very much do not want you to be,” said Lilah darkly. Then she grinned. “But today I do. Come on, Markham. Join us.”

Tears itched at the corners of my eyes. They wanted me back—there was still a place for me in the Gambling Dukes. With my friends. My family.

“I do want to join again,” I admitted with a wry grin.

“You do?” asked Briar quietly.

I turned to her, and knew I had to do it. It was too soon, too rushed, the whole world would think I was crazy.

But that didn’t matter. I knew what I wanted.

And it was her.

Slowly, without taking my eyes from Lady Briar Weatherford, I slowly lowered down onto one knee. The ground was cold but it was nothing to the warmth in my chest.

Georgiana gasped and Lilah rolled her eyes.

But they weren’t the ones who mattered.

“You are not in earnest,” Briar breathed.

I grinned up at her from bended knee. This was ridiculous, I knew, and some people would think I was an idiot for even considering this.

But she was it. The one. The one person in the world who had tried to see the best in me. The one person in the world I had felt able to be open with, vulnerable with. The one person I wanted to be better for.

Trying to be a better man on my own…well, it hadn’t worked out.

I’d never felt so terrible as when Briar had looked at me like that.

And now all I wanted to do was go through the rest of my life living with her. Living for her. Living every moment of my life as though it was my last chance to make Briar smile.

“Peregrine,” Briar said softly, her cheeks pink. “You?—”

“Lady Briar Weatherford,” I said quietly, ignoring the snort from Kineallen.

This moment was all about Briar. “I lied about not knowing who you were. I stole from you the moment I could. I hid the worst about me, moved into your townhouse when I should have gone to my friends for help, took your money and invested it without asking?—”

“Is this an apology, a confession, or a proposal?” interrupted Briar with a nervous grin. “Peregrine, I don’t know what you’re doing!”

“Neither do I,” I said, swallowing my panic and looking up into her light blue eyes. At once, all the panic in me stilled. “But I'm with you, and that’s where I want to be. All I want. I’ve been a knave, a fool, a liar, and not quite a thief. But when I'm with you, Briar, I'm just…Peregrine.”

She blinked back what could have been a tear. Was Briar crying?

“And I know it’s rushed, I know it’s fast—but I have never felt so sure about anything in my life as this,” I said, pushing on before Briar could pull her hand away.

“I want to marry you, be your husband, continue to work on being a better version of myself. I…I know I haven’t much to offer.

I just have myself. The only question is, do you want me? Will you come down to my level?”

My heart was in my mouth, and I couldn’t read Briar’s face. For the first time ever, she was completely closed to me.

Then all of a sudden, Briar was kneeling on the ground outside Kineallen’s home, pulling me close, placing her lips on mine.

I melted into her, unable to do anything else. How could I? This was either the first of a lifetime of kisses, or a final kiss goodbye. And I couldn’t tell which.

Even when Briar pulled away from me, tears sparkling in her eyes, I couldn’t tell.

“Briar, answer me,” I said urgently in a low voice. “God’s sake woman, put me out of my misery!”

“You are a rogue, and a thief of sorts,” Briar said with a laugh. “And you have risked it all—and won. And I will marry you, Peregrine.”

I could hear cheers somewhere off in the distance. I was almost certain Georgiana was exclaiming with joy, and Lilah was shaking her head with disbelief. Who knew what my friends thought.

It didn’t matter. I had Briar in my arms and her promise on my lips and her heart in mine.

And we had a lifetime to share them.