“Y ou made such an excellent exit earlier that I thought you would not return,” Peggy said, hardly daring to believe what was happening. “It was worthy of the stage, that exit. But I’m the one who drove you to it.”
He groaned. “That is the danger of living in a family surrounded by so many people familiar with the theater,” he replied, starting towards her. “I can forgive you for driving me to make such a dramatic exit,” he added.
“Can you?” she breathed, aching to hold him, to be held by him.
“My heart was near breaking when I left, but I could not leave it be… I could not…” he confessed as he strode slowly towards her. He smiled slightly, lifted his hand, and stroked away a trail of her tears. “And now we are making light of it.”
“There’s something about your family that turns all things to laughter. I was most distraught moments ago. Dare I say, I was on the verge of falling apart.”
He tilted his head to the side, causing his dark hair to tease against his hard jawline. “You don’t look as if you’re falling apart now,” he observed gently, clearly still uncertain as to what her intentions were.
“Because I’m not,” she replied, her own body humming with anticipation. “Because they have shown me where all my pieces are.”
As the women of his family watched, he contemplated her, as if he knew they were on the verge of something, and he was glad of an audience. “And where are they?”
She licked her lips, realizing that the Briarwoods all loved an audience because they wanted to live well. They wanted everyone to live well. And they wanted everyone to see that.
She swallowed, daring herself to be bold as Cymbeline had instructed.
“All the pieces that I thought were falling apart, falling away? They’re here. They’re right here,” she declared as she lifted her hand and placed it over his heart. “You took them from me the night we met, and you’ve been keeping them ever since, waiting for me to be ready to put them back together again. And now I’m ready. I’m ready to give you my heart. I already have yours. You gave it to me, and I tried to give it back. I’m so sorry. But I hope you will please take mine now in turn.”
His face transformed then. The worry and uncertainty that had haunted him vanished, replaced by joy. “I’ve been waiting for it. How could I turn it away? Our hearts have at last found their homes.”
And then he pulled her into his arms, not caring who was watching. “Say this means that you’re going to marry me. That I won’t have to burn the special license that I had the Duke of Westleigh arrange?”
“Of course I’m going to marry you,” she rushed, holding tightly to him, but not because she was afraid she might lose him. But because, at last, she had found what was always missing. “I’m going to marry you, and we are going to tell the rest of the world to go to the devil.”
“No,” he corrected, stroking his hand along her cheek before he cupped her chin and tilted her head back. “Not to the devil, Peggy. We’ll send them all to heaven,” he said. “We are going to transform this world into a heaven. For you. For me. For us. For all.”
She laughed gently, her heart swelling with amazement at the man who had faced death, lived with pain, and had done all he could to show her his love with patience. “And this,” she professed, “is why I’m marrying you. Because you see the world for all its possibilities, and you know what can be made of it.”
“Anything, my love. The world can be anything we want it to be.”
“As long as we are together,” she replied, knowing she would never again be that little girl, waiting cold in the window.