Page 44

“For what?” he whispered, his lips just out of reach while his breath teased her.

She searched in vain to describe what she was feeling. Words were insufficient. “Tell me it is not only me—that I am not alone in what I am feeling.”

He drew back until his gaze found hers, intent and searching. He took one of her hands from its place curled up in the lapel and placed it over his heart. “Can you feel that?”

Beneath her palm, his heart pulsed quick and strong as he stared into her eyes, willing her to understand.

She closed her eyes, feeling each blessed beat .

“You undo me, Selina,” he said softly. “I love you now, and I promise I always will.”

Eyes still closed and heart aflame, she lifted her lips to his again.

“Who let Pip out of my room?” The muffled words were followed by a knock on the door.

“Ignore it,” Sebastian mumbled, taking her lips with his again.

But there was another, more insistent knock, and they pulled apart just as the door opened.

Felix stared at them, Pip in his arms. “Pip was wandering the house. Who let him out of my room?”

Selina, whose face must have resembled a cherry, tried to step away from Sebastian.

He did not allow it, keeping his arms securely around her waist.

“Your brother did it,” she said.

“I did no such thing,” Sebastian protested. “I let him out of this room, not yours. The culprit you are looking for is Selina.”

Felix regarded her for a moment, a frown passing over his brow. “What are the two of you doing?”

Selina pulled her raw lips between her teeth and looked at Sebastian expectantly. Felix was his brother, after all. He should be the one to explain.

Sebastian thought for a moment. “We are…betrothing.”

“Betrothing?” Felix repeated with a bunched brow. “What does that mean?”

“Yes, what does it mean?” Selina looked at him with amused curiosity, eager to see how he would extricate himself from this tangle.

“If you must know, we were kissing,” Sebastian said.

Selina’s eyes widened, and Felix’s face contorted as if he had been told tonight’s dinner would be pigeon feet.

“And I have every intention of kissing her again, so you had better?— ”

Felix ran, shouting at the top of his lungs. “No one go in Mrs. Lawrence’s room! She and Sebastian are kissing!”

“There,” Sebastian said with satisfaction, pulling Selina by the waist until he could shut the door with his boot. “That ought to give us a bit of time.”

“You,” she said, “are…”

“What?” he asked with ill-concealed delight, his hands spanning her waist firmly. “What am I?”

The door opened again, and Sebastian cast his eyes to the heavens.

Hugo stared at them, and Margaret and Phoebe came up behind him, breathless.

“Hugo!” Margaret called at him, but her eyes flicked to Selina and Sebastian. Her brows rose.

Phoebe, on the other hand, grinned widely at the sight of them. “Are you?—”

“Engaged,” Sebastian said abruptly.

“Again?” Hugo asked.

“Again,” Sebastian confirmed. “And anxious for a moment to enjoy it properly this time. Privately.”

“Sebastian,” Selina said, unable to keep from grinning with overflowing joy. “You should tell them.”

“I just did.” His frown transformed suddenly as realization struck. “Oh! Yes.”

“Tell us what?” Hugo asked.

Sebastian stepped away from Selina and peeked his head into the hall. “Felix!” he called.

A few moments later, footsteps came down the corridor, and Felix’s head appeared, tentative, as though he feared he might see something unwelcome that would be forever branded upon his memory. Pip was nibbling on something, unconcerned with the news Sebastian was about to deliver.

Apparently satisfied that the scene was safe for the time being, Felix brought his full body into view. “What is it? ”

“ It ,” Sebastian said, “is that you are looking at”—he put out his hands to display himself—“your new official guardian.”

Selina cleared her throat softly.

Sebastian reached over and snatched her by the waist, pulling her up against him. “And your other new soon-to-be-official guardian.”

Margaret’s hands covered her mouth, the corners of her eyes wrinkling with joy.

Hugo stayed still for a moment, then rushed toward the two of them and wrapped his arms around them in an innocent gesture at odds with his wizened twelve years.

“Does this mean we can stay here forever?” Felix asked, his eyes alight.

“That is precisely what it means,” Selina said.

It was Felix’s turn to be demonstrative, and he pushed Hugo out of the way to do so. This naturally turned into a tussle between the two of them, their gratitude and joy instantaneously forgotten in the need for victory.

Sebastian shared an amused look with Selina before Margaret and Phoebe came over to embrace them.

“Are you certain you are prepared for this?” Margaret asked Selina, glancing at her bickering brothers, whose argument had abruptly shifted to which one of them Pip belonged to.

Selina’s eyes moved from the boys to Sebastian, who was laughing with Phoebe. Her heart fluttered at the sight of him and the knowledge that, whatever she faced in life, she would have him beside her.

She had never felt so well-equipped for anything in her life.

“Yes,” Selina replied, pulling Margaret into an embrace. “Decidedly, yes.”

“Selina may have welcomed you to stay here forever,” Sebastian said, pulling the boys apart before the argument devolved to fisticuffs, “but you are not welcome to stay in this room even one more minute. You may tear one another limb from limb elsewhere.” He guided them firmly out of the room.

Phoebe came over to Selina and threw her arms around her, holding her tightly. “You cannot imagine how utterly overcome with joy I am.”

Selina squeezed her. “Oh, but I can! Thank you for seeing him properly when I could not.” She pulled back and looked at Phoebe, who dashed a smiling tear away.

“It is hard to see others properly when you cannot see yourself properly,” she replied. “You deserve every happiness life can provide, Selina.” She kissed Selina on the cheek.

“I owe you an apology, Phoebe.”

Phoebe’s brows rose.

“I influenced you against Mr. Evenden, and I regret it. You have a keen mind, Phoebe. You should trust yourself with it. He deserves a chance.”

Phoebe blinked quickly and embraced her again. “I intend to give him one.”

Something between a growl and a yell came from the corridor, and Phoebe gave a watery laugh, then hurried out behind Margaret.

Sebastian let out a satisfied sigh, shut the door, and turned the privacy lock. “Now, where were we…again?” He came over, and Selina slipped her arms around his neck.

He ran his hands from her wrists all the way up to her shoulders, leaving tingling in their wake.

“I love you, Sebastian,” she said simply.

His eyes fixed on hers, losing a bit of their funning in favor of earnestness. “You cannot imagine how I have longed to hear those words from your lips.”

“You will tire of them, I fear.”

He shook his head. “Never.”

Felix would have been horrified by what happened next.