One year later

The gardens of Camberley House were alive with the gentle warmth of summer, the flowerbeds overflowing with color beneath a cloudless sky. Rose wandered through the grounds alone, the distant sound of laughter drifting across the lawn toward her. 

Her heart had never felt so full.

There had been a time when she had believed herself destined to lose everything she had come to love, when the future had seemed nothing more than an endless sea of uncertainty and loneliness. Now, a year on from all the difficulty, confusion and pain, she found herself with more joy than she had ever allowed herself to imagine. Happiness, she considered, was a strange thing indeed. It rarely arrived in the manner one expected. Instead, it stole quietly into one’s life and filled all the empty places with its own comfort.

A smile drew itself across her lips as she made her way toward the rose garden, seeing Sophia approaching. “My dear Sophia!” she exclaimed, hurrying toward her. “You have arrived at last.” Sophia and Miles had returned from their adventures across Italy only a fortnight ago and had immediately come to call with their own exciting news—though seeing Sophia’s figure, no grand announcement was required! They had come to call almost every evening since their return, given that Miles had chosen to reside at his estate, only an hour’s carriage drive away. “I do hope that the journey here was not too unpleasant?”

Sophia smiled and draped one hand lightly across her stomach. “It is not particularly comfortable, but it is certainly not going to prevent me from coming to see you,” she responded as Rose smiled and took her arm. “Besides which, I simply must have someone to complain to about Miles’ constant scribblings.” She laughed softly, a fondness in her voice as she spoke of her husband. “Do you know that he woke me from my slumber some three nights ago, solely to inform me that he had thought of an improved ending to his next book?”

Rose could not help but laugh. “Dreadful indeed!” she exclaimed as they walked through the roses and back toward the front of the house. “It is just as well that he is your favorite author, for how else should you endure?”

Sophia chuckled, nudging Rose lightly. “Indeed,” she agreed. “Though, we both have been very fortunate, have we not?”

They paused together at the scene laid out before them. Augustus was sitting at a small table, Miles opposite him and a chessboard spread between them. Eliza was cradling a small infant in her arms, and the dowager was assisting Luke with a game of croquet. Jacko, who had become rather serious ever since the arrival of the new baby, was perched on a chair near to Eliza, watching the baby without making a single sound. 

“Yes, we have been,” Rose agreed. “More fortunate than I once believed possible.” For a moment, their conversation turned briefly toward the past. Sir Beaumont was to remain imprisoned without hope of release. The memory no longer possessed the same power to wound Rose’s heart as it had once done, dulled by time and all the happiness that had followed. 

“I have decided,” Rose finished, “that I will no longer even think of the past. There are too many joyous things to waste thought on mourning what can never be changed.”

“A wise consideration,” Sophia agreed, squeezing her hands. “Come now, I cannot wait another moment without seeing Arthur.”

Rose smiled and walked toward Eliza. “It will not be too long before you have one of your own to adore,” she murmured as Eliza gently handed Sophia the sleeping infant. “I confess, I did not think that my heart was capable of feeling such an immense love.” She brushed his mop of dark hair across his forehead lightly, her heart squeezing with love for him. “He has the remarkable ability to command the presence of the entire room simply by existing within it.”

Sophia looked down at the baby, cradling him gently in her arms. “Lord Arthur Fernside,” she murmured, and Rose smiled at the title. As the second son of the duke, Arthur had been born to inherit her father’s title and would one day carry forward the legacy of Rose’s family. The thought of it still felt almost miraculous. “Should you like to hold him?”

“If I might protest?” 

Rose looked up to see Augustus half out of his chair. 

“I have not held him for more than ten minutes now which is a grave injustice. Besides, it will give Miles further opportunity to consider his next move, which he has been doing for some minutes.”

She laughed as Sophia immediately carried the baby toward him, her hands clasped at her heart as she watched Augustus take his son gently. Augustus was daily proving himself to be just as much of a loving father to Arthur as he was to Luke. The tenderness in his gaze when he looked down at him made her want to weep from the sheer happiness of it.

“I am executing a carefully considered strategy,” Miles protested as Sophia came to stand beside him. “You shall have to cheer for my success, my love.”

Sophia ran her fingers through her husband’s hair. “I always do.”

Rose turned as Luke let out a whoop of excitement and then raced across the grass toward them all, leaving his grandmother to follow in his wake. 

“I did very well at croquet,” he exclaimed, throwing his arms around Rose’s legs and looking up at her with a grin. “Grandmama says I am improving.”

“You are indeed,” the dowager replied, coming to sit down near to Augustus so she might look tenderly at her new grandson. “You are becoming a formidable opponent.”

“Which is more than can be said for your uncle,” Augustus quipped, making everyone laugh. Luke released Rose’s legs and then went to stand beside his father, looking down at Arthur with a slightly bemused expression.

“He is still very small,” he observed. “I thought he would get bigger more quickly.”

“He will not remain so forever,” Rose promised, smoothing back Luke’s hair from his forehead. “When he is older, I am quite sure you will teach him a good many things, including how to play croquet.”

Luke considered this carefully, his head tilting to one side. “I think I shall teach him about Hercules first.”

Laughing softly, she put one arm around Luke’s shoulder. “You are already a wonderful brother,” she said as the others nodded and murmured their agreement, making Luke stand a little taller than before. “Arthur is blessed indeed to have you.”

“And I shall have my cousin soon too,” Luke said, stepping away from the baby and going toward Sophia, putting his head close to her stomach. “I do not know if you are a boy or a girl, but I am Luke, and if you wish, I shall teach you about Hercules and croquet and which are the best trees to climb.”

Sophia put one hand to her mouth, hiding her smile as Miles leaned toward Luke, ruffling his hair and declaring that it was the finest introduction ever offered. Augustus rose to his feet and slipped one arm around her waist, drawing her gently to his side as Arthur slept peacefully in the other.

“You are happy, I think,” he said, and she looked up into his eyes.

“I am,” she responded, seeing the same warmth in his face as she had discovered all those months ago, hidden beneath the grief and the loneliness but patiently waiting to be found. “You have made me happy, Augustus.”

Ignoring the others, Augustus leaned down and pressed a kiss against her lips, soft and familiar as they stood beneath the summer sky. “And you have brought me more than I ever thought possible,” he whispered against her lips. “I love you, Rose. I will love you for the rest of my days.”

She smiled, resting her head against his shoulder as the sounds of family and love surrounded them. “That is fortunate indeed,” she replied, “because I intend to do precisely the same.”

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