The Honourable Fortune Hunter (Scandalous Miss Brightwells 5)

Theo rubbed his eyes and shifted in his seat. It was not just the desire, or bravery, that was required.

There had to be opportunity, too. And Lizzy had been trapped.

Theo had set out for the house party four days ago to rescue Amelia. In the interim, he had not spared a thought for the fact that Lizzy needed rescuing as much as Amelia did.

Now he realised why he’d never told Lizzy the truth of his feelings for her. To have hope, only to lose it, was more terrible than anything. He had wanted to spare her.

Now, as he faced the growing truth that Lizzy may not come after all, he realised how badly he had hoped she would.

And how much greater was his devastation that she had not.

“Theo!” He glanced up at the rapping on the window. Neither he nor Amelia had heard an approach.

Something leapt from his heart to his throat, making it hard to respond with mere words when he looked through the frosted glass to the darkness outside—to Lizzy, holding a lantern and clutching a thick cloak about her shoulders, pressing her face against the window.

The disappointment within him was suddenly transformed into a cloudburst of newborn hope and joy as he flung open the door and took her in his arms.

Lizzy’s hands twined behind his neck as she dropped the lantern which fell to the snow, the flame extinguished.

Unlike the love in Theo’s heart which burned with fearful intent as he held her tighter. He had not realised how much he’d wanted this until he feared it was too late.

“You did come, Lizzy!” He cried between kisses. “I didn’t know if you would come if you didn’t know…how much I truly love you.”

And Lizzy, who had never hidden exactly what was in her heart, replied, “All you had to do was ask me!”

And then she was pulling him down, once again, to kiss him with even more enthusiasm than she’d shown in the Long Gallery when Theo had realised he was a doomed man.

Epilogue

Three months later

“Miss Lizzy, Lady Conroy is 'ere ter see yer.” Mabel stepped into the small office where Lizzy was working at the accounts. “Though I s’pose she don’t want ter see yer, really. Shall I fetch Benjamin?”

Lizzy set aside the letter she’d just received from Lady Fenton, written in the viscountess’s capacity of Patroness of the Foundling Home, and looked up.

“Thank you, Mabel. Just wait a few minutes until Miss Harcourt finishes teaching the little ones their letters, and then you can bring him through.” Lizzy put down her pen and sat back in her chair. “Take Lady Conroy into the parlour. And please, bring tea for both of us.”

By the time Mabel ushered Lady Conroy into the small reception room of the tiny cottage she and Theo shared with Amelia, Lizzy had settled herself on a small, somewhat threadbare sofa, nervous, though excited.

“Susan… It’s nice to see you.”

The young woman was more gaunt than Lizzy remembered as she glided into the room in an elegant cream-velvet pelisse, but there was an air of excitement about her that was unfamiliar to Lizzy. Susan had always seemed the most unremarkable of young women when she’d lived under the same roof as Lizzy.

Little had fourteen-year-old Lizzy known that when she’d arrived, recently orphaned and the only living member of her entire family, that Mrs Hodge’s daughter was in the mid stages of a pregnancy she was battling to conceal.

Nor could she have imagined that this catastrophe would have such repercussions, not only on Susan’s life, but Lizzy’s too.

“You too, Lizzy. You’re looking well. Married life suits you.”

Lizzy did not disagree. The three months since she and Theo had made their mad dash in a coach-and-four from Quamby House, had been one of adventure.

And much loving.

“I recommend it,” she said, “when one’s spouse is as good humoured as Theo.”

Through the wall that separated the parlour from the schoolroom, she could hear the sound of the well-drilled orphans and foundlings sent to the school run by herself, Theo, and Amelia, reciting their letters.

Susan heard it too, for her eyes lit up as she became aware of the sound. “My Benjamin knows the alphabet?”