Portia smiled at his repeat of Wolf’s phrase. His hero worship of Wolf filled her with the sort of contented happiness she had only dreamed could one day be hers.
“High praise, lad.” Wolf executed a formal bow. “Thank you.”
His antics made Edwin laugh, and Portia joined in.
“There,” Wolf said, looking at her as if he had just beheld something miraculous. “I’d give my left arm for more of that.”
“More of what?” she asked, chuckling some more at his hyperbole.
“Your laughter,” he answered softly, tenderly. “Your smile.”
“Mama has been smiling more than ever recently,” Edwin confided, as if she were not standing there in the chamber with them, overhearing every word.
But then, she had been smiling more. And laughing, too. There was a reason for the lightness in her life, chasing the darkness that had clouded it for far too long.
“I hope to make your mother smile even more, lad,” Wolf told Edwin. “But I’ve something to ask you first.”
“Oh?” Edwin asked, puffing out his chest in a sudden show of grandiosity.
“Aye.” Wolf sank to his haunches so that he was at the same level as her son, eying him solemnly, the levity of just a moment before fading. “I am wondering if it would be acceptable to you if I were to marry your mama.”
“I think I would like that very much,” Edwin replied solemnly. “But you had better ask Mama what she thinks of the notion.”
Wolf’s gaze flicked to hers. “Will you be my wife, Portia?”
“Yes,” she said, the prick of happy tears rushing to her eyes. “Had you any doubt as to my answer?”
He grinned. “I reckoned I knew, but as the lad here pointed out, a gentleman always asks his lady for her permission.”
Wolf’s wife. How impossible it seemed! How wondrous.
“It would be my honor,” she said softly, meaning those words.
“No, love. It would be mine.” Wolf reached into his coat and withdrew a small case, extending it to Edwin. “I’ve a gift for you, lad, to celebrate the occasion.”
“For me?” Edwin’s eyes went wide as he accepted the case and opened it to reveal a neat new set of pastel crayons. “Oh, sir! Thank you! Now I may have a set to keep in the library instead of needing to carry them about.”
“Of course, lad.” Wolf rose to his full height, his gaze returning to Portia as he withdrew yet another, smaller object from his coat. “And I’ve a gift for you as well.”
A ring, she realized.
“A symbol of my affection for you,” he said.
Portia moved toward him at last, joining him and Edwin and extending her hand that he might slide the ring on her finger. It was fashioned of gold filigree, adorned with an emerald.
“To match your eyes,” he added. “I hope you like it, Countess.”
“I love it,” she said softly, admiring the ring as it slid perfectly upon her finger, guided by Wolf. “And I love you, Wolf Sutton.”
“I love you, too,” Wolf returned, reaching down to put an arm around Edwin’s shoulders and draw him into their circle. “I love you both.”
Portia held her son and her future husband into her embrace, her heart impossibly full.