She leaned her cheek into his warm palm and gazed up at him with all the love in her heart. “Don’t try to please me. Tell me what you need. We’ll find a way.”
“I need you,” he said without hesitation, then paused. “And to travel. It’s part of me. I’d like it to be a part of us. Something we do together. Not always—you need your shop, too. But sometimes.”
“What if we stayed here during the winter season, and took frequent trips to London to visit my family? Our family,” she quickly corrected herself. “They’ll be yours, now, too.”
“I’d like that,” he said softly. “What if you came with me sometimes, on journeys to deliver catalogues or whatever future investments might hold?”
“I would adore that.” An even better idea occurred to her. “What if we took the long way home on those trips, making sure to visit places that are new to us both? We can be adventurers together.”
In response, he placed her hand over the lover’s locket. His pulse thrummed beneath, strong and eager.
“My heart is yours. I love you, Angelica. I want to rub your hands when you’re tired. I want to be your aural accompaniment for the rest of our lives. I want to read to you, kiss you, marry you—”
“Yes.” She wrapped her arms about his neck. “I love you, too. There’s no one else I’d want to read me geology texts and odes to haggis. I cannot wait to explore the future at your side.”
He swung her into a joyful circle and kissed her as though he’d never let her go.
Epilogue
June 1816
Spitalfields
“Mrs. Munroe will arrive at any moment,” said Luther. “Where’s her daughter’s necklace?”
“Over here.” Angelica slid the necklace into its case and handed it to her brother.
None of which interrupted Jonathan’s flow as he read passages aloud from the latest Fit for a Duke catalogue in dramatic fashion.
“Double-breasted morning jacket!” He struck a flamboyant pose. “Seamless thigh padding!”
When they weren’t tidying the shop, Esther and Florence pranced around their Uncle Jonathan, attempting to copy his absurd poses.
Angelica and Luther exchanged amused glances before returning their attention to their respective worktables.
Instead of purchasing her own window on fashionable St. James, Angelica and Jonathan had decided instead to invest in expanding her brother’s shop. Lending a hand whenever she was in town had become part of the pleasure.
The expanded shop was in constant motion. Fit for a Duke used Luther not only as a supplier, but also as a venue to display some of the most popular items in the catalogue. This increased the number of visitors to the shop, many of whom became jewelry clients as well.
When Angelica turned from the worktable, Jonathan was there at once to lift her hands in his and massage any tension away.
“You look beautiful,” he murmured.
She gestured at her new pink frock. “You’re just saying that because I’m wearing a prototype for the new Fit for a Duchess line.”
“I would say it even if you weren’t wearing anything.” He gave her a wicked grin. “Especially then.”
Her cheeks flushed hot. It was true. He showed her how beautiful she was every single day.
“Stop that,” Luther called out without turning around from his workbench. “Don’t you two have some random village you should be off visiting?”
“Not yet,” Angelica replied happily. “You’re saddled with us for six more days.”
After which, they’d take the long way back to Cressmouth, recruiting new consignment partners in the Cotswolds or on the coast, and staying an extra week or two to enjoy the area.
She and Jonathan had found peace in a rhythm that worked for both of them. Most of their time was spent in Cressmouth, but their frequent visits to family or to Scotland always involved exploring new sights and shires along the way.
“Can I read from the catalogue now?” asked Esther.
“No!” Florence yanked it from her sister’s hands. “It’s my turn.”
Jonathan pressed Angelica’s palm to his lips, likely to hide his amusement. The girls were growing fast. Luther would have plenty of aural accompaniment, even after Angelica and Jonathan went away.
Angelica helped Jonathan make good use of his inheritance. They used half to create endowments for struggling businesses, so that others would not need to sign contracts like the one she’d had with Mr. Marlowe in order to have a future.
With the other half of the trust money, they made large donations to charities and abolitionist causes. They could not singlehandedly reinvent Britain, but they could make positive changes in a significant number of lives.
“Oh—and Mr. Rosenthal,” said Luther. “Do you have the portrait for his locket?”
“I do.” Jonathan kissed Angelica’s cheek, then hurried to his work area, where he worked on portrait commissions for eye miniatures whenever they were in London. His work had become as popular as the lockets themselves. On the counter was a register with a waiting list of satisfied customers, eager to add the crowning touch to their purchase.
“Aunt?” came Florence’s hesitant voice.
Angelica glanced down at her nieces, expecting to have to solve the argument of whose turn it was to read aloud from the catalogue next. One day, when they were a little older, they would hand their brooms and rags to younger cousins and learn to attend the shop’s customers instead.
She straightened one of the bows in her niece’s hair.
“I want to be a jeweler like you,” said Florence.
Esther turned to their father. “And I want to be a jeweler like Papa.”
“Will you teach us?” they asked at once.
Luther’s flattered gaze met Angelica’s over his daughters’ heads. They exchanged mischievous grins.
He shook his head mournfully. “This is how it starts.”
But his eyes shone with pride.
“Of course you can be jewelers like us.” Angelica exchanged a wink over her shoulder with Jonathan, then turned to the
