The smile that lit her face and beamed at him through her eyes enlivened him, heart and soul. “I think you ought to listen to Simon. He has a good head for politics. Nearly as good as mine.”
They all laughed together, and Luca felt himself drawn into the family. They loved Emma, and by extension, they cared for him, too. With the Duke of Montfort and his family supporting Luca, his time as an ambassador would prove long and fruitful. He had to have faith in that.
With Emma on his arm, Luca could hope for the best, and expect it, too.
* * *
Two months after her arrival in London, Emma entered the ballroom at the embassy. This time, it blazed with light from several chandeliers hanging above, their crystals throwing the light even farther. The whole room glowed with warmth and life, with couples dancing and members of parliament standing along the walls with their families and friends.
Luca escorted her, with Emma tucked close to his side. “This is stunning, Luca,” she whispered so only he could hear. “It is magnificent.”
Her handsome Italian chuckled and bent to murmur in her ear. “You only say that because I followed every single one of your suggestions for the evening.”
Emma wrinkled her nose at him. “You ought to have asked a married woman to be your hostess, you know. That is how it is done.”
“But not how I will do things. You are the only woman who will ever plan a ball, or a social, or a picnic, in this embassy. Or any of my houses, for that matter.” He took her hand and led her to the ballroom floor.
Tonight they would announce their engagement, turning the ball into a celebration of love rather than a political gathering. She couldn’t ask for anything more wonderful.
They took the lead position and other couples joined, the foremost among them Lady Josephine on the arm of some young lordling who did not have any chance of claiming a second.
“Do you think anyone will mind that we are going back to the castle to be married?” Luca asked as the music began.
“I don’t care,” Emma responded. “I have dedicated my life to you and your role in everything but this.”
The way he smiled at her, broad and happy, free of worry, made her wish they were alone instead of at the center of a ballroom.
Spring couldn’t come soon enough.
Epilogue
The first blooms of spring always appeared in the duchess’s Japanese garden. The magnolia tree adorned itself in flowers of pink and white, wreathed more gloriously than any lady at court. Emma had invited only a few others to join the family there for a picnic the day before her wedding.
She sat next to Luca beneath her favorite tree, leaning against him while their friends surrounded them. Mr. and Mrs. Rupert Gardiner sat together, he examining the drawing she had sketched of a fallen bloom. The duke and duchess sat a little further away, and the dowager near them in a chair brought out at her demand.
Rosalind and Isabelle were chattering about the wedding and which flowers Emma ought to wear in her hair. “I still think roses would be prettier than wisteria,” Rosalind said. “I shall have roses when I wed.”
“Of course you would, but I want wisteria,” Isabelle said. “And Emma will have the magnolia blossoms.”
James played with his new dog, a little pup meant to live in the kennels, but the animal somehow ended up in the boy’s room more nights than not.
And Josie sat on Emma’s other side, under strict instructions to avoid bickering with Andrew.
“I want you both to get along for a day or two, as a wedding present,” Emma had asked a mere hour before the picnic.
“That is a horrid present. Let me give you a better one. I have ordered the entire collection of Arabian Nights for your new library. Even the books my father said we had no business reading.”
Emma had been hard-pressed to remain firm in the face of such a thoughtful gift. But she had managed. “That’s lovely, and I thank you for it. But still. No bickering.”
Luca’s arm stole around Emma, and he leaned back against the trunk of the magnolia tree. “Sono in paradiso, amore mio.”
Even being under the dowager’s watchful eye couldn’t keep Emma from snuggling closer to him. “It is rather heavenly, isn’t it?” She released a contented sigh. “Even still, I look forward to tomorrow. When I become Lady Atella. I so wish your family could have come.”
“We will go to them soon enough.” He pressed a kiss to her temple. “Perhaps this summer, when the fields are green, and then my mother will cook for you.”
Alice gasped suddenly, making everyone look at her. Though she was not what one would call large yet, the slight protrusion of her stomach well communicated that they would add a little one to their nursery that summer. Expectant women suddenly gasping would make anyone nervous, Emma decided.
The entomologist’s wife took off her spectacles. “I nearly forgot. I have a gift for you both.” She pointed to the basket near her husband. “Rupert, if you would?”
He took out a rolled sheet of cream-colored paper, tied by a pink ribbon. He reached across the blanket and handed it to Luca. Luca leaned back against the tree while Emma sat forward to untie the ribbon. He unrolled the paper to reveal a sketch of her, in repose, staring dreamily away from the viewer.
“Bellissimo,” Luca murmured. “It captures Emma perfectly. When did you draw this, Mrs. Gardiner? I feel I have seen it before.”
“You really must call me Alice,” she said with a dismissive wave. “That was on the day of the boat race when Emma seemed terribly out of sorts. Except, of course, when she spoke of you.”
Emma’s cheeks warmed, and she stared at the picture a little closer. “Perhaps I was already falling in love, even then.”
“Were
