Page 347 of From Rakes to Riches

Including her. Because she was actually contemplating this. Leaving her home. Her twin. Her other beloved sisters and nieces and brothers-in-law.

For the journey she’d always yearned for.

To share with a man who was beginning to mean everything to her.

Felicity drifted forward and enfolded her in an embrace, her body trembling with valiantly unshed tears. “You’re miserable here, Mercy. We all know it. Our parents will return, and you’ll be locked in a battle that will only end in a disastrous marriage or with you disavowed. You’ve always talked of independence. A grand adventure. This might be your one chance to claim it.”

“What will you do? Might you come with us?” Mercy offered.

Felicity shook her head. “Mercy, for once, stop worrying about me. I’m grown, perhaps it’s time I step away from your shadow. I’ll toddle along. It’ll be fine, just...promise me you’ll write. All the time.”

Mercy must have nodded, because Felicity kissed her, then turned to take Raphael’s hand. “And you promise to make her happy?”

He pressed a fond kiss to her knuckles. “It’s all I want,petite sœur.”

“She’s not easy.”

“I’m still right here, I’ll have you know,” Mercy said with no little indignation.

Raphael flashed his most charming, cocksure grin. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Mercy dashed away every tear, not knowing if she was infatuated or infuriated. “You’re getting ahead of yourselves. I haven’t even agreed to go anywhere!”

Felicity and Raphael shared a knowing smile that lit her temper. “What did I tell you?”

Raphael winked and let out a long-suffering sigh.

“Unbelievable!” Throwing up her hands, Mercy marched a few paces away, if only to try to chase her unruly emotions.

“Mon chaton.” Raphael caught her, and the feel of his strong fingers threading with hers stunned her to stillness.

Not just rooting her feet to the ground but weaving something undeniable through the pads of her fingers, threadingup the veins in her arm, and pouring into her heart. From there, it pulsed into the rest of her with every beat.

It was him. His name. His face.

The love that shined there when she turned back to find them alone beneath the earth.

“I can’t explain it, after only knowing you such a short time,” he said with the earnestness of a youth shining on the face of a brutal man who’d never been blessed with a childhood. “But I know I’ve always been some sort of empty vessel, and I think I understand why my entire life I’ve never felt whole.” He pressed his hand to her heart, the palm warm as he seemed to savor what he found there. “I am not me. I am we.Us. That feels complete. My heart only seems to beat when you are near. I stand before you. No. I kneel at your feet.”

He hit his knees, pressing his forehead to her fingers as if paying tribute to a goddess. “I am a man stripped of pride and wit. Of everything that gave me power. This is what I offer you. A new start. I’m asking—I’m begging—not for your forgiveness. Not for your mercy. But foryou. Mercy.For you. Will you be mine? Will you let me call myself yours?”

She studied his face for a hint of artifice, and what she found there broke open something inside of her that exploded into incandescent sparks of the purest exhilaration. Life with this man. Discovery. Travel. Adventure. Pleasure.

Love.

Wasn’t that worth any sort of risk?

A sliver of doubt dimmed his smile. “I know you didn’t want to be the property of man, Mercy. And I’d never ask that of you. You own me heart and soul, but I don’t think I’d love you this passionately, if you could truly be possessed?—”

“Stop.” She seized him and pulled him to his feet. “Stop. I cannot take any more joy or it’ll split me apart. Of course, I’m going with you. Of course, I’m yours. I was yours the momentyou kissed me, you dolt. Now do it again before I change my mind.”

With a smile brilliant enough to illuminate the night, he swept her in his arms and claimed her mouth, sealing their bargain with a kiss that was impossible to maintain through their unrelenting smiles.

“Come,” he urged, linking his arms with hers. “Let us leave all this chaos behind.”

They walked hand in hand through the shadows of the dark night, knowing that their brilliant future lay just on the other side.

EPILOGUE

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