Page 62 of The Earl's Secret
Fortunately, the hero soon realized his folly and was honest with the heroine. She finally overcame her own stubbornness and believed in his words. For he loved her, with all of his heart, and promised to love her forever. She admitted what was in her own heart, accepted his proposal, married him, and they both lived happily ever after.
She knew her mouth was gaping open as she looked up at him. “Devon—”
“Cassandra,” he said, stepping forward and taking her hands within his, squeezing with the urgency of his words as he looked down at her. “I truly do love you, with all that I am. Our past has been filled with misunderstandings and miscommunication and unfortunate timing and decisions on both of our parts. Perhaps, now, instead of regretting the past, we learn from it and move forward together. For there is one important thing I will take from all that has happened between us – that I will never love another, and that you are more important to me than anyone or anything else.”
“Even Gideon?” she asked with a wobbly smile.
“Even Gideon,” he answered with a grin himself.
She stepped even closer toward him, closing the small gap that still existed between them.
“I’ve never been able to resist a happy ending,” she said, tilting her face up toward him. “And, despite my very best efforts, I’ve never been able to resist you. I think it’s time that I stop trying. For I love you too, Devon, with every part of me.”
His grin spread even wider then as he looked down at her, released her hands, and then framed them around her face and brought her to him for a kiss that was more than a kiss – it was a declaration that she belonged to him, as he did to her, and a promise that they would have one another for the rest of their lives.
They finally broke away from one another when they heard a throat clearing behind them, but they kept their eyes on each other instead of turning to Gideon, who radiated both approval and disapproval at the same time.
“I’ve always been a sucker for a happy ending,” Cassandra said, humor in her voice, and Devon laughed.
“How very fortunate for me.”
Gideon apparently didn’t appreciate being ignored any longer by his best friend and his sister, for he now stepped into the room, close enough that they had no choice but to acknowledge his presence.
“I think that is quite enough of that,” he said. “I have allowed the two of you to be alone long enough.”
“But Gideon,” Cassandra said with an eye roll, “Devon and I—”
“Are to be married,” Gideon interrupted. “As far as I am concerned, nothing else untoward has occurred. Now, we best go speak to Mother, of course, and then we have more business to discuss.”
“Business?” Cassandra asked, furrowing her brow, and Gideon winked.
“We have a riddle to solve,” he said, looking from her to Devon and back again. “What do you say we do it together?”
“I say,” Cassandra said, placing her hands on her hips, “it is about time. Now, where is everyone?”
“Right here,” Madeline said, appearing around the doorway. “We didn’t go far.”
“Were you spying on me?” Cassandra demanded, but without malice. For she didn’t overly care, as she would have shared all with her friends anyway.
“We were,” Percy confirmed. “And we are very happy for you. For both of you, Cassandra, my lord.”
Cassandra left the room to seek out Hope, who wore an expression more coy than Cassandra had ever seen upon her before.
“That was quite the scheme,” she said with admiration, causing Hope’s cheeks to flush.
“I am just happy all worked out,” Hope said.
“Which it did, better than I could have ever wished for,” Cassandra said before looking around at the rest of them. “Now, what do you say we go solve this riddle?”
CHAPTER25
“Are you sure about this?” Gideon asked as the ten of them filled the stables. They had been met by concerned stable hands who’d thought they had missed preparing the horses for the lot of them, but they had quickly assured them that they were there not to ride but to visit the horses.
Their confusion was evident; however, Gideon had relieved them of their duties for the remainder of the afternoon, leaving the stables empty for them to search.
“I’m not entirely certain, no,” Cassandra admitted now, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the riddle. She held it out before her, reading the words she had committed to memory some time ago through the dusty light in front of her. “But once I determined that it was a code, it was easy to decipher. Whoever created it did not make it overly complex. We were so caught up in the riddle we didn’t realize that it could be something else entirely.”
“And what did you determine the code read?”
