Page 77 of The Butterfly
“It is beautiful,” she said, turning to gaze out over the water. “When the weather is warm, we should visit with Serena and Gawain. They’d love to bathe in the water.”
He nodded, a little smile pulling at the corner of his mouth as he imagined it—the two children in his care romping in the sand and wading in the ocean.
“Aye. I think that is a fine idea.”
“What’s this?” she asked, her hand touching his and drawing his gaze back to the shard of porcelain.
He held it up so she could see it. “Just a little something I’ve had since I was a boy.”
Taking it from his hand, she turned it over and studied it. “Porcelain?”
“Aye, a piece of a little statue from yer stepda’s study. I broke it. My da slapped me somethin’ fierce for it, and the earl made me clean it up. I kept a piece because I was so enamored with it. At the time, that porcelain and gold figure was the finest thing I’d ever touched. So I pilfered it.”
She smiled, handing the piece back to him. “I think that is sweet.”
Niall shrugged. “I dinnae know if I need it anymore. My da used to tell me that things like this were worth more than my entire life.”
Olivia made a little sound of derision, her mouth pinching as she shook her head. “I never liked that man. I hated the way he treated you, the things he’d say. I hope that by now, you’ve come to see that he was wrong, Niall. You are priceless to the people who love you … to me, most of all. I’d rather have you than all the wealth and possessions the world could offer me.”
Turning to face her, he grinned. He reached out with one arm and drew her against him, molding her body tight against his. She went pliant against him, pulling one hand free of her muff to rest it upon his chest.
“Aye,mo gradh. I feel the same way. I used to think this little bit of porcelain was so beautiful, so perfect, and valuable. But, now …”
Keeping his arm around her, he lifted the piece of the statue with his other hand and, without watching where it fell, hurled it out toward the ocean. Olivia gasped, eyes wide as she stared out at the water, then back at him.
“Why did you do that? It meant so much to you.”
He brought his other arm around her and held her even tighter, until he could feel every inch of her through the layers of his clothing and hers.
“Because, I do not need it,” he told her. “Not when I already own the most beautiful, perfect, priceless thing God ever made. Nothin’ else could ever compare to you,mo gradh.”
Her smile grew, its radiance putting the glow of the setting sun to shame. “Oh, Niall … did you ever think we could be this happy?”
He shook his head. “No, but ye always did, didn’t ye? Ye believed in us when no one else did. I guess our little game of ‘what ifs’ cannae be called a game anymore.”
Biting her lip, she stood on tiptoe and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Oh, I don’t know. I think it could be the best sort of game now. I could ask you something like … ‘what if you were to take me inside to our chambers and make love to me, right now?’”
Heat flared between them as if she’d struck a match, and he was already going up in flames, burning for her as hotly as he always had. Reaching down to cup her buttocks, he gave it a little squeeze, drawing a giggle from her.
“What my Livvie wants, my Livvie gets.”
She took his arm and allowed him to lead her toward the sloping path that led back up to the castle. Clinging tight to his arm, she leaned her head against his shoulder with a contented sigh. The sound reverberated through him like a note of music, more powerful than a laugh or a sob. It was a sound that told him everything he’d ever wanted was truly his now—including a happy and contended Olivia.
EPILOGUE
1 year later …
livia squinted against the light of the afternoon sun as the door to the carriage swung open. After a long journey and several stops at inns along the way, she and Niall had reached their destination. A fortnight ago, he’d told her of a surprise he had in store for her over breakfast. He’d been up to something—she could to tell by the long hours spent in his study and the sporadic trips to Kincardinshire and other places he never told her of.
At first, she had assumed it all must be related to his newly-sprung business venture—the breeding, training, and sale of horses. The idea had come to him not long after their wedding. He had told her all about it during a walk to their favorite place on the house grounds—where they’d shared their first kiss. Standing there beside the little pond, he’d spoken with such excitement of his ideas, sparking a matching fervor in her.
“I know we have everythin’ we’ll ever need,” he had told her. “But I dinnae have it in me to live like those other gents … so pampered I start to grow soft.”
Poking his flat stomach, she had grinned. “It’d take quite a bit of indulgence to turnyousoft.”
“Still,” he’d insisted. “I always wanted to make my own way in the world. Since we wed, I’ve been thinkin’ of how I could do that. I think this is it, Livvie.”
They’d gone back into the house, to the room that had once been her stepfather’s study. There, they’d spent hours planning and talking of how it would be, the sort of reputation he could build as a breeder of fine horseflesh. With the decades’ worth of knowledge he possessed of the beasts, Olivia had predicted he’d be a smashing success.
