With that, she opened her mouth and began to sing the words. Together the music that they made melded, bringing them closer together until he felt that, just like the notes of the music and the words, they were one.
It was the most glorious, breathtaking thing he had ever known.
Peter found himself thanking the heavens for the day that he’d wandered into Hatchards with the rain falling down and spotted her in the back of the shop.
Without doubt, it had been no coincidence. No coincidence she’d found that book either. And no coincidence that he’d kissed her in the garden and that they’d been caught.
This had always been meant to be.
This was the moment that they were always coming towards. Mad as it might sound to others? They had always been meant to be together. He knew that now, looking back on their childhood when they had been close.
And he wished that he’d never had to go away from her. He wished that he’d never suffered at the hands of his mother and father and believed that sorrow was his future.
Because when he looked down at her now, singing so beautifully, he knew that feared future was the farthest thing from the truth.
With Ophelia, happiness was the only possibility.
She smiled up at him. “Whatever are you thinking?”
He let his fingers rest on the keys. “I am thinking that all the darkness that I thought was in my future has been eradicated by your light.”
She blinked as tears of joy filled her gaze. “That is an incredibly powerful thing to say to me,” she said. “I do not know if I have that sort of power.”
“Indeed you do, Ophelia,” he breathed. “It shines from you. And it bathes me in light.”
“My goodness,” she said. “You are my light too. I always thought I was going to be alone. Unloved. But now?”
He took her hand in his and wound their fingers together. “Nothing would give me more pleasure than to keep you out of the darkness too.”
“So let us be like two lights brought together to make one great blaze,” she said, hope and love filling her eyes.
“What a fool I was,” he admitted. “What a fool I have always been not to see you when you were sitting in those corners—”
“You were not,” she cut in. “I was hiding,” she said. “I was hiding from the world, choosing to be alone in my books and in my head, thinking you could never want me. But I had no idea ...”
“Yes?” he prompted.
She lifted her hand and cupped his cheek. “I had no idea that you were waiting for me too, and that you could want me. Because I do think you want me,” she declared. “It’s not just because you had to marry me.”
“I want you,” he affirmed, his voice rough with his emotion. “I want you more than I can ever say because you? You are my home. My light. My hope.”
She bit her lower lip as if she dared not quite believe it, but she did. “You seemed so determined—”
“What, my darling?” he prompted.
“So determined that we would be just like every other ton marriage.”
“We were never going to be like any ton marriage,” he assured. “We never could be. Look at us,” he urged.
Peter turned back to the piano, and he began to play again. And she began to sing again.
And they were as one.
Chapter 12
As they lay twined together in his massive four-poster bed, Ophelia lifted her head and gazed down at her husband.
“Why is this so easy now?” she asked. “I thought there would be a greater struggle towards...”