There was no great fanfare when Victoria arrived home, nor had she expected any. After sharing a loving embrace with her mother and a peck on the cheek with her grandfather, she excused herself to change her clothes.
She chose a gown that hadn’t gone to Manhattan with her. One that had no memories whatsoever, and then she went to the ground floor library, to go over the household finances, expenditures that had occurred in her absence.
The loss of ten thousand dollars also needed to be recorded, and though it had caused no significant issue to their wealth, it still irked her. She hated losing anything.
“How’d we fare during your absence?” her grandfather asked as he walked in the room.
She closed the ledger and replace it in the bottom drawer of the desk. “Fine, everything is in perfect order.”
“Did you expect differently?”
“No.”
“Good, you shouldn’t.” He sat down in his favorite chair and hoisted his feet onto a matching footstool. They were both covered in a green velvet that was starting to show wear. “Read about Elwood getting arrested in the Daily Beacon this morning. Read about Lincoln, too. Sounds like it was quite the tussle. Been a long time since I was involved in a good old argument, when men lose their tempers, would have been fun to see.”
“I’m just thankful no one was hurt,” she replied. “That can happen when men lose their tempers.”
“It can. I also read that the alderman is going to be fine. Didn’t give himself a heart attack or stroke. Just fainted.”
His disappointment was clear in his tone. “We shouldn’t wish ill will upon anyone,” she said.
“Don’t need to, he’ll get what’s coming to him.” He pointed towards the door. “The paper is in the parlor if you want to read it.”
“No, thank you, but I do need to let you know that I left the picture in New York, for Lincoln to use in the case against Elwood. I will purchase a new one to replace it.”
“No need. I already did that.”
Still finding it hard to believe what he’d done, she asked, “Did Elwood ask you to put a watch in the safe that day?”
“Yes, I knew right then that he must have heard that I’d left the safe unlocked when other suitors were here.” He frowned. “Is that something Lincoln should know for the case?”
“I don’t believe so, but I do request that you refrain from doing it again.” She pointed a finger at him. “That was a very dangerous game you were playing.”
“I know that, and it’s why we have two butlers, not one.”
“Neither of them stopped Elwood,” she pointed out.
“Because I told Bart not to.” He planted both hands behind his head and held his arm akimbo as he leaned back. “So, how long are you home for?”
Not wanting to get into any explanations, she stood. “For good.”
“Ignoring something doesn’t make it go away,” he said.
She walked to the door. “I’m not ignoring anything.”
“You’re ignoring me.”
“I’m talking to you.”
“And making a fast exit.”
She refused to comment on that, because it was the truth, and walked out the door.
“If you never lose,” he said in her wake, “you don’t know what it feels like to win.”
She kept walking, because she did know what it felt like to lose.
Lincoln slid the paper Ronald had signed into the envelope, while ignoring the pinch of his heart. It was just a little pinch. He’d felt much stronger ones when it came to thoughts of Victoria.
“Thanks for taking the time to send in the patent with all that’s going on right now,” Ronald said. “Can’t pick up a newspaper that isn’t filled with your name.”
That was because work was the only thing that would get him through this. “The deeper I dig, the more I find on Alderman Kelley,” Lincoln said. “False leases, fake vouchers, padded bills, he was pilfering money from everywhere, inside and outside of his districts. Including from his associates, which is why they are willing to sing. Even his own son is indicting his father in everything.”
“So, is Victoria coming back anytime soon?” Ronald asked.
There wasn’t a day in the two weeks since she’d left that someone hadn’t asked him about her. They had fooled Manhattan well, more convincingly than he’d imagined. “No. She’s busy with her family. Her grandfather has heart spells.” That was his given excuse, and he would use it as long as it took. Took for what? To forget her? That would never happen.
“That’s too bad, I have a new invention I’d like to show her. It’s an electric fan.”
“The electric fan has already been invented,” Lincoln said.
“Not one like this,” Ronald said. “It blows so fast that it can dry your hair. Just don’t have long hair and stand on the wrong side of it.”
Lincoln nodded while pointing a finger at Ronald in a gesture that said he could be right on that one.
“Well, maybe I could tag along on your next trip Tarrytown, tell her about my fan.”
If he were welcome, Lincoln would have already been there, but wouldn’t have asked anyone to tag along because he was selfish when it came to her. “Hard for me to get away right now, but I’ll let you know.”
“All right, I’ll let you get back to work,” Ronald said, walking to the door. “Don’t be a stranger.”
“You, neither,” Lincoln replied.
The door closed and Lincoln leaned his head back, let out a long sigh. He should be glad things had worked out the way they had. That he hadn’t been completely wrong. He didn’t have time to worry about a wife and if she was sitting home lonely or not. Worried or not. This case was becoming so complex, he was wondering if he should put a bed in his office, so he could just sleep here.
If. There were a lot of ifs in life, just like he’d told her.
Such as, if he loved her, as much as he thought he did, shouldn’t he be happy for her? Happy that she was living the life that she wanted, even though it wasn’t one that included him.
If he really loved her, shouldn’t he be happy for the time they’d had together? That’s what Troy had said. That he was happy for the time he’d had with Willamette. That was fine for Troy to say. Willamette had died loving him.
If he really loved her... Lincoln shook his head. There was no if in that. He did love her. And he was so selfish that he wasn’t happy to not be in her life and he wasn’t happy that they weren’t together now.
There was no reason. No precedence. No law.
Therefore, he had reason to be selfish. He had reason to show her, too. Show her that he’d put both Kelleys in prison. Show her that he’d run for attorney general and win.
Show her...
His entire being went still, except for his heart, he could feel it opening as the last thought struck.
Show her that he didn’t want any of that without her.
He shot out of his chair and out of his office.
Three doors down the hall, he opened his father’s door. “I’ll be gone for a while.”
“All right,” his father replied. “How long?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are you going?”
Done fooling anyone, he said, “Tarrytown.”
His father grinned, and nodded. “Take as long as you need.”
He didn’t even pack a bag, just went to the train station, and boarded the first train heading north. Less than three hours later, he knocked on her front door.
It was a big house, made of stones and wood, on the outskirts of town, with a vast expanse of green grass and full-grown trees.
The man who answered the door, the butler, he assumed, was more than what he’d call good-sized. This one was big enough to throw two good-sized men out the door at the same time. “I would like to see Miss Biggs,” Lincoln said.
“May I tell her who is calling?”
“Lincoln Dryer.”
The butler gave a slight nod. “Please wait here.”
“He doesn’t need to wait anywhere,” an old voice said.
Lincoln grinned, hoping that he did have an ally in Emmet.
“Come in, Lincoln, I was wondering when you’d show up.” Emmet waved a hand at the butler. “Shut the door, Bart, and Lincoln, follow me.”
Lincoln obeyed, walked down a long hallway, through a sitting room, and out a door onto a covered porch, that hosted several chairs and small tables.
Emmet pointed towards a line of evergreen trees. “She’s out there, on the other side of the tree row. She bought herself one of those new-fangled bicycle things and takes it for a ride every afternoon. I think it’s making Maize jealous, that’s her horse. She rides the bicycle on the same trail she used to ride Maize. Just follow the gravel, you’ll eventually run into her.”
“Thank you, Emmet.”
“Yeah, well, don’t blame me if she bites your head off. She took mine off a time or two already this week.”
Lincoln could relate. He’d snapped at a few people himself the past few days. He and Victoria weren’t so different. “I won’t.”
He followed the gravel pathway, out to and through the row of trees, and continued to follow it as it twisted and turned around bushes and trees, until he saw her.
Actually, he saw the bicycle first, lying on the ground. She was sitting on the ground, with her back leaning against a tree trunk. The gravel beneath his boots alerted her and she turned, jumped to her feet.
She didn’t say a word, just shook her head.
He kept walking towards her, stopped when she was little more than an arm’s length away. “Hello, Victoria.”
“Lincoln.” She was still shaking her head. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I think you’re wrong,” he said. “I should have been here before now.”
“Why?”
“Because I love you. I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife. I want to see you at the breakfast table every morning and the dinner table every evening. I want you to have my children. I want so many things, and they all include you.”
She pressed the back of her hand over her mouth, while shaking her head again.
He knew it was going to take some hard work to convince her, and that was something he’d never shied away from. “We are very much alike, Victoria. In a man it’s called ambition, and in a woman, it’s called stubbornness. At least I believe that’s what’s happened in our case. I’m considered ambitious, because when I set my mind to something, I believe I’m right, and rarely change my opinion. That’s true for you, too, but you’re called stubborn when you refuse to change your opinion. Can you agree to that?”
She nodded.
“Good. Now, for a few facts. I love you, and you love me.” He waited and let out a silent sigh of relief when she nodded again. “I can’t promise that I’ll never make you worry, and you can’t promise that you’ll never make me worry. That’s part of loving someone, you care about them in every way. That is what I can promise, that I will love you, I will care about you in every way. Fully, completely, without reservation, I will love you above and beyond all else, for the rest of my life.” He stepped closer, touched her cheek with the palm of one hand. “I know you’re afraid of being hurt again, and there, too, we are alike. Because I’m afraid, too. Of losing you. I’m afraid of living the rest of my life without you.”
Victoria swallowed a sob, but couldn’t stop a second one. Nor could she stop the trembling of her hands, her body. “No. No.” All her hours of thinking, all her fears of losing him, she’d never considered his fears. Never considered what her actions were doing to him. “You can’t be afraid.”
“I am,” he said. “I’ve never been more afraid of anything in my life.”
She took a step back, needing the space to think. To remember why she couldn’t give in to the overwhelming desire to be wrapped in his arms. Her heart was pounding. Faster now than it had been when she recognized him on the walking path and realized she wasn’t seeing things.
He was here. In person, and she’d missed him so much. So, so much.
She had to remember why loving him was worse than the fear of losing him, but she couldn’t. Because it wasn’t worse. The love she felt for him was stronger. More powerful. The part of her she was afraid of losing, couldn’t ever be lost, just shared. She’d given it to him freely. Her love, all of it, and sharing it with him is what had made her whole. She’d just been too blind to see it. Too stubborn to see it. “I’ve been such a fool,” she said.
“No, you haven’t. You were just protecting yourself.”
A plethora of emotions washed over her. “In doing so, I hurt you.”
He grinned, shrugged. “You could kiss me and make it all better.”
Pinching her lips together, she tried hard not to smile. Tried harder to find a reason why she shouldn’t kiss him, but nothing formed. It couldn’t. She was too excited and leaped forward, looping her arms around his neck, and pressing her lips against his.
There it was. All the happiness she’d known in Manhattan was back.
She kissed him with all the love filling her heart. All the love filling her world.
Her love collided with his, intertwining their hearts, as much as their lips, their arms, and bodies. She couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. Encompassing her to the point where there wasn’t any room for anything else. Certainly not fear. There never would be room again. She’d been so focused on losing, that she’d failed to see what she was gaining. What she was winning. Him. His love. His forever love. That made her a winner.
The winner.
For the rest of her life.
A week later—because neither of them were willing to wait—in a small, private ceremony of family and a few dear friends, at the community church in Tarrytown, she became Mrs. Lincoln Dryer.
Proof positive that they hadn’t fooled Manhattan, they’d shown the entire world what love could do. Make the impossible, possible.
After a short reception, she and Lincoln checked into the small local hotel, for their wedding night. They would embark on a honeymoon in the morning. He wouldn’t say anything more than where they were going was a surprise. She accepted that, because she loved his surprises, loved him. Every day with him would be an adventure that she would live to the fullest.
Lincoln removed his jacket and tossed it onto the chair, before taking a hold of her hands. “There’s nothing to be afraid of,” he whispered, kissing her softly.
She looped her arms around his neck. “I know.”
“We’ll take it slow.”
She grasped the front of his shirt with both hands. “We’ve already waited too long for this.” They had, the past week of loving each other and not fully acting upon that love, had taken a toll on her patience. She ripped the front of his shirt open, not caring how buttons flew in every direction.
He laughed. “I love you.”
“Show me,” she whispered.
His strong, deft, and loving hands made short work of removing her wedding dress, and the promise of what was to come powered through her, leaving her incapable of thinking about anything else.
Kisses, hot and strong, that stole her breath and left her begging for more, told her he felt the same, and she loved it. Loved being his.
She kissed him, touched him, and savored the friction of his body against hers. He knew what she wanted, when she wanted it, and she enjoyed herself fully, knowing he was hers as much as she was his.
Like their love, how it grew every moment, so did the passion between them. She couldn’t get enough, wanted more, and wasn’t shy about admitting that. Wasn’t shy about demanding that.
Neither was he, and when the moment struck, when there was no higher that they could climb together, she cried out his name as an explosion of pleasure erupted inside her. It felt like she was flying. Flying high above the world, locked in his arms.
She eventually floated back down to earth, but was still breathing hard, her heart still beating wildly, and filled with happiness. “That was—”
“Worth the wait?” he asked.
“I was going to say amazing, but yes, it was definitely worth the wait.”