Chapter Fourteen
“Where is Alana going?” John said, coming up beside the duke at that moment.
“Damned if I know, my boy. One moment she was standing here, perfectly happy, and the next, something set her off.” He looked across the room. “Miss Valentine looks lonely, standing under the Cupid. Why not pay her some attention, boy?”
John barely glanced at Susan. “She has been standing there for the better part of five minutes, hoping to attract someone.” He grinned. “I’ve been hiding in the card room.”
Grafton laughed. “Good for you, my boy. Don’t let Lady Pamela catch you in her snares.”
“I’ve no intention of it. Sir.” John’s smile faded. “I need to talk with you about something.”
“You wish to marry my granddaughter. Very well.”
John stared at him. “Just like that? I thought you disapproved the match.”
“Oh, no, no. Ware and I discussed it coming here, and we think it’s an excellent thing. Knew if we told you two, though, you’d balk.”
“For God’s sake,” John said. “You tricked us.”
“Yes, I suppose we did.”
“I should be angry.” John was grinning again. “I couldn’t understand why my father wasn’t pushing me to marry.” His gaze sharpened. “I have your permission, then, to pay my addresses to your granddaughter?”
“Yes, yes. Go after her, my boy. She said something about going to the library.”
“The library? Well, I suppose it’s a fitting place. If you’ll excuse me, sir,” he said, and turned, walking with purposeful strides out of the room. Alana was going to listen to him this time. She had to. His future depended on it.
The library was dark and quiet, just as Alana had hoped it would be. After lighting a taper, she bent to stir the fire into life, and then rose, rubbing her hands together for warmth. Dark, quiet, and cold, and yet she wouldn’t return to the life and warmth of the music room unless forced to. Not if it meant watching John make love to other women. Flirting was one thing, kissing quite another. Though she knew she could trust him, deep in her heart a tiny doubt remained. She was no beauty, and she was past her first youth. What could he possibly see in her?
The door opened, and she looked up, gasping in surprise at the figure silhouetted in the doorway. “Sir Gabriel!”
He stepped forward. “No, ‘tis only I,” he said. John’s voice.
“Oh! For a moment I thought—”
“I know what you thought. This damned wig.” With a quick gesture he swept the wig from his head and stood there, not a supernatural being, but just John, very alive and very dear. “Will I have to compete with him the rest of my life?”
“No.” She turned away to poke at the fire. “What do you here?”
“Your grandfather said you were here. Said something upset you.”
“Upset me!” She whirled around. “Of course it upset me. What did you think?”
“What?”
“Oh, don’t play the innocent with me! I saw you kissing Susan Valentine.”
“What? When?”
“Not five minutes ago, under that stupid Cupid in the doorway.”
“Good God, it wasn’t me! I was with Lady Honoria in the card room.”
“What? Then who—”
“Ask her if you don’t believe me.”
“Then who was kissing her?”
“No one. She has stood under that Cupid all evening, and I’ve seen no one approach her.”
“But I saw—there’s no one else here in cavalier dress in that color, and—my God!” She sank into a chair. “Sir Gabriel.”
“What?”
“It had to be. No one else would have seen him, only me. That meddling, interfering man—”
“Alana.” John knelt before her, his face creased with concern. “Are you quite well?”
The face she raised to him was merry with laughter. “Yes. Oh, John, don’t you see? We’ve been surrounded by a pack of matchmaking old men all week.”
John grinned. “And if we have? Is it so bad?”
She looked at him. “No. I—no.”
“Alana.” He grasped her hands in his. “Sweetheart, I know you were hurt before, and I can’t undo that. But can’t you forget the past? I have. I’ve given up my wild ways. Oh, it’s true, I was something of a rake in town, but I wasn’t happy. I never was. I was always searching for something I could never find. Until I came here, and found you.”
“Oh, John.” She reached out to lay her hand on his cheek. “And I broke the crystal heart. Your heart.”
“No matter. There’s another.” From his pocket he withdrew the crystal heart, letting it dangle before her from its chain. “The real one.”
“John!” Alana reached out for it. “It can’t be.”
“But it is. See? There are the initials.”
“‘GF and MF’,” she read. “Good heavens, this is it! But where did you find it?”
“I didn’t. My mother sent it to me. You see, Alana,” he smiled, “it appears I’m descended from Sir Gabriel.”
“Gammon!”
“No, ‘tis true. She wrote me a letter, detailing the ancestry. I imagine she’s very curious why I wanted to know.”
“You’re Sir Gabriel’s descendant.”
“Yes.”
“And you have the crystal heart.”
“Yes. And I’ve given up my roistering ways.”
“The conditions to be met, to fulfill the vow.”
“Not quite.” He clasped the heart about her neck. “I give this to you, not because of your fortune, not because of an old vow, but because I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”
“Oh, John!” she exclaimed, and cast herself into his arms.
The door from the hall opened. “See? Told you they’d be in here,” the duke’s voice rumbled, and both he and the marquess came in. “Everything settled between you two?”
“Yes, sir,” John said, as manfully as he could, considering he still held Alana close. “Wish us happy. We are to be wed.”
“Well, what are you hiding in here for? Come out and let’s announce it to everyone.”
John and Alana looked at each other. “Shall we?”
Alana fingered the crystal heart. “I think it’s appropriate, don’t you?”
“Yes. But I warn you, madam, I shall want some time alone with you.”
“You will have it, sir,” she said lightly, letting him help her to her feet. At the door she stopped, turning and looking into the room where so much of her life had changed. “John!” she gasped, clutching suddenly at his arm.
“What?” he said, looking back, and his eyes widened. “Good God. Is that—”
“Shh.” Holding onto each other, they watched as a glow grew in the center of the room. In it stood a dark-haired lady, lovely, smiling, her eyes focused only on the handsome cavalier who approached her. Lady Madeleine and Sir Gabriel, reunited at last, after so many years. She held out her hand; he took it in both of his. The glow strengthened, intensified, until the two people watching had to shield their eyes against it. Then, suddenly, it was gone. The library was empty.
“Good God,” John said again. “If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes—”
“They found each other again,” Alana said, wonderingly. “Because of us.”
“Yes. Because of us. As we have found each other.” John glanced one last time into the room, and then took her arm. “Come, my love. They’ll be waiting for us.”
Alana, too, looked into the room, and felt peace fill her. “Yes,” she said, holding onto his arm, and walked away. Behind her was the past. Before her was her future. The legend of the crystal heart had been fulfilled.
The End