Anthony watched Lewis’s face change. Watched the anger shift into something else, something that looked like recognition. Like resignation. Like a man realizing he had already lost the argument before it began.
Lewis closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he looked at Anthony, and the expression on his face was one Anthony had never seen before. Exhaustion. Relief. Something that looked almost like gratitude.
“You will protect her,” he said quietly. “When you are married. You will keep her safe.”
It was not a question. Anthony answered anyway. “With my life.”
Lewis nodded slowly. Then, with visible effort, he said, “I was wrong. About Powell. About not listening to you. I thought Iknew what was best for her, and I nearly—” His voice caught. “I nearly lost her because of it.”
Anthony felt something in his chest loosen. “You were trying to protect her. I understand that better than you think.”
“I know you do.” Lewis looked at him, really looked at him, and Anthony saw in his friend’s eyes the acknowledgment of everything they had not said to each other over the years.
All the ways they had both been shaped by fathers who had made them feel insufficient. All the ways they had both learned to build walls and call it strength.
“Thank you,” Lewis said. “For protecting her. For seeing her when I was too blind to notice she needed to be seen.”
Anthony opened his mouth to respond, to accept the apology gracefully, to move forward with the dignity the moment required, but the thing that came out instead was, “Good God. Are you actually thanking me? Should I send for a physician?”
Lewis blinked at him, then his mouth twitched. “I am trying to be sincere, you insufferable?—”
“I know. It’s very moving. I may weep.” Anthony smiled, just slightly. “But I think we both know you would have come around eventually. You love her too much to deny her this one request.”
“I love her too much to let you hurt her,” Lewis said, and the warning in his voice was real. “If you hurt her, Anthony, I will make you regret it.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
They stood there for a moment, the tension between them not entirely gone but transformed into something manageable. Something that felt, for the first time in weeks, like the friendship they had built over years of careful trust.
Then Anthony turned to Caroline, who was still standing in the doorway, watching them both with an expression that suggested she was deciding whether to be relieved or exasperated. He crossed to her, took her hand, and felt the rightness of it settle in his chest.
“Your brother has graciously given his consent,” he said. “Though he has also threatened to kill me if I make you unhappy, so I would appreciate it if you could avoid giving him a reason.”
She laughed, and the sound was bright and clear and entirely unguarded. “I will do my best.”
He looked at Lewis then and let the smile fall away. He became serious once more. “She is my heart,” he said quietly. “I will protect her. I will cherish her. And I will spend the rest of my life making sure she never regrets saying yes to me.”
Lewis held his gaze for a long moment. Then he nodded once, a sharp, definitive movement that carried the weight of acceptance. Of approval. Of the end of one chapter and the beginning of another.
“Good,” he said. “Because if you do not, I will be forced to challenge you to a duel, and we both know I am a terrible shot.”
“You are an excellent shot,” Anthony said.
“I know. That is why it would be a problem.”
Caroline made a sound that was half laugh, half exasperation, and Anthony felt the last of the tension drain from his shoulders.
It was done. Lewis knew. Lewis had accepted it. And Caroline was standing beside him, her hand in his, and she was going to be his wife.
He had not expected to feel this. Relief, yes. Satisfaction, certainly. But not this particular sensation: the feeling of something settling into place. Of a life he had not known he wanted, becoming, suddenly, the only life he could imagine.
He had spent years believing he was not enough. That he would never be the duke his father had wanted, the man his brother had been. That he was, at his core, the useless second son his father had named him. And then Caroline had walked into his life with her impossible list and her stubborn refusal to acceptanything less than the truth, and she had looked at him and seen something worth loving.
It was, he thought, the first time in his life that he had felt like he might actually deserve what he had been given.
Lewis cleared his throat. “I suppose I should inform Esther. She will want to begin planning the wedding immediately.”
“Tell her to take her time,” Anthony said. “We are in no rush.”