‘When I first walked into this house I knew it was the place I wanted to call my home,’ he told her. His face was serious now—completely serious. ‘I had a sudden vision...a vision of myself here, with the woman I love, making our home here together, raising our family here together.’ His eyes had a rueful glint in them again. ‘I thought that I would have to bring her here, having found her somewhere out in the world beyond. And yet all along—’ His voice changed, and there was a crack in it, he knew. ‘All along she was here. Waiting for me to find her. Waiting,’ he said, ‘to find me.’
He paused minutely.
‘And now,’ he said, ‘we’re done with waiting. Done with finding. We can just enjoy, Ellen. Enjoy the rest of our lives together.’
His mouth lowered to hers and he kissed her softly, gently, before withdrawing. He felt her fingers tightening over his as his lips brushed hers, felt the sudden constricting of her throat, saw the misting of her eyes as he drew his head away.
‘So...’ he said, because he wanted to make sure—to make absolutely, totally sure of his future happiness...a happiness that was already flooding through him, soaking through every cell in his body, radiating from him like a beacon. ‘Have we finally got everything sorted? I love you, you love me, and we’re going to marry and live here together in this house we both love, make it a home again, for you and for me and for all the children we are most definitely going to have! A happy family home for a happy family—just as we both wanted. Did I leave anything out?’ he asked.
Ellen leaned into his shoulder. Her sigh was pure happiness. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I think you’ve just described heaven on earth.’
Max smiled. A warm, approving smile that melted her all the way through.
‘That’s what I thought,’ he said. He dropped another kiss on her nose. ‘I do like to be right,’ he told her.
He straightened up.
‘OK, it’s a lovely day—actually the best day in my entire life so far—let’s get outdoors. Let’s get into the sunshine—the sunshine of our lives, my adored, beautiful goddess and lioness.’
She looked at him. ‘Can I be both?’ she queried, with a teasing smile in her eyes.
Max’s mouth quirked, his expression doting. ‘You can be everything you want, my beloved, providing you go on loving me.’
He started to lead the way out of the library and across the hall, his hand wound in hers and hers in his. Side by side and shoulder to shoulder.
‘And you me,’ said Ellen.
He paused at the door. ‘Deal,’ said Max, and kissed her once again.
Then, with a squeeze of her hand, he opened the front door and they stepped through it, into the sunshine, into the happiness of their life together, into their love for each other.
EPILOGUE
MAX WRAPPED HIS arm around Ellen and drew her closer against his shoulder as they leant back against the sun-warmed stone. They were sitting on the step of the little folly, looking out over the lake to where the setting sun was turning its reedy waters bronze. Ellen gave a sigh of deep contentment as she nestled into Max’s sheltering embrace, her knees drawn up and slanting against his thighs.
‘You’re really sure you’re OK with us spending our honeymoon here at Haughton?’ she asked him, glancing up at his profile.
He nodded, his gaze going to her. ‘My beautiful, adored Ellen—don’t you know that I am happy wherever you are? And if you are happiest here, then here we shall stay for all our days,’ Max finished with a fond smile, and let his lips brush across her hair.
‘Maybe,’ she mused, ‘I feel that if I ever leave Haughton I’ll return to find that this heaven was only a dream, and I’m back here again with Pauline and Chloe still trying to sell it from under my feet and force me out,’ she said.
Max shook his head. ‘Oh, no,’ he said decisively. ‘This heaven is real, believe me. And as for your stepmother and stepsister—well, they’ll never set foot on your property again, I promise you. If they even come back to the UK I’ll know about it!’
She looked at him quizzically. ‘Are you really keeping them under surveillance?’ she asked.
‘I’m keeping tabs on them, yes,’ Max admitted. ‘So that wherever in the world they go, if they try and home in on anyone wealthy but vulnerable, like your father was, then their target will be warned. Of course,’ he went on, ‘it could be that they won’t need to target money any more—they have pots of their own. And I don’t mean just their ill-gotten gains from selling me their share of Haughton!’
Ellen’s quizzical look intensified and Max elucidated.
‘I just happened to mention to them, at some point while I was acquiring their share of Haughton, several new property hotspots that were emerging, where substantial profits could be made. They seized on it, and my latest information is that they’re now investing substantially. However, if they’re prudent they’ll take on board that where there is the chance of high return there’s also the chance of being wiped out financially.’ He smiled, and it was not a wholly benign smile. ‘Let’s just say that if they do get wiped out financially...well, I for one will not be weeping.’
Ellen looked away, out over the lake. She had come so close to losing her beloved home that it was hard to feel any concern at the prospect of Pauline and Chloe losing the money they’d made on selling up to the man who’d saved Haughton for her.
‘Karma,’ she murmured now.
‘Yes, indeed,’ agreed Max. ‘And it was fate, too, that brought me here...let me find you here.’
He turned his head to look across the lake, beyond the lawns, to the mellow stone house that was now home to both of them, safe and secure for ever, for themselves and for their children to come. Contentment filled him. With his free hand he reached sideways to lift the bottle of champagne from its ice bucket.