His hands sought out the soft naked flesh of her thighs where her stockings and garters met her skin. Søren dug his fingers hard into her hips, hard enough that she gasped. His teeth found her earlobe and bit down. Pain. Blessed pain. The dead feel no pain, and Nora had never felt more alive than she did at this moment with her heart in her throat and her eyes shedding tears. Nora pushed his kilt up and he positioned himself at the entrance of her body. He brought her down onto him, joining them into one. Union. Communion. Love incarnate.

Nora wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her cheek against his shoulder. His strong hand cupped the back of her head like a father holding a child to his chest.

“I promised to give you everything,” Søren whispered into her ear. “When you left me, I knew I could never keep my promise because I could never give you everything you needed. I couldn’t be all things to you and it hurt because I wanted to be. I wanted to keep my promise.”

“You are my everything.”

“Perhaps we made the wrong promises. I should have promised you forever. And you should have promised me everything. You’ve given me everything I ever wanted. You didn’t let me leave the church. You were right in that I would have regretted it. You gave me Kingsley back,” he said. “When I almost lost you to Marie-Laure I found him again. And you sent Grace to me and gave me—”

“I did that for me,” she said. “I’m not that selfless. I wanted...”

“What did you want?”

“I couldn’t do it myself. But I thought...maybe...with her...” She stopped and smiled. “Was that wrong of me?”

“No,” Søren said. “I would never have betrayed you if I thought you would have counted it as a betrayal.”

“I wanted a part of you to live on after you were gone.”

“Eleanor, I will never truly be gone from you. I will never leave you or forsake you.”

“Where you go I will go. Your God will be my God,” Nora continued the verse. “Where you die, there I will be buried.”

“And we will have each other forever. In this life and the next.”

“Promise?” she asked.

“Anything for you, Little One,” he said. “Everything for you.”

Søren kissed her hair as she tilted her hips against him, taking him deeper into her, holding him there, pulsing around him with her inner muscles even as her fingertips lightly played with his hair and her lips feathered soft kisses along his collar. She closed her eyes tight and gasped when he came into her, filling her depths and breathing her name.

When it was over and done with she stayed on his lap with her arms around him, holding him and being held. She heard footsteps approaching and felt Søren’s body tense. She didn’t let him go.

“I’m here,” she whispered. “I’m always here.”

She looked up and saw Kingsley standing in the doorway to the chapel. She met his eyes and he nodded.

Søren turned back and looked at Kingsley, who said the words they’d been waiting three hours to hear.

“Søren, your son is here.”

38

Everything

NORA GAVE SØREN one last kiss on the forehead.

“It’s time,” she whispered. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway with Kingsley if you need a minute to pray.”

“Thank you.”

Nora rose from his lap and straightened her skirts. Kingsley held out his hand, and she took it in hers. Together they stood in the darkened hallway, her head against his chest, his arms around her.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Scared. Happy,” she said. “Scared by how happy I am.”

“I know that feeling. I felt the same way the day you introduced me to my son. Now you can introduce him to his.”

Nora looked into Kingsley’s eyes. “You do it.”

Kingsley narrowed his eyes at her.

“Elle... I speak from experience when I say this moment will be the most important moment of his life,” Kingsley said. “The first time I held Céleste? The first time I met Nico? Those were the two best days of my life. Nothing will ever be the same for him again after today.”

“That’s why you should do it. Because you’ve been through this before. And because if it’s the most important moment in his life, he should share it with the most important person in the world to him. That’s you.”

Kingsley’s eyes filled with tears and he smiled. In a hoarse voice and with a hand over his heart he answered, “It would be my honor.”

“Merci,” she said, smiling and shaking all at once. She stepped into Kingsley’s arms again and relaxed against him. Now there was nothing between them, no secrets, no shame, no bitterness, no sorrow. She loved Kingsley and Kingsley loved her and nothing would ever tear the three of them apart again. Because God had joined them together, all three of them, and what God has joined together no one would tear asunder.

Søren emerged from the chapel.

“Would you like to meet your son now, mon ami?” Kingsley asked.

“Yes,” Søren said. “I would like that very much.”

“I’ll introduce you to him. Don’t be upset if he likes me better than he likes you,” Kingsley said. “I’ve already met him. And everyone likes me better.”

“Eleanor, is Nico as arrogant as his father?”

“No one is as arrogant as his father. Except his father’s best friend.”

“That’s unfair,” Søren said as the three of them, side by side by side, walked down the hall and toward the castle’s vestibule. “It’s not arrogance. It’s self-awareness.”

“How have I put up with this for twenty-three years?” Nora sighed. “And where do I sign up for twenty-three years more?”

“I believe you did in the chapel,” Søren said, reaching out to squeeze her left hand.

The way brightened as they reached the end of the hallway. Nora stopped and stayed in the shadows. She let go of Søren’s hand.

“Give my godson a kiss for me,” Nora said, kissing Søren on the lips.

Søren didn’t speak. He simply touched her cheek and looked into her eyes.

“Go,” she said. “It’s an order.”

“Yes, Mistress,” Søren said with a wink.

“Shall we?” Kingsley said. With a gallant bow he ushered Søren from the hallway into the vestibule. Nora looked across the room filled to bursting with blue and gold tapestries and knights in armor and gray stone walls and mullioned windows and saw none of it. A scene far more arresting captured her gaze. A red-haired woman in a blue dress and a dark-haired man in a black suit holding the hands of a blond-haired three-year-old boy dressed in a jacket, tiny tie and short pants.

Søren took a few steps forward and stopped. Kingsley continued toward the trio and shook hands with the man, kissed the woman and knelt on the floor to greet the boy. Words were exchanged but Nora couldn’t hear them. But she did see the little boy grin. Kingsley had that effect on children. He laughed when Kingsley stood up and swept him off his small feet and dropped him onto his broad shoulders. Kingsley carried the boy on his shoulders across the room. When he reached Søren, Kingsley went down onto his knees, a knight before a king, a king before his god. And the little boy, Fionn Easton, was now at eye level with Søren. Nora could barely breathe as she watched them, as she saw them looking at each other, trying to figure each other out. Fionn had intelligent eyes that were forever watching, seeking, taking the measure of everyone and everything he saw. But he had a smiling face, too, and an infectious giggle. He was a good boy and Nora loved him. How could she not? She’d dreamed of him and there he was with his father at last. Today was an embarrassment of miracles.

Søren said something to Fionn and held out his hand. Fionn took the large hand in his and shook it. Søren lifted Fionn off Kingsley’s shoulders and Kingsley came to his feet again. The three of them—Kingsley, Søren and Søren’s son—walked over to his mother, to Grace Easton. Zach Easton, Grace’s husband and Nora’s editor, walked over to her.