“I haven’t seen her, but Aria’s over there.” He pointed to the east side of the house, where Aria was replanting some bushes that had been pulled up.
“Come on, let’s go talk to her.” Now that he’d said he was staying, I didn’t want to let him out of my sight.
I hurried up to Aria, never once letting go of Rafe’s hand. “Aria!” I called when I neared her.
She hopped up, a big smile on her face. “Do you love it?”
“Love it?” I threw my arms around her. “It’s amazing. I haven’t even seen the inside, but I know it’s amazing. Thank you so much.”
“Thank Emma. She’s the one who called everyone.”
“Where is she?”
“Probably just waking up, if you’ve just woken. She was pretty knackered, too.”
“Of course.” We’d both drained our magic. I looked around at all the people, some of whom were still wearing pajama bottoms. “When did you get here? It’s still early in the morning.”
“I know.” She grinned. “Most of us arrived shortly after midnight.”
“Midnight? You did all this in the dark? While I slept?”
“Well, that bastard wasn’t able to ruin your electricity, at least. And it took a little while to convince the house to let us in, but eventually, it agreed. Then the shifters showed up around three.”
“It took us a while to make the drive,” Rafe said.
“Everyone worked overnight,” Aria said.
“You were on a deadline.” Aria pulled her phone out of her pocket to look at the time. “When does the solicitor arrive?”
“I’m not sure he’s going to.” I looked back down the hill at my grandmother, who still sat on the bench, a cup of tea now in her hand as she watched the activity. “Judith, my neighbor, is a lot more than she let on. She’s my gran, and she says the house is mine.”
“Um.” Aria’s brows rose. “You’ll have to tell me all of this. ASAP.”
“I will, as soon as I’ve seen the house.”
“Then let’s go see it! I think everyone is almost done.” She grinned and pointed to the driveway. “And Emma just arrived.”
I turned to see a removal van. Emma sat in the passenger seat, and Vivienne, of all people, sat behind the wheel.
“This cannot be real.” I watched as Vivienne hopped down from the cab, landing perfectly on her pale pink kitten heels. She straightened the coat of her perfectly tailored pink wool suit, then walked toward the house, clearly on a mission.
“It’s real,” Aria said. “And the dowager duchess just showed up with a van full of furniture for you.”
“Isobel!” Emma waved wildly, a huge grin on her face. “Come see what we’ve brought you! Vivienne decided she needed to redecorate a few more rooms!”
I laughed and hurried toward her, looking back to make sure that Rafe stuck with me. He did, and I reached for his hand, delighted when he squeezed mine tightly.
We stopped in front of Emma. Vivienne had already disappeared inside the house, and I was pretty sure I’d seen a tape measure gripped in her perfectly manicured hand.
I threw my arms around Emma. “This is incredible. Thank you.”
She pulled back and looked at Rafe. “I don’t think we would have finished in time without the wolves.”
“Well, however it happened, I’m just so grateful.” I pulled her in for a hug.
“Let’s go check out the house,” she said. “I’m dying to see what they’ve done. I wish I could have been here, but I was out cold.”
“Same,” I said, grinning at the memory of the magic we’d used together to set Tommy straight.
“Let’s go.” She turned and headed into the house.
I gripped Rafe’s hand and smiled up at him. He leaned down and kissed me, then whispered, “Ready to see your future?”
“So ready.” I beamed up at him, then followed Emma into the house.
It was exactly as it had been before, but better. In every repaired wall and timber, I could see the love of everyone who had worked on it, and it made my heart swell.
As for the house, it was happy. Deliriously so. I could feel it in my soul.
——
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Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Ash Fitzsimmons for your excellent editing. And thank you Susie and Aisha for your eagle eye for errors. The book is immensely better because of you!
About Linsey
Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.