"Might I remind you that you are the one who could hardly bring herself to speak to me about the marriage bed the night before my wedding?"

Violet waved that off. "I'm long past that awkwardness, I assure you. Why, with Hyacinth-"

"I don't want to know," Daphne said firmly.

"Well, yes, probably not," Violet conceded. "Nothing is ordinary with Hyacinth."

Daphne didn't say anything, so Violet reached out and took her hand. "Yes, Daphne," she said with great sincerity, "I am happy."

"I can't imagine if Simon-"

"I couldn't imagine it, either," Violet cut in. "Yet it happened. I thought I should die of the pain."

Daphne swallowed.

"But I didn't. And you wouldn't. And the truth is, eventually it does become easier. And you think that perhaps you could find happiness with someone else."

"Francesca did," Daphne murmured.

"Yes, she did." Violet closed her eyes for a moment, recalling how terribly worried she'd been for her third daughter during those years of her widowhood. She'd been so terribly alone, not shunning her family precisely, but not truly reaching out to them, either. And unlike Violet, she'd had no children to help her find her strength again.

"She is proof that one can be happy twice," Violet said, "with two different loves. But, you know, she's not the same kind of happy with Michael as she was with John. I would not value one higher than the other; it's not the sort of thing one can measure. But it's different."

She looked ahead. She was always more philosophical when her eyes were on the horizon. "I wasn't expecting the same kind of happiness I had with your father, but I would not settle for less. And I never found it."

She turned to look at Daphne, then reached out and took her hand. "And as it happened, I didn't need it."

"Oh, Mama," Daphne said, her eyes filling with tears.

"Life hasn't always been easy without your father," Violet said, "but it has always been worth it."

Always.

About the Author.

A New York Times bestselling author of twenty-two previous novels for Avon Books, JULIA QUINN is a graduate of Harvard and Radcliffe Colleges and lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.

www.juliaquinn.com.

www.avonromance.com.

By Julia Quinn.

THE BRIDGERTON SERIES.

The Duke and I.

The Viscount Who Loved Me.

An Offer From a Gentleman.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton To Sir Phillip, With Love.

When He Was Wicked It's In His Kiss.

On the Way to the Wedding.

OTHER ROMANCES BY JULIA QUINN.

A Night Like This.

Just Like Heaven.

Ten Things I Love About You What Happens in London.

Mr. Cavendish, I Presume The Lost Duke of Wyndham The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever.

How to Marry a Marquis To Catch an Heiress.

Brighter Than the Sun Everything and the Moon.

Minx.

Dancing at Midnight.

Splendid.

end.