A/N: Last Chapter!

So, first of, I want to thank you all for reading this fic and reviewing, favouriting and following. This was my first multi-chapter and I never thought I was able to take it as well as I think I did xD

Second, I want to thank Terriejane for the help she gave me in the last chapters! Thank you so much, I wouldn't make it without you ;)

Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1-20.

Anna paced back and forth in Alma's room; her anxiety building as she waited for some news. Alma was long since asleep and Anna couldn't stop herself from running her fingers gently through her hair now and then.

'Please,' she begged, whispering, wringing her hands. 'Please, don't let them arrest him.'

The clock struck seven and Anna looked outside into the darkness. She could hear the ocean and her child's soft breathing 'Why isn't he home?' she felt like crying. Felt like taking her daughter and catching the first train to London and go look him, but she couldn't do that. He told her to stay, told her he would come home, promised everything would be alright. But what if this promise was just like the ones before? The ones that always found a way to be broken.

She sat in the rocking chair and hoped Alma would sleep through the night.

XXXXXX

'Anna?' His voice broke through her nightmare, and she gasped when he touched her forehead. 'It's alright, love, it's me,' he whispered.

'John? Oh my God,' she wrapped her arms possessively around his neck. 'I was so worried. So, so worried,' she cried into his shoulder.

'No, shush, it's alright. I am here now.' He ran his hands along her back, soothing her from her worries and troubles. 'I almost missed the last train but I made it just in time.'

'What did they want from you?' she sat back, facing him. Her eyes red but a small smile creeping in her face in relief.

'They asked me if I knew Albert Gordon and where he could possibly be.'

'Who's Albert Gordon?'

'He worked at the post office. He helped Vera hide your letters from me, he was also one of her...lovers,' he said, a little uncomfortable. ' Witnesses saw him when Vera died. He killed her.'

'Why? Where is he?'

'I don't know why or where he is.' John replied but he had his ideas as to why he had killed Vera. Maybe a failed deal? Maybe...the fire. He wasn't sure but that was a possibility, all he knew was that Anna would never know about it. The last thing he wanted was to give her more reasons to worry. She already had some restless nights, surely he wouldn't add to her burdens.

'So...what now?' she asked, unsure.

'Well...I am a widower and that's it.'

'So...?'

'I am a free man.' he managed a small smile, trying his best to suppress a wide one.

'I shouldn't be happy, should I?'

'You know... my mother always said we shouldn't relish in someone's misery, not even if we win something with it but...in this case, I think we can feel, at least, relieved, don't you?' he asked.

Anna nodded, both afraid to show too much emotion but neither able to stop it. 'We can be happy tomorrow,' he added, grinning.

'Yes.' She tried her best to keep a serious look on her face.

Slowly, John walked towards the cot and watched his child sleeping peacefully. Gently, he touched her hair and ran his fingers through her golden locks and sighed.

'She's been sleeping for more than two hours...' Anna said.

'I suppose that means we won't have a quiet night.' he smiled.

'Yes, I suppose, but then...I'm glad she slept. She would have seen me restless otherwise and that wouldn't do her any good.' Anna rose from the chair and came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his middle, barely able to do so.

'From now on,' he began, caressing her hands on his torso. 'she won't see a restless mother anymore...I promise you both that.'

'Well...since you kept your last promise that everything would be alright... I believe you.' Anna said playfully as he turned in her arms.

'You better, I'll keep all my promises now, no matter what.'

'You know...as much as I...didn't like Vera, I didn't want her to die. I wanted her away from us, far, far away, but that was all.'

He listened to her words, trying to understand how could someone be so good and forgiving as Anna, after everything Vera had done. But now they were at peace, and John was sure that a new time in their lives was about to begin. They were free, they could marry whenever they pleased and most importantly, they didn't have to hide anymore.

'We can rest now, my darling.' He caressed her cheek with the back of his hand. 'Rest for good...and proper.'

XXXXXX

'I think, if you want, you can write to your mother...we don't have to hide our residence anymore,' he said one week later, as they walked on the beach, feeling for the first time its sand upon their feet.

'I will only after we are married.' she smiled. 'She did say she only wanted news when we did so...remember?'

John rolled his eyes. 'Alma, darling, don't eat the sand!' he moved as fast as he could to lift the baby from the ground and Anna couldn't help but laugh.

'She's doing so well for her first time. They usually are a bit scared to step on it.'

'I think our daughter was born to live near the beach then.' Alma fussed in his arms, leaning towards the sand and flailing her limbs all at once in annoyance.

'Put her down,' Anna said.

'She'll eat all the sand, Anna!'

'Not all of it!' she laughed again. 'She'll taste it once and she'll hate it... you have to teach her not to do it instead of picking her up all the time.'

John placed the baby on the ground again and the first thing the girl did was to dig her chubby hands in the golden sand and grab it in fists directly to her mouth.

'Anna!' he pleaded, scared as Anna kneeled down next to their daughter, taking a good amount of sand from her tongue. The baby pouted when she felt its taste and tried to spit it out.

'No, Alma, it's nasty. See, nasty.' Anna cleaned the sand from the child's mouth looking up at John who was not one bit happy with the situation.

'She can get a belly ache for that,' he said.

'She would live in a glass dome all her life if it was up to you,' she smiled, touched by all the care John showed towards the little one. 'Why don't you sit down and enjoy this lovely afternoon?'

He smiled then, and sat down next to his girls. The day was clear, not one cloud in sight. One of those days in early March where you can almost feel the smell of Spring knowing that it won't last for long. Rain would come before flowers and singing birds and these sunny days were all the more special for that reason.

As soon as John relaxed on the sand, Alma climbed over him, begging for his strong arms to support her.

'I can't believe she'll be one in only a month,' Anna sighed, marvelling at her child, who was now trying to take her first steps by herself.

'That's exactly why I wanted us to come to the beach today,' he said smiling at Alma who was now more interested in his watch chain.

'What do you mean?' Anna asked curious.

'Stand up,' he told her.

'What?' she smiled at him confused.

'Do as I say, stand up.'

She did, still very confused, without a clue of what was going to happen next. When she was standing, facing the sea, he shifted from his position and she leaned to help him.

'No!' he laughed. 'I'm not standing.'

'What are you doing, John?'

He looked at his child before shifting again. 'I'm kneeling.'

'Whatever for?'

'Anna...I want us to celebrate Alma's first birthday as man and wife,' he began, taking a deep breath. 'And that is why I am now asking you...Anna May Smith... if you will marry me?' He took a little box from his jacket pocket and opened it for her. It was a golden ring, the one she would use for the rest of her life as symbol of all their promises and love.

Anna immediately brought one hand to her opened mouth as her tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She could only look at him as words failed to express her own feelings.

'I told you I would ask your hand in marriage...properly. On one knee and all that,' he looked down, shyly. 'You shouldn't be so surprised!' his voice was playful and the box still opened in his hand.

She could only nod at him before wrapping her arms around his neck. 'Oh John!' she breathed in his neck. 'I love you so much.'

'And I love you, my darling.' They kissed while their daughter watched the seagulls flying above their heads in absolute delight.

XXXXXX

Anna would write that letter to her mother one week after his proposal, letting her know they were catching the next train to London to get marry at a registrar's office. They couldn't possibly marry in Norfolk, Ripon or York. People knew them there and they couldn't tell everyone they had been living in sin for almost an year. Mr and Mrs Hughes would stay with Alma while they were away, believing they were going to London only to visit old friends.

But she wouldn't tell everything to her mother. About Vera's death or about the fire. Or even about the money John got back since he was now a widower and had the right to everything his mother had left him. Although Vera had spent some, they still had most of it and it couldn't have come at a better time. With their inn opening to guests, they were able to make some more improvements to it and in the summer they would expand the porch and make plans for next year; maybe buy the little house next to it and turn everything into a proper little hotel.

And as John promised, they would spend their daughter's first birthday as man and wife, as a new life for them began, with many more adventures, new and old friends, big plans for a brighter future and the hope of a bigger family of their own. And Spring arrived in all its full glory, together with Alma's first steps.

Thank you for reading!