Alexander and Charlotte stared at each other in disbelief at the happiness they felt in that exact moment.
Everything they believed lost was now within reach: the possibility of loving each other and to spend their entire lives together. No more obstacles, no more misunderstandings.
The first to recover from the spell that has fallen over them was Alexander. He looked up and realized they weren't alone.
"Wait here," he said to Charlotte who very reluctantly let go of his embrace.
Charlotte watched as Alexander approached the carriage and talked to the two coachmen. She saw the men nod and set the carriage in motion by turning the horses in the direction that led back to Sanditon.
Alexander strode back to her, took her hands and brought them to his lips, brushing them reverently through her gloves.
Charlotte shivered at that contact, every part of her body aware of his closeness.
"I told the coachmen to take your things back to the Parkers," Alexander explained, "I hope I did the right thing."
Charlotte nodded vigorously and a satisfied smile appeared on Alexander's usually serious and sometimes stern face.
"Would you like to come with me to Heyrick Park," Alexander asked her. "There are some people who would be happy to find that I was able to stop you in time."
Charlotte laughed and then nodded. "I would like very much to see those people. Something tells me that I should probably thank them."
Alexander took Charlotte's hand never taking his eyes off her as if he were afraid she might disappear if he did.
They approached Hannibal who kept grazing the grass without a thought in the world; with his free hand Alexander took the reins and they all walked towards Heyrick Park.
They walked in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. At one point Alexander heard Charlotte sigh deeply. Alarmed he turned to her.
"What are you thinking about?" he asked hoping that that sigh didn't mean that she was changing her mind. Good things didn't happen often to Alexander Colbourne and he had a hard time believing that the best thing of all was really happening to him.
Charlotte noticed the worried tone of the question and hurried to squeeze his hand tighter to reassure him.
"I was thinking," she began, "about how unhappy I was just a few minutes ago in that carriage and how happy I am now that I'm here with you."
It was Alexander's turn to let out a sigh of relief. He brought Charlotte's hand to his lips again and kissed it. She was starting to get used very quickly to these kind of affectionate gestures from the man she loved.
"I still don't understand why you didn't tell me you broke off your engagement to Mr. Starling," Alexander said watching her carefully.
"Actually, I tried to," she told him. "Days ago, I came to Heyrick Park to see you but you were out riding," she explained to him.
Alexander's eyes widened. "Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"
Charlotte nodded. "I had decided that I would tell you about it at Lady Denham's wedding but then..."
"But then?" he urged her.
"But then all my dreams were shattered when I found out you were engaged to Lady Lydia…"
"I was never engaged to Lady Lydia. How could you even believe that I would have proposed to her?"
"What was I to think? Lady Lydia confided her secret engagement to Georgiana and you were the only man she seemed interested in."
Alexander sighed in frustration. But Charlotte wasn't done yet.
"I thought you got tired of waiting for me and decided to move on with your life."
Alexander was silent for a few moments before revealing, "there was a moment that I really thought about doing that."
Charlotte looked at him, nodding sadly.
"I told you," he explained, "that I would respect your choice. I thought you had chosen Mr. Starling, and so I started to think that I needed to let you go and live my own life, for the good fo the girls and for my own, even though I felt like dying just thinking of not having you in my life."
Alexander sensed Charlotte come to a halt.
"I'm sorry," she told him.
"No, don't say it," he protested turning to her and taking her face in his hands, "don't say you're sorry, it's not your fault, it's only my fault: if last summer I hadn't been so foolish to let you go... "
Alexander noticed Charlotte's eyes grow thoughtful.
"Why did you do it?" she finally asked in a faint voice. "I have always wanted to ask you because I have never understood it," she explained to him. "I thought we were happy back then... I was happy with you."
Alexander let go of Hannibal's reins and walked over to Charlotte embracing her. He wanted to kiss her again but felt he needed to use his words for once even though words never came easily to him.
"Do you remember back at the military camp, the day Leo escaped, after we found her, when I told you I had to talk to Lennox?"
Charlotte nodded.
"My idea," he continued, "was to thank him for protecting Leo from the truth, but he didn't give me the chance. Instead, he talked about Lucy, of how I had abandoned her and ruined her life. He asked me if I was sure I wouldn't ruin your life too," he said, looking her straight in the eyes, "I let his words poison my mind. I thought that if there was a way to protect you I had to find it and use it. Nothing was more important than your happiness"
Alexander lowered his head in shame. He understood long ago that Lennox used him as a pawn in his machinations.
"Oh, Mr. Colbourne..." Charlotte said caressing his face with infinite sweetness. And despite the moment, Alexander laughed.
"Mr. Colbourne?" He asked, mischievously.
Charlotte blushed, "Well, I don't know how I should call you now-"
"You know my name," he pointed out to her.
"Yes but..."
"Charlotte," he said taking the initiative, and she felt her heart leap inside her chest at hearing him saying her name, "call me by my name."
"Alexander," she finally said, savoring the sound of each letter.
Charlotte saw his face break into the purest smile she had ever seen on him.
"My family," he explained, "always called me Xander…it would be nice if you called me that too, if you want, of course…" he confided.
"Xander," she repeated, trying his nickname for the first time. She didn't have time to say anything more because the Xander in question took her face and kissed her with a passion that made her understand without the slightest doubt that he enjoyed being called like that by her.
When they pulled apart, panting, it still took some time for both of their minds to return to formulate coherent thoughts.
In an attempt to calm down, they began walking hand in hand again, with Hannibal at their side.
"You should have told me," Charlotte said suddenly, bringing the discourse back to last summer. "About Lennox, I mean. You should have told me about it instead of pushing me away."
"It wasn't my intention-"
"Xander…"
"There was a part of me," he explained, "that really thought I had taken liberties with you that I shouldn't have taken as your employer. I was trying to do the honorable thing, I thought it would be better for you."
"Better for me?" Charlotte looked at him in disbelief. She let go of his hand and took a few steps away from him.
"Better for me!" she repeated indignantly. She turned to him. "Do you even have a vague idea of how much you hurt me by dismissing me like that?"
Xander wisely chose to remain silent and let her continue. "I had already fallen in love with you," she confessed in a whisper, "I didn't choose it, I didn't want it, but it happened, and you broke my heart. And after that you came to Trafalgar House and only made things worse."
"Actually I was trying to make things better," he defended himself.
"How?" she asked confused.
"I was trying to propose to you..."
"What?" she replied incredulously.
"Well..."
"But you only talked about Augusta and something about the house missing me…"
"I'm not very good with words," he interrupted her, sheepish.
"It seems to me you know how to be when you really want it," she retorted, and both their minds returned to the clifftops and to what happened just a few moments before. And as they stared in each others's eyes suddenly the tension disappeared. The two lovers burst out laughing, a laugh that was more nervous than anything else but that nonetheless had the merit of easing the tension.
Xander abandoned poor Hannibal again and reached Charlotte taking her back into her arms.
"As absurd as it seems now, I was really asking you to marry me that day, and it was you who broke my heart then," and as he said it ,he gave her a tender kiss on her forehead just to reassure her that what happened then didn't matter to him anymore. "Those words you spoke, about you never being able to have tender feelings for a man like me who showed you such little respect haunted me day and night..."
"They tormented me too," she confessed to him.
"I didn't believe I would see you again, and when I did I tried to prove to you that I could be a man worthy of your respect."
"You always have been," she reassured him running a hand through his hair. "Always."
And it was true. If was just anger, and hurt, and frustration that made her speaking those words back then.
Suddenly it felt very important to her to speak other words to the man in front of her. So, she looked him right in the eyes and let out what has been in her heart for so long, "Xander, I love you."
It was Xander's heart turn to leap out of his chest. He spent such a long part time of his life believing he wasn't worth of love that having Charlotte loving him still feel unreal.
"I love you too, more than you can ever imagine." He finally said, hoping she felt how true every word he spoke was.
Charlotte rested her head against his chest, happy, rocked by the rhythm of Xander's heartbeat.
"You will marry me, won't you?" He asked her.
Charlotte raised her face and looked back into his eyes, so dark and so beautiful in that moment. "There is nothing in the world that I wish more than being your wife."
Again, that charming smile on his face. Charlotte who was really starting to adore that expression of his, promised to herself that she would do everything in her power to make that smile appear on his face as much as possible.
They remained close like that for a few more moments. Meanwhile, daylight was beginning to fade and the evening was fast approaching.
"Come," Xander said leading Hannibal towards her and motioning for her to mount on his beloved horse. "Let's go home."
Charlotte stared at him and then nodded.
As they rode towards Heyrick Park Charlotte realized that thinking of his large estate as her home had become the most natural thing in the world to her.
Besides, why would she be surprised? It was Xander's house and he was Charlotte's home.
Him, and Leo, and Augusta and Mrs. Wheately and Hannibal, and Luna…
Yes, she realized, Xander had always been her home ever since that distant day when she walked into his study and he asked her, in that stern way of his that hid his true witty, sweet, caring, passionate self how much was seven fifties.
She smiled to herself thinking how far they had come since then.
It wasn't always easy, but looking at them now, feeling him so close, she knew it was worth it.