Hello! Thank you so much for all the support throughout this story. This will be the final chapter of Into the Rose Garden and I really hope you'll enjoy the way it wraps up- suffice to say I hope you like a fluffy ending! I've loved reading your thoughts and reviews so much through the process and I honestly can't thank you all enough for spurring me on with kind words and encouragement. I am definitely planning to finish my other fic soon too. After that though, I'm not sure if I have anything left to write! I've had a genuinely wonderful time with this story, and I hope you have too. All my love and gratitude.
Golden sunlight streamed into the bedroom where Blair lay curled in the arms of her soundly sleeping lover. She knew not what time it was, but was certain she had long missed her usual hour of rising. Slowly opening her sleep-laden eyes, she blinked heavily before peering around the familiar bedroom they had landed in. Her room was in quite some disarray, the fine bedding lay scattered around the foot of the bed, candles that had once stood tall and brilliant had surrendered to become burnt-down stubs, and the fire had long since crackled into charred nothingness. She might have been chilly if not for the warmth radiating from the man who lay beside her, giving off a heat far more pleasant than any amount of flaming branches had ever provided a young woman.
Their night had been something beyond her wildest dreams. Of course, being a young lady of the city, Blair had learnt, through eavesdropping on the secret whispers and titters of the older ladies who kept company with her mother, that there could be some pleasure found in such acts for a woman. But she had not expected to begin to unearth such a realm until she had proven herself capable of providing her husband with an heir- that was at least what the ladies had said to expect from one's new husband. Truly she'd had no idea, even despite his reputation and that which she had experienced of him in small doses before their coming together at last. There was nothing that could have amply prepared Blair for the state of euphoria she found herself entering under his attention.
Chuck had arrived home that night not long after his wife and found her, upon the instructions of his staff, waiting for him somewhat reservedly in the parlour. Though she was most certainly giddy with excitement, and entirely unlikely to have fallen asleep waiting for him, there had been something that stopped her from entering her bedroom and waiting atop the bed. Such an act demanded rather a bold and confident sense of one's sensuality that Blair had not quite yet acquired; how she had realised that would come to change.
'What are you doing in here?' He asked amused, the moment the doors opened, and he saw her perched primly on the velvet settee with folded hands. She knew the sight was likely laughable to him- one of such propriety, as though he had not mere hours before lifted those very skirts high up around her waist. Her once-subdued nerves heightened again whilst watching him move towards her where she sat.
He looked so mouth-dryingly handsome in his dishevelled finery that no sound escaped her lips when she opened them to reply. Chuck took a seat beside her and claimed one of her hands, stroking his thumb over her palm in reassuring motions.
'Are you afraid?' He asked after a while.
She pondered his question for a moment; there was much to be afraid of, she was sure. She did not feel nervous of him though- perhaps only of the unknown.
'Only that I may not know how to…' She hesitated and looked away from him, a timidity the Waldorf name was not accustomed to suddenly clouding her senses. 'You know of what it is I speak. I am lacking in your experience.'
'Never doubt yourself where that is concerned, 'tis the most natural thing in all this world. Come, let me show you.' He instructed as he stood from his seat, his eyes full of the kind of hunger only she could satisfy. There was a fire there that both excited and terrified her.
Blair extended her hand to him wordlessly and allowed him to lift her from her seat. She had expected to be led along beside him, but instead watched on, first in confusion and then amusement, as he pulled his jacket away from his shoulders and discarded it on the floor to place his, now freer, arm around her waist. Once she was firmly in his grip, Chuck raised her high off the ground into his strong embrace.
Startled, she could not help the giggle that slipped from her lips. 'What are you doing?' She demanded, as he moved out of the room and started up the staircase with her in his arms.
He beamed down at her whilst traversing the hallways towards the nearest bedroom. 'This method is far more efficient.'
Chuck didn't even set her on her feet to open the door to her room, instead deftly balancing her in one arm to push at the closed door. Once inside, he lay her on the edge of the bed and turned back to lock them away from any potential distraction.
'You are so beautiful, Blair.' Chuck's words sounded almost caught in his throat as he moved towards her slowly. 'You have no idea how long I feel I've waited for somebody like you.' He murmured, kneeling at her feet. 'I did not think it possible; I have not the words to truly express it.'
'Hush.' She returned, sinking to level her face with his own, 'There will be time for talking later.' She whispered against his lips.
'What is it that plays so heavily on your mind, my love?' Chuck's voice in the morning was gruff and appealing, but she hadn't realised he was awake.
'Hmm? 'Tis nothing.' Blair smiled to herself.
He chuckled. 'I'm sure I can wager a fair guess.'
'So, tell me, husband. What is your guess?' She could not help but acquiesce to the grin that tugged at her lips.
'No, in fact,' He returned, a touch petulant. 'I think I shan't tell you at all.'
'Do not toy with me.' Blair whined.
'You cannot ask such a thing of me when toying with you is so tremendously amusing.' Though she could not see his face, she could hear the bright smile in his voice.
Blair laughed jubilantly and pushed at his side. 'You are a wretch indeed.'
'A truly blissful wretch.'
'Come, let us not squander the day in bed- I fear we have missed much of it already. I ought to have Grace draw my bath.' She sighed, beginning to lift herself from her most comfortable position, nestled in his arms.
'You say squander, I say relish.' He held onto her tight and she fell back down, offering up little protest.
'Chuck, I must bathe.' She insisted after another moment in his embrace.
'Then allow me to draw your bath, my love. I shall not disappoint you.' He murmured against her hair.
This elicited a louder laugh from her. 'Shall you not indeed?' Blair scoffed. 'Tell me, for I am most keen to know, when did you renounce your position as man of this house and resign yourself to becoming my lady's maid?'
'I am a little fonder of the term humble servant, Milady.' He teased, shifting beneath her to withdraw from the bed they shared.
She watched his rear as he moved towards the large, freestanding tub and fiddled with the gas stove until it was lit.
'There, see. The water is heating, you need not call for anybody, 'nor kick me from your bed. Though we must have this ancient thing replaced with one more like my own. Did you know I can access hot water directly from downstairs in my chambers?'
She smiled fondly at his boast- such a water system had been installed in Blair's childhood bedroom upon its immediate availability. Nonetheless, heating the water it was, and it wouldn't be too long until her unsullied bathwater from the evening prior would be steaming enough for Blair to slide into. How on earth he had known the function of the stove, though, she wasn't sure.
'Your strange and varied knowledge of all things confounds me always. Did you draw your own baths as a child? I can scarcely believe that.' Blair eyed him curiously.
He laughed at her question. 'No, this is indeed my first foray into assisting a lady at bath time. But I have gained knowledge from servants over the years. Such is the way when one grows up with staff and not parents.' Chuck jested, sliding back into his previous place at her side.
Tucking her head back against his chest, Blair frowned. Though he did not seem impacted by his statement, she could not help but feel a tug of sadness at the free admission of such a lonely and lacking childhood. It would not be the same for their child, she was certain. Allowing herself a moment to imagine such a future, she pictured a raven-haired child, with her husband's very features, playing with his loving father.
'Why do you grin so?'
''Tis nothing.' She sighed happily, jumping up to dip her fingers in the now-warm water. She turned back to offer him thanks but caught him eyeing each curve of her body as though they were works of art about to disappear from him forever. He smirked when she caught his eye.
'Heating bath water is not my only proficiency, you know.' Chuck commented.
'I am well aware.' She giggled, sliding down into the water as he approached from the bed.
It had taken them some further hours to find their way out of Blair's bedroom and arrive, hand in hand, at the dining room. Even there, neither one could take their eyes away from the other for longer than a second.
'Well, well, well.' The amused voice of a woman wafted through the doors. 'If it isn't love's young dream I see before me.' Serena sighed dramatically, taking a seat beside Blair and smiling at her brother knowingly.
'Serena.' Chuck greeted her. 'I believe I have you to thank for my wife's surprise attendance at my engagement last night.' He mused, signalling for the staff to begin loading his sister's plate.
'You are most welcome.' She smiled, tipping her head to one side to scrutinise the pair.
'Yes, thanks are owed to you indeed, Serena.' Blair grinned. 'The information you supplied was most fruitful.'
Serena sighed again; it was a dreamy sound. Then she rested her chin on her hands like a child and gazed at the pair before her.
'Whatever is it?' Blair giggled, bemused by her actions.
'Truly? I am simply so in awe of you.' She admitted. 'How I wish to have somebody so in love with me they'd hold my hand below the table.' Serena smirked into a cup of tea.
She laughed uneasily, her cheeks somewhat reddened by the revelation. She resisted the urge to snatch her hand away from her husband's, where he had gripped it beneath the dining table and was now tracing lazy circles over her palm with his thumb. Instead, she eased into the sensation of being loved.
Blair watched Serena and could hardly believe men were not falling at her feet to offer her their love. Her golden hair shone in the soft light of the afternoon- it shone in such a way that it gave way to a memory of another head of flaxen hair in Blair's mind's eye.
'Chuck, my dear.' Blair spoke, eyes still fixed on her new sister's shining tresses. 'I was thinking I may like to give another ball, one in the height of summer. The rose garden will be simply awe-inspiring in August.'
'Naturally.' He agreed. 'You know that whatever your heart desires is yours. Two months will be adequate time for the preparations, I presume?'
'Ample.' She said. 'And I should like you to invite your friend Mr Archibald along if he is available.' The cogs in Blair's mind were turning, scheming.
'You have taken something of a shine to him then? Ought I to be worried, wife?' Chuck asked, his smirk not as entirely self-assured as usual.
Blair laughed and offered him an indulgent smile. 'Perhaps.' She considered. 'He is rather handsome, is he not?'
'I must have a lock installed outside your bedroom door in utmost haste.' He jested.
'Serena,' Blair turned her attention around to the woman beside her. 'You will join us for the occasion I presume?'
'Naturally. I do not avoid festivities.' She agreed, lifting her fork to pierce a piece of fruit on her plate.
'What are you plotting?' Chuck murmured low into his wife's ear. The sound was accompanied by a whisper of his hot breath that made every fine hair on Blair's body raise.
She shuddered and chided him with a hushed aside. 'I merely seek to host a celebration of our newfound wedded bliss.'
'Another one?' The movement of his thumb over her hand beneath the table paused as he eyed her curiously.
'Aye.' She agreed, squeezing gently. 'But this time it will be a real one.'
Chuck did not leave his wife's side a moment in all the eight weeks that led up to the ball she'd planned at Murkwood. In fact, he had quite transformed his behaviours altogether- more so than anybody might have expected of him. As each day passed, she was ever more drawn into wide-eyed wonder about the almost-surreal nature of their happy marriage.
They had bickered of course; they were both passionate, stubborn people with strong wills and firm opinions. But any harsh words had, in every eventuality, been resolved in their bedroom, the library, the drawing room, gardens or, frankly, atop any flat surface they could find in their haste. He was her match in every sense of the word; it had been a most wonderful time. That was, until Blair began counting back the weeks, placing a piece into the puzzle when Grace commented on her monthlies.
'I did not realise it, my love; I suppose I have simply been so lost in you. But I have wonderful news, Chuck.' Blair had rushed to his side immediately with her suspicions.
'Well then do not delay, my dear. Tell me about your good news at once.' Chuck had responded with giddy eyes, grasping his wife's fingers, sharing prematurely in her excitement.
Blair had beamed so widely before telling him. 'I believe I may be with child, Chuck.' Her face fell quickly when he dropped her hands and grew ghostly still and white.
'Are you not pleased, my love?' Blair murmured, as she moved closer to him, one hand going instinctively to rest over her flat stomach. 'Perhaps it will be an heir.' She offered ever so softly.
'I desire no heir, Blair.' He'd retorted coldly, pushing her hand away from her stomach before leaving her standing alone in the parlour. When she'd gathered the courage to follow him, she found he was not in the room they'd often shared in weeks gone by, but that he had entered his own and locked the door behind him, sneaking out of the house altogether later in the night.
Thus, by the following Friday, it had been a concerning number of days since she'd last seen or heard from him, and the ball was due to take place that day.
In her heart of hearts, Blair was unable to be truly angry with her husband. Though she did not take kindly to the ugly, rearing head of his more callous nature, the root of his dismay was patent.
Chuck had, for all his life, been burdened by responsibility for the death of his own mother. The thought of his wife meeting the same demise had no doubt been more than he could manage, so he had taken himself away from her, avoiding his love for the very thing that he feared may be taken away from him. Blair understood it; he had been inexplicably marred by his upbringing. But that it had caused him to run from her and not return, of that she was not so forgiving.
It was with this in mind that Blair was, once again, left to greet their guests, as they moved into the blooming rose garden, without him by her side. Instead, filling the space he was supposed to occupy, was Serena.
'Where is my brother?' She whispered to her dark-haired companion- a woman who, despite all her beauty and finery, looked deeply fraught indeed.
'I know not, and I care not.' Blair snapped, smoothing down the skirts of her gown. The dress had been chosen with her husband in mind; a deep purple silk that nipped in around her waist and danced along her exposed collarbone, where a sapphire necklace he had given her lay. She hoped he would never arrive to see how very ingrained the thought of him had been in her choices.
But it was not long before she was disappointed.
'Ladies.' He husked, approaching his wife and sister. Chuck's appearance elicited a gasp from Serena, who turned to Blair in shock.
He was in a state of uncharacteristic disarray. His face was unshaven, days-old clothes seemed slung, wrinkled and untucked, on his newly thinner form, and his hair was sticking up in every direction it could reach.
'You are drunk.' Blair stated frostily, her lip curling.
'I see your intuitive powers remain intact.' He rolled on one ankle as he moved to reach out for her. Blair's hand shot out to steady his arm before she knew what she was doing. He looked down at it and a soft, morose smile painted his face.
'You are in some trouble indeed I fear, brother.' Serena giggled, looking him up and down.
'I fear you may not even see the surface of the trouble I am in.' He agreed. Blair prayed the guests approaching behind him would not hear the intoxication in his voice from their distance.
'Serena, might I task you with greeting the remaining attendees?' Blair asked sweetly. Receiving a quick nod from the woman, she turned to her husband. 'You. Come.' She hissed, pulling his near-dead weight away from the party and towards the tall doors of their home. 'I will not have you embarrass us before our guests.'
'As thoughtful and doting as ever.' Chuck slurred, but moved his uncoordinated feet.
Once inside, she signalled the staff to prepare bath water and fresh clothes, leaving two footmen to pull him up the stairs.
'See to it that tools for shaving are laid out, and he'll need food. Bring up a selection from the table outside, but do so discreetly.' She ordered, taking off after the men who had her husband balanced between them.
Blair went first to her own bedroom, resting atop her bed for a moment to gather her mind. When she finally pushed open the door into his room, he was half dressed and being guided towards a bath of warm water. A plate of food from the party had been picked at feebly.
'Leave us now.' Blair spoke quietly, watching as the footmen shared a startled look before making a quick exit.
'Are you to join me?' Chuck mumbled, eyebrows raising, as she drew nearer. He was impacted by alcohol still, but she could tell its effect waned already.
'Are you to humiliate me at every ball I organise?' She returned haughtily, pulling his shirt up and over his head- the last thing covering his body.
'Touché.' He grinned sloppily, before sinking into the bath and dribbling warm water up and down his arms.
Blair perched on the edge of his bed, watching as the shaving tools she'd requested were placed upon his desk by a nervous-looking young boy.
'May I be of any further assistance?' He squeaked.
She shook her head sharply, dismissing him.
Blair pulled the chair from behind her husband's desk across the room until it was situated at the end of the bath behind his head.
'Should you be doing that in your condition?' He snarled, some of the darkness from his anger on the day he'd learned of her pregnancy at last returning.
She simply ignored him, moving back to the desk to gather the instruments needed to shave the several days of unkempt hair from his hidden jaw.
'I do not like your appearance much with a beard.' She commented abjectly, holding the razor under the light to see its sharpness. 'It hides your jaw.'
'I am sorry my face is so displeasing to you.' He grumbled unhappily. She chose to ignore it.
'Do not think you can fool me. I know why you are so out of sorts.' She spoke eventually, settling behind him to guide his head back towards her lap, giving her access to his cheeks.
Methodically, Blair lathered his face with sweet-smelling soap, before dipping her hands into his bathwater and drying them on the cloth she'd laid out to protect her dress.
'Do you indeed?' He said, his tone sardonic.
Blair hummed and lifted a razor blade. 'Careful with your words.' She scolded affectionately. 'I am a gracious wife, but do not forget It is I that holds the blade in her hand.'
This won her a small laugh. 'Surely you do not intend to do this, Blair? This is no task for a lady.' He said when she began nearing the blade towards his face. The words came as though from the lips of a child who had known no tender care in all his life.
'Hush.' She murmured, and, feeling finally him relax in her hold, slowly she began shaving all the hairs from his cheeks. With her gentle movements, she cleaned up her husband's face and, though she felt them falling, would never mention the warm tears she felt wetting her fingers.
'Thank you.' He whispered, barely audibly, when she returned the instruments to their place on the desk after drying his jaw with her cloth.
Blair looked back at him with a thin-lipped smile and nodded. He had been right; it was unusual behaviour for a lady. But Blair had peeked at her father when he shaved his own face ample times. It had been entirely worth it to coax her husband out of his temper and into the sublime serenity that had now come over the room and its inhabitants.
'Get dressed and we shall talk to one another.' Blair instructed, pointing at the fine, fresh clothes lying on his bed when he rose from the bathtub.
Wordlessly he followed her orders, dressing quickly before moving to sit beside her. Enough time had passed that sobriety was well within his sights. Blair waited for him to speak first, and after some time he did.
'I apologise for leaving you alone again.' Chuck admitted. 'I'm afraid I am rather inclined to run when I feel uncertain or troubled.'
'It is alright. You won't do it again.' Blair replied, her words firm but encouraging. She willed him to go further, her small hand slipping into his in a bid to comfort him.
'No, I won't.' He agreed. 'You said you knew why I was acting so bizarrely.' He continued after a moment's thought.
Repressing the heavy sigh she wished to expel, Blair pressed her lips together before resigning herself to admitting the thing she knew plagued him. 'You worry that I shall follow the same path as your mother.' She supposed, stroking his fingers softly.
He nodded but did not speak, his hand tightening around hers. She could hold in her sigh no longer.
'You know as well as I, that we cannot pretend there are no risks involved in this aspect of our nature. But I am not the same as her, Chuck.' She looked into his eyes then, seeing fresh tears that threatened to spill over. 'We will do all we can to ensure every precaution is followed.'
'I should prefer to simply avoid the risk altogether, to have no children.' He croaked, his pain clear in his voice.
Blair pictured a dark-haired boy clamouring to be held by his loving father- for Chuck would be one, of that she was sure. 'No, you should not.' She disputed.
'To live in a world where you exist is a far greater prize than any child. I should prefer it very much.' He countered.
'No, you should not.' Blair repeated firmly.
'No…' He admitted at last. 'I should not.'
She smiled at him again and lifted his hand towards the plane of her stomach, laying his palm over the still-flat space that housed their unborn child.
'We will be alright.' She murmured. 'The three of us will be alright.'
Chuck nodded, his fingers splaying tentatively across her belly. 'I am sorry.' The quiet words were spoken both for his wife and his child.
Blair lifted her husband's chin and placed a soft kiss against his lips. 'Now.' She breathed, drawing away from him. 'Will you take your wife for a dance before she is forced to find somebody else to fill the role?' Blair goaded him, watching his eyes glitter with jealousy and pride.
As they moved out of his room and down towards the rose garden, he pulled her into his side, whispering his adoration into her hair.
'This really is a lovely gown.' Chuck appraised, directing her into a spin once they'd reached the area of the garden designated for waltzers.
'I am pleased. I was unsure if you would like it.' Blair replied, the gleam in her eye telling him she knew just how much he would.
'Perhaps not the colour I would have chosen myself.' He teased, rather obviously admiring the way the cut of her dress exposed a little more than one might have expected, upon standing as close to her as he was.
She hummed. 'Your opinions have been most useful; I shall take them back to my dressmaker. Will you also take a moment to critique my choice of undergarments later? I believe your views could be helpful there too.'
'Now that is a topic of conversation I can put my full approval behind.' He said, spinning her around again.
The gardens were flowering beautifully, with roses of pink, peach, yellow and white decorating each of the shrubs that circled the winding expanse of gravelled paths and trickling water features. The evening sky, filled with the perfume of the roses, was yet light, and the sounds of dancing feet, clinking glasses and joyful laughter were rife. Held firm in her husband's arms, Blair was sure now that her night was, at last, everything she'd hoped for.
'Chuck!' Came the voice of a young man. When Blair looked around, she saw Nathaniel Archibald, the very same young man whose presence she'd personally requested. She grinned, stepping beside her husband as the two men greeted one another as old friends.
'Madame, you are looking truly radiant tonight. You may have to watch out, Bass. Your wife is a jewel indeed.' Nate grinned, bowing before Blair. 'But where is Carter this evening? I cannot imagine him keen to miss an opportunity to cause trouble.' Nate asked after their initial pleasantries. He looked about for the man with a wary scowl.
Chuck stiffened beside Blair and barked an unamused laugh. 'It seems the weasel has taken off on a Grand Tour.' He commented, his disinterest in the man most flagrant.
Nate laughed then. 'The Grand Tour has been out of fashion for years, what on earth is he thinking?' He clicked his tongue.
'What indeed.' Chuck noted dryly, ignoring the incredulous gawking from his wife beside him.
The Grand Tour had been very much out of fashion for some long years- the words had evidently been used as some euphemism by Chuck. There was now no lingering doubt in Blair's mind, that what her husband had gone to Carter's party to do, what he'd gone into that room with Carter to do, was to banish the man from their lives by whichever means necessary. The softness in her heart for the man by her side, the one she thought could simply do no more to expand her adoration for him, grew tenfold.
'Preposterous.' She muttered disbelievingly below her breath. 'Gentlemen, will you excuse me for just a moment?' Blair spoke aloud, before scanning the throng of their guests for one in particular.
She spotted her quickly, marching over to take Serena by the arm, before starting back towards Nate and her husband. 'Will you join me for a while?' She asked the already moving woman by her side. 'There is somebody I must have you meet.'
'I-'
'Nate, this is my dear friend, Miss van der Woodsen. She would be most delighted to make your acquaintance.' Blair breezed through the words as though she had not pulled the woman away from another conversation to interrupt the one taking place between the two men before them.
'Miss van der Woodsen.' Nate murmured, his eyes fixed immediately on the statuesque blonde before him. Blair almost wished to laugh at how instantaneous the woman's artful hypnotism worked on the unsuspecting men placed before her.
'Mr Archibald.' She returned coyly, lifting her hand towards him. He snatched it up and planted an eager kiss against it.
'You must call me Nate, I insist.' He instructed her, still holding onto her hand.
'Then you must call me Serena.' She returned, smiling wide.
Blair could see it then, the way their romance would blossom into a striking summer wedding and beautiful, blonde-headed babies. The perfect contrast to her and Chuck, the perfect friends for their flawless lives.
'Ah, at last, I see why you were so keen to have him here. Impressive matchmaking.' Chuck whispered in Blair's ear, breaking her away from the peaceful reverie in her mind. 'Will you take a walk with me? I do not think they shall notice our absence somehow.'
She looked up and the pair were indeed quite occupied by one another.
'Of course.' Blair agreed gladly, allowing him to lead her by the hand further into the gardens, settling at the site of her bench, the one that sat before Aphrodite.
'Will you sit?' He requested.
'What is it, why do you move so stiffly?' Blair demanded with an exuberant laugh, sinking down onto the bench beside him.
'I wish to apologise properly for my absence, so I have bought you someth-'
'Chuck.' She hushed him. 'Do not speak of it any longer. Your indiscretions are already forgotten. I know you were experiencing unique difficulties.' She smiled sadly.
Though Blair was unhappy about his disappearance, it was not entirely unexpected. They had so freshly professed themselves to one another, and she had expected at least some resurgence of his prior behaviours to challenge them. 'Did you say you had bought me-'
'Indiscretions?' He interrupted her. 'My love, tell me you do not mean to say you think I have taken to another's bed in my time away from you?'
'I am a romantic at heart, Chuck, 'tis true. But I am no fool. Do not trouble yourself, simply promise me it was a moment of weakness that shall not happen again.' Blair pleaded.
'It shall not, it would not. And it shakes me to see you so.' He swore. 'I entreat you to understand. The time I spent away from your side was certainly ungentlemanlike, but it was in no way unfaithful, Blair.'
It was the desperation in his tone that told her he was true, and the realisation washed over her like a warm wave.
'Apologies for my doubts.' She murmured, eyeing the man who had so bewitched her ever since their first meeting.
'I am sorry myself for having ever given you reason for them.' He admitted. 'And I am sorry for my response to your news. I am of course delighted that you shall be the mother to my child. I could think of no better.'
A weight removed itself from Blair's shoulders then, one she'd been carrying since his disappearance. She sighed contentedly.
'May I return to my original line now, my dear?' He chuckled, and her memory of his words turned the corners of her mouth up into an enthusiastic smile.
'Indeed. Do not delay in lavishing me with whatever token it is you have for me.' Blair clasped her hands together.
He reached inside his pocket and withdrew a small box. 'Whilst I was away from you, I reached an important conclusion.'
She hummed in curiosity; her eyes hotly fixed on the box in his hand.
'Though we may encounter some ordeals, I am now positive that even without the circumstances that forced our coming together.' He paused a moment to laugh at her expression of disdain. 'I am positive that I would have found and chosen you in any world, Blair.' He released a deep breath. 'So, I wish to give you this. Think of it as a belated promise, one I wish I had given you in the beginning, without the intervention of the hand of fate.'
He finished his words opening the box to reveal a brilliant diamond ring nestled in a frame of shining pearls. The band was bright gold and it seemed to sparkle brighter than all the stars in the sky on a clear night.
'It is beautiful.' Blair whispered, dumbfounded as she watched him remove the ring from its box and slide it onto her finger, admiring it on its intended.
'You are beautiful.' He said, looking around them quickly before stealing a kiss from his still-startled wife.
'We ought to return to the festivities.' Blair lamented, looking at her beloved with much regret that they could not simply slip away from the crowds together.
'Do not despair. We have all the time in the world.' Chuck smiled, guiding her back towards the sounds of their party.
They walked slowly, arm in arm across the green, enjoying one another's company in comfortable silence.
'Blair!' Serena cried hurrying towards her, disrupting the quiet as they ambled back from the gardens. She had the hand of a little girl in pink wrapped around her fingers. Her grin was ear to ear.
'Serena.' She greeted the woman that skidded to a halt just seconds before slamming into the pair. 'Whatever is it?' She mused.
Serena's head fell back, and a jubilant giggle rang from her lips. 'You must join us. The children are telling ghost stories- it is such a lark.'
'Ghost stories indeed?' Chuck repeated, smirking, his arm still firmly around his wife.
'Aye. Tell our lady your story, Miss Alice.' Serena spoke to the child that clung to her. Alice disappeared behind Serena's cobalt skirts and more laughter filled the air. 'She is a timid little thing.' Serena explained, stroking the girl's auburn head.
'Yet hear this; the children say they have seen the smiling face of a woman up in the East Wing windows.' Serena grinned indulgently down at the girl. 'My brother shall tell you there is nought to fear, Alice. Shan't you?' Serena looked expectantly at Chuck.
Blair and Chuck eyed each other cautiously, their heads then moving in unison to look up at the empty east wing. Blair chuckled apprehensively, turning back slowly to appraise the child. She opened her mouth to speak before Chuck could express his disgruntlement, but was interrupted by her husband.
'Quite.' He confirmed. 'There is nothing to fear, Alice. Though I would not whisper a word of it to Mrs Taylor, she is rather a superstitious old woman.' He sang, unexpectedly cheerful given the nature of the young girl's story. 'Run along now, Miss Serena is in need of a drink it seems. You ought to take her back to the brooding gentleman I am sure you snatched her from.' Chuck smirked.
They waited, then watched as Serena led little Alice back to the party.
'A woman smiling in the East?' Blair spoke, staring at her husband with wide eyes. 'You don't think-'
'Perhaps she watches over us.' Chuck smiled down at his wife softly, then looked at the empty windows once more. 'And if she does, we know at least that she is happy.' He finished, his hand moving to rest on Blair's stomach, feeling the secret the two of them shared beneath outstretched fingers.
'Come now.' Blair laughed, gently taking the hand resting on her abdomen into her own. She too looked once more back at the house. 'You don't believe in ghosts, do you?'