Prince of Dreams (Stokehurst #2)(107)

Emma stared at the tiny portrait of an old woman with silvery-peach hair. Her face was weathered but regal, her mouth unsmiling, her eyes of an indistinguishable color. She looked as though she were staring wistfully at something—or someone—very far away. “Does she look like me?” Emma asked, her fingers curving around Nikolas's. Her throat became very tight. “Yes, I suppose she does.”

“She never married again,” he murmured.

Emma looked up and saw the glitter of tears on his cheek. “No, it appears she didn't.”

“She had no one.”

“She had her child,” Emma said. “She took comfort in Alexei, as well as her memories of Nikolai. Most of all, she knew they would meet again…and they did.”

Emma sensed an easing in him, a relief that made his fingers unclench. “Did they?” he asked, turning to her with the miniature clasped in his hand. “How can you be certain?”

Emma smiled and leaned against him, until his arms closed around her. “I just know.”

Nikolas rested his face against her hair, whispering his love to her, while they stood together in the healing warmth of the morning sunlight.