Later, the Marquess really did meet Mary, of Walker’s hometown.
At Wiltshire's insistence, Walker moved back with him to his estate in Stonehaven and they settled there --- according to the Marquess, it was so that he could administer to his ancestral lands and another reason he gave was that the air in the countryside was better for their health, but Walker always strongly suspected that it was a tactic to prevent him from having the chance to bump into the Princess.
Leaving behind his frenetic life in London, the Marquess's innate character traits of being effervescent and lively seemed to have been restored. Every day, he would drag Walker along, as well as Mary --- she was a little girl of just nine years old, one of Walker's neighbours--- and they would spend their time wandering around the countryside. Whether it was going hunting, or horseback riding, the two of them lived their lives as free and unfettered as the fae folk.
Numerous times, the Prince Regent also sent people to request that Wiltshire go back to London to discuss official business, but every time, he refused the invitation, citing ill health as an excuse.
Actually, Walker had not really wished to live together with the Marquess in his Stonehaven estate --- because the Marquess would be glued to his side every day, he was afraid that there would come a day when one of his household would uncover the relationship between the two of them. At that point, who knew how the slanderous gossip would circulate...
But now, perhaps he did not care so much about that anymore. Wiltshire had arranged for his parents to resettle into a small villa near the manor, and his younger sister and brothers had also been sent off to school or were given jobs within the estate. His whole family lived in peace and were happily employed, no longer having to be distressed over monetary woes --- this kind of life was a paradise that he would not even have dared to dream of a year earlier, and it had been Wiltshire who had gently placed all of it into his own hands.
Their love did not stagnate after that brief journey; instead it continued to grow as they continued to grow as they set off on the odyssey of life together. For the rest of their lives, they were the other's most beloved travelling companion, and this paradigm would repeat endlessly until the day when the very cycle of rebirth itself stops.
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