AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She had wondered all those weeks ago who might heal his heart. But the answer had been there in front of her all along:shewould.
“On the contrary,” she answered him. “I am about to make this extremely simple.” She rolled from him and rose from the bed, then moved about the room lighting lamps. At one point he made to get up and she gave him a warning look.
“Don’t move from that bed,” she said.
He could have easily left, regardless of her command. Despite his leg, he was still incredibly strong, and there would be nothing she could have done to stop him had he truly wanted to go.
Instead he obediently settled back against the pillows. She smiled and continued, not stopping until the room was as bright as day. She was through with him hiding away in the shadows.
Finally she turned back to him. He was watching her silently, still settled against the pillows, an air of uncertainty and sadness wrapped about him like a cloak. Well, she was about to do her damnedest to take as much of that sadness and uncertainty away as she could.
“I don’t want you to go to London.”
He blinked. “I assure you, I don’t, either. But I do think it’s for the best.”
“Best for whom?”
That seemed to trip him up. His brow furrowed. She smiled and returned to the bed, sliding across the mattress until they were close enough to touch. Which she did. Her fingers trailed along his damaged cheek, feather light, tracing his scars. He sucked in his breath and grabbed her hand, trapping it in place. In his eyes were confusion and longing and fear. She smiled, tears burning her eyes.
“I can understand you wanting to leave when you thought you might have had a part in Aaron’s death. But you can have no reason now. Especially as I believe I have finally found the perfect woman for you to take as a wife.”
His frown deepened. “You needn’t make certain our deal is completed. It was foolish to go into it, considering our—attraction to one another.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” she replied. “I think it was the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done. It made me face something important.”
She waited, to see if he would take the bait. He very nearly didn’t. She could see in his eyes that he was fighting his curiosity with everything in him. But eventually—finally—curiosity won out.
“And what was that?”
Her smile grew. “That I needn’t spend my life alone any longer. That it’s not dishonoring Aaron to move on. That I can love again.”
She should probably be nervous just then. She was all but admitting she loved him. He might not reciprocate her feelings. He might reject her. Hadn’t he told her that he didn’t want to enter into a marriage with someone he could love? His whole purpose in hiring her, after all, was to find a wife who did not want to share with him any of the softer emotions.
But in that moment, with her heart so full she thought it would burst out of her chest, as she watched the spark of something almost like hope ignite in his eyes, she felt only joy and a certainty that what she was doing was right.
Her hand was still trapped against his scarred cheek. She brought her other up to cradle his face. “I love you, Daniel,” she said.
He swallowed hard, his eyes gazing into hers, the fear in them nearly extinguishing the joy. “You needn’t say that, you know,” he said gruffly, even as his hands came behind her back to draw her closer. “I know you must be emotional over learning the truth of Waterloo, must be feeling relief, gratitude even—”
“You silly, stubborn, wonderful man,” she said, rubbing her thumb over his cheek. He shuddered under her touch.
“While those particular events have given me the greatest relief and happiness,” she continued gently, “my love for you didn’t spring from that moment. Rather, it has been building, steadily and surely, over the past weeks. And if you are still in doubt,” she said, smiling, “you may return to the front hall. Beside the door should still be the bag I had packed for the express purpose of hying off to London after you. Which I would have done had you not stopped me in my mad dash to secure a carriage.”
His jaw dropped. “You were coming after me?”
“Of course.” She leaned forward, brushing her lips against his own. “I could not have you marrying another, after all.”
Still, he gaped at her. “You wish to marry me?”
“I do.” When he continued to stare at her in incomprehension, she brushed an unruly lock of hair back from his forehead and smiled tenderly. “I know you’ve been hurt, Daniel. I know your trust has been damaged, and that you had no wish to marry a person who you might be able to care for. But I swear to you, I won’t hurt you. I love you.” And then, her heart in her throat: “Marry me.”
***
Daniel wanted to say yes. With everything in him he wanted to say yes. Margery loved him? Never in his dreams had he dared to hope that a woman such as she could love him.
And he loved her, so much it hurt.
Why, then, did he pause? Because Erica had broken his heart? Because a woman had looked in horror at his leg? Because his despicable cousin had made him feel unlovable for so many years? And in an instant he saw it so clearly: he was an absolute idiot.
