This was surprising enough to pierce her despairing suspense. “My father?” She blushed furiously as the implications sank in. “Dear heaven, he could have followed.”
“I don’t think so. He’s a sensible man. He knew I required privacy. I’ve just received his permission to pay my addresses to his daughter.”
“Well, you did that,” she said on a cracked laugh as she remembered how uninhibited those addresses had been. Then finally words she hardly dared say. “Are you asking me to marry you, Matthew?”
“Of course. Why else am I here?” His jaw set in a determined jut that indicated this was an argument she wouldn’t win. But she was too speechless with joy to muster any objections. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the marks where she’d bitten her palm in extremity. The glove slid unheeded to the floor.
“You’ve had your year, Grace. You must know I’ve stayed faithful. No other woman can hold your place in my heart. I love you.” He paused and his fingers tightened around her hand almost to the point of pain. “The question is do you love me.”
Matthew’s every muscle tensed with dread as he waited beside her. Nervous sweat prickled at the back of his neck. The last time he’d asked her to marry him, she’d refused. He didn’t think he’d survive another rejection.
She looked troubled, not at all like a woman ready to embrace a glowing future with the man she loved. Fear worse than he’d ever known spurred his heart into an unsteady gallop. Jesus, don’t let her have changed. He’d thought when she greeted him with such fervor, that she must want him too.
But passion didn’t always mean love, as a year in society had taught him. His unjust incarceration and dramatic release meant the ton’s ladies had treated him like a prince from a fairy tale. He’d lost count of the lures, licit and illicit, cast his way.
“Only you make my heart sing, Grace,” he said with every ounce of conviction he felt.
“Are you sure this is what you want?” Her voice was so quiet, he barely heard her.
“I knew you were the woman for me from the first moment I saw you. Through illness and suffering and solitude, I’ve learned to be very sure of my decisions, my darling.”
She shook her head and avoided his eyes. “I don’t come to you with an unblemished past. I’ve done bad things, hurt people, hurt myself. I’m not virtuous, Matthew. I’m not pure. And I’m likely barren.”
“Your past made you the woman you are. I’d never change that. Whether we have children is in God’s hands.” Then more urgently, because she still hadn’t answered the most important question of all, “Do you love me, Grace?”
He heard her draw a shaky breath. “You must know I do.”
He’d hoped, but hadn’t known. Not after this separation. Many things could change in twelve months. She hadn’t spoken of love during their wild encounter. Then neither had he. Deliberately. He hadn’t wanted to frighten her off.
“Is that a yes?” He pressed her hand hard between his as though he could convince her through touch alone.
At last she managed a smile, even if a tremulous one. Tears glittered in her shining eyes. “Of course that’s a yes.”
His heart caroled hosannas and hallelujahs even if he only breathed one word. That word was the most exquisite sound in the world. “Grace…”
He wrenched her into his arms and kissed her hard, passionately, without surcease.
He’d never get enough of her. She was in his bones and his b
lood and his mind and his heart. The year without her had been endless hell, whatever outward success he’d achieved. She gave meaning to everything he did. Without her, he was nothing, lost, trapped, as much a prisoner as ever.
She kissed him back as if she felt the same. An astonished corner of his mind edged toward accepting that she did feel the same.
When they drew apart, there were tears on her face. Not all hers, he admitted without shame.
She gave a watery laugh and brushed a trembling hand across her cheek. “I’m so happy.”
“So am I,” he said in an equally choked voice.
The indigo gaze studied him as if she could see right through to his soul. If she could, she’d know one word was written there. Grace.
That word would be there until the day he died.
Perhaps she did see because her beautiful smile brightened her face. Her voice was husky with feeling. “This story deserves a happy ending. Let’s do our best to give it one.”
“Come, darling Grace.” He stood and offered his hand. “We have a wedding to arrange.”
She clasped his hand and stepped without hesitation to his side. He took a deep breath of clean country air and felt the chains that had bound his heart fall away.