“Can I ask you a question?”
“As long as it is about all the things I am going to do to you over the next seventy years or so.”
“No, seriously,” she said.
“Go on,” he held her leg across his stomach with both hands.
“How did you escape Lady Camilla’s clutches?”
“Ah, for that, we have to thank Lady Denbigh.”
“Why would you thank the countess?”
“She went on a mission. She was so incensed on my behalf that she tracked down everyone who had been at Lord Altrincham’s ball, and asked them if they had had any dealings with the Ladies Canterbury. It turned out that not only had she accused two other men of asking her to marry her that evening—I guess she was hedging her bets—she was also blackmailing another man, saying she wouldn’t make him marry her if he paid her a considerable amount of money.”
“Truthfully?”
“I must admit that paying her off had crossed my mind. It turns out the villain of the evening was Lady Altrincham, who had been lining up lambs to the slaughter and acting as a witness.”
“How reprehensible!”
“Well, at least it’s behind us.” He hugged her leg tighter. “And it was the darnedest thing that just when I had extricated myself from the clutches of Lady Camilla, Barrington turned up on my doorstep telling me that he was leaving the way clear for me to marry you. He said it was written across your face that you were in love with me, and he wouldn’t force you to take him. I thought all my Christmases had come at once,” laughed Will.
“And yet you left me in the dark for days and deceived me to get me to the altar.”
Will turned to look at her searchingly and raised one hand to cup the side of her face.
“I couldn’t take any chances,” he said. “You had already turned me down once. I needed witnesses.”
He kissed her then, long and deeply, before relinquishing her lips.
“I have something to tell you, too,” Rose said.
Will was still looking at her. “Go on.”
Rose was not at all sure she should go on. Perhaps it was not something to share on her wedding night, but she felt there should be no secrets between them if they were to be happy.
“I married Ambrose for money. I was an opportunist,” Rose said, dropping her gaze from his. “My father had left sizeable debts, and we were going to lose the house. Mary loved Jacob, and I loved you. I felt it was my duty, as the eldest child, to make a proper match to save her. I gave you up for money.”
Rose steeled herself for his response. When none came, she dared to raise her eyes back to his.
“I know,” he said.
“You do?”
He nodded slowly. “Ernest told me everything; saving the house, paying off the IOUs, getting the coat of arms for Jacob.”
Rose was gaping at him.
“And you are not furious?”
“I have been, haven’t I?” He smiled ruefully. “But when Ernest explained it, I realized that faced with the same choice, I probably would have done the same thing.”
“But I abandoned you.”
“Yes, and it broke my heart, but I imagine it broke yours too.”
She nodded as he held her leg tighter against his stomach.