When Jacob was gone, Edmund and Diana stood together at the window and gazed at one another with warmth and longing. In the light of the day’s events, so many things no longer seemed to matter, and others mattered more than Diana could have thought possible.
“We need to talk,” Edmund said.
“We do,” she agreed. “But not here. Let’s go for a walk.”
“In the garden?”
“Further. There’s no one left here to care,” Diana said with a shrug.
* * *
“So, he thought that he could kill Percy, marry me, and just take Fernside!” Diana exclaimed once they were beyond the hedge at the bottom of the formal gardens and walking along the path to the woods.
“Kitty even tried to tell us how much he wanted money, didn’t she?” Diana continued. “And no one would listen to her. If you and Jacob hadn’t been there and seen his man today, they would have made me marry a murderer…”
“You can’t marry Andrew Arnold now,” Edmund stated bluntly, “no matter what happens next. Jacob and Jenson will have the constables ready to go to Hayward House soon, I’m sure, and we’ll get to the bottom of things one way or another.”
Edmund found the stresses of the day finally dissipating with each step away from the house, Diana’s presence beside him a source of a growing pleasant tension. She had silently taken his arm once they were out of sight, and they had walked instinctively together towards the woodland without any discussion of their destination.
“I can’t marry him, can I?” she half agreed and half questioned. “He can’t hold me to any kind of betrothal after this. No one can. Thank God! I would have married the devil himself rather than have Percy harmed, but thank God that Percy is recovering and that I don’t have to marry Andrew Arnold!”
Diana shook slightly with her last statements. The threat to Percy’s life had been a serious one, and Edmund knew that Diana had always loved her brother dearly. Then, she continued to pour out her fears,
“When I think of how close Percy came to dying today, it feels like I’m on the edge of a cliff. It’s an awful sense of vertigo…”
Edmund put a reassuring arm around her shoulders and held her even closer as they walked.
Until Lord Templeton’s illness, Diana’s life had been a fortunate one, relatively sheltered and filled with good people and kind acts. Someone being driven to kill for want of money, whether by avarice or gambling debts, was new to her. Unlike Percy, she had an innate mental toughness under the surface, but she was still shaken and hurt by the day’s revelation.
“How could Andrew even do such a terrible thing? I’d seen so many faults in him since he returned from India, of course, but even so, I never could have imagined something like this. He’s a bully and a coward, but a cold-blooded killer too?” Diana shuddered and closed her eyes with the thought of all that she had not guessed about her cousin. “What if he comes back here before the constables, Edmund?”
“If Lord Birks shows his face near you again, I will call him out and I will shoot him dead,” Edmund said in an ominous voice. With Lord Templeton and Percy both out of action, he was ready to do whatever was necessary to protect Diana. “You can also rest assured that Jacob and Jenson would not let him near Percy while we’re out here today.”
She pressed against him, squeezing his arm for a moment, and nodded her thanks.
“I hate him!” Diana snapped suddenly a few steps further on, her emotions jumping ahead. “I always hated him, I think. But I knew I wasn't really allowed to. Now that he’s responsible for hurting Percy, I have a reason to hate him that no one can object to.”
“Your feelings are your own, Diana. No one else can tell you what to feel, surely.”
“They’ve tried, and I’ve been foolish enough to let them,” she said, biting her lip, and looking angry at herself. “All my life in one way or another, I’ve let my family tell me what to do and called it duty. Now that no one can make me marry Cousin Andrew, it seems so clear how hard everyone tried to tell me what to feel all along. I’ve had enough of holding my tongue and pretending to be blind.”
They were moving into the cover of the trees as they talked. The sun dappled the path in front of them and the air was warm, lilting and scented with blossoms. Birds sang and insects buzzed in the greenery. It was one of those spring days that were like the promise of the coming summer.
“Does that mean you’ve decided what you want now?” Edmund asked, raising her unresisting hand to his lips, and kissing her fingers.
“Edmund Turner,” Diana said as the touch of his lips sent tingling sensations throughout her body. “You know I want you, don’t you?”
“I do prefer that you tell me,” he admitted, “rather than having to guess. Or you could show me…”
At his suggestion, Diana stopped walking and looked into his green eyes, sliding her hands on his shoulders.
“I can’t reach,” she whined. Edmund needed no further invitation to bend down and kiss her.
Diana’s lips and tongue were irresistibly responsive to his own, and the exploratory caress of her fingertips on his jaw, head and shoulders brought back intense memories of the night she had gone to his bedroom. He could think of nothing he wanted more than Diana Arnold, naked, willing, and ready in his arms like that again.
“You can’t marry Andrew Arnold, but you could marry me,” he said, lifting his head and looking seriously into her eyes. “If you’re ready to marry anyone, of course.”
Diana’s smile lit up her whole face as she nodded and kissed him passionately in answer.