‘If I say yes, you might regret it, and besides, you have said nothing at all to me of love. I have to have that.’
‘Have I not? Is it not here?’ He touched their joined hands with his free one and then his fingers rested lightly on the bandage above her elbow. ‘Or here?’
Celeste had the honesty to nod.
‘I promise you faith and hope, but mostly I promise you love and the grace to stay exactly as you are.’
‘And what am I, Summer? To you?’
‘Everything,’ he whispered and when his voice broke she was amazed. Here was a man who had saved armies and enabled countries to throw off the mantle of an unwanted ruler. A man who was a hero to one half of Europe and a hallowed enemy to the other. Yet he was promising her fealty. Her with her chequered past and a future that was uncertain, to say the least.
Everything.
She could not stop the tears falling as he kept talking.
‘I love you so much that I have allowed Aurelian to place these ancient relatives in my home, precluding me from any sort of hope of luring you to my bedroom. I love you so much that I am prepared to wait until our wedding night to know again the utter joy I knew in France. I love you so much that I wish to do everything properly from now on.’
‘Properly?’
‘I will court you until I wear down any resistance to my proposal and you marry me out of love and lust.’
She smiled at that, but knew she could not capitulate completely.
‘You must come with me to Langley on the morrow, for I have one last secret for you. A good one,’ she added when she saw him frown. ‘The very best.’
‘And if I do this, will you give me your answer?’
She pulled his face into her hands and kissed him with all her heart, nothing hidden or held back.
‘I will.’
‘Then I shall hold you to it, but for now it’s best if I am not here alone with you.’
He stood, tipping his head in a goodbye. Then he was gone.
‘Please God,’ she whispered, wiping away the tears. ‘Please God, let me be good enough for him and let him love Loring.’
She was exhausted and her arm hurt, but the wonderment of her day danced over everything.
* * *
The tension between them was back as they drove south, all the confessions and high emotions from the night before quietened now into the reality of what they had nearly lost and what they still hoped to gain.
‘Aurelian made certain Guy Bernard’s body was dealt with. At least there won’t be an official inquiry into it.’
Waking this morning, Shay had felt no remorse at all for killing the Frenchman, his knives poised to murder Celeste. He could never bother them again and Celeste appeared as relieved as he to have the threat dealt with and removed.
He wanted her to tell him that she loved him again. He wanted to kiss her and hold her and understand the magic that had never gone away in all the months that they were apart.
She had almost forfeited her life for his in Nantes. That gift alone told him everything he needed to know.
‘Where did you go after leaving Paris?
‘I went to Calais. It was large enough to get lost in, but small enough not to be lost to myself.’
There were things there in her expression that he wondered about. She had not gone to Italy and to the warmth, ease and beauty of a place where she had contacts. She had gone instead to the colder climes of the department of Pas-de-Calais. Nothing made sense.
She was fidgeting with her clothing, her fingers playing with the material in her old and worn-out trousers. She’d insisted on wearing the cloak on top as well and no amount of persuasion on his part would have her shed it. Hiding as usual. She was both nervous and desperate. He could read the emotions on her face.
