All the cold and numbness left her legs as she gazed down at him speechlessly.
“Tell me one thing.” He stared up at her, his eyes beseeching. “Why did you hide from me?”
“Goodbye was too final,” she said, her voice cracking. “I loved you and you left me anyway. I didn’t want it to be over. I couldn’t… I can’t… You weren’t…”
“I’m right here.” He held out his arms and she slid down into them. “I came back. I don’t want to go anywhere without you.”
“Neither do I,” she whispered.
He wrapped his scarf around them both, holding on tight. “You love me?”
“Of course I do, you dreadful beast.” She snuggled her cheek into his warm chest.
He lifted her chin and forced her to meet his eyes.
“Come with me,” he said urgently. “Let me show you a different kind of season. We can fill up the coach with anything you want to bring, and I’ll take care of everything else.”
“Leave Cressmouth?” Her voice might wobble, but her heart was sure. She would go anywhere to be with him. All he had to do was ask.
“As my wife,” he said quickly. “Come as my duchess. Let me be your husband.”
“I will never fit in with the beau monde,” she stammered. “I’m an orphan…”
“So am I,” he said with a crooked smile. “And who cares what they think? I don’t want to fit in with theton. I want to fit together with you. To marryyou. When we start our family, we’ll raise our children to know they are loved.”
“And Christmas?” she asked, her heart pounding with joy.
“A lovely village,” he answered without hesitation. “We can spend half the year here, and half the year in London. What do you think?” His eyes were beseeching. “Mightn’t it be the best of both worlds?”
“No.” She wound her arms about his neck to give him a kiss. “It’ll be the best of both seasons.”
He grinned. “That means yes?”
“It means I’ll go anywhere, as long as I’m with you.” She kissed the tip of his nose. “After all, why have one home when we could have two?”
Chapter 17
Three months later
London, England
Noelle sat as still as she could. She was sharing a beautiful stone bench in the middle of Vauxhall Gardens with her new husband.
Benjamin lowered the arm he had curved protectively about her waist to just below her hip in order to give her derrière a surreptitious squeeze before returning to position.
Noelle tried her best not to squeeze him back.
The portrait artist poked his head out from behind the easel then returned his focus to his canvases.
He was making two copies of this moment. A large likeness of Benjamin and Noelle for the hall of portraits in the primary Silkridge residence, and a miniature to fit the other half of the gold locket she wore next to her heart.
She risked a brief glance up at Benjamin from beneath her eyelashes.
He caught her in the act, and swooped in to steal a quick kiss.
“Not in front of the artist,” she scolded him under her breath as her cheeks flushed with heat.
Benjamin’s voice lowered huskily. “He’s too busy working.”
