“I stand corrected.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and cuddled her close. “There is no greater possession than freedom.”
“Nobody knows,” she whispered. “Except you. I didn’t tell anyone but Mr. Marlowe about the asylum, and I told no one at all about London. I didn’t want my friends here to look at me the same way people had back there. Wondering what made me so backwards. Why I couldn’t be fixed.”
“You don’t need to be fixed,” he said fiercely. “There is nothing wrong with you. You are perfect just as you are.”
Virginia didn’t answer. There was no point. The lie was pretty, but they both knew it wasn’t true. It was the reason they could never be together.
He released her from his embrace and struggled to his feet. “Stand up.”
Her mouth went dry. This was it. The moment when he sent her from his home, never to speak to her again. “What are you going to do?”
He held out his hand. “What arewegoing to do.”
She rose on shaky legs. “What arewedoing?”
He placed her hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to waltz. I want my first dance after years of battle to be with you.”
Her heart leapt.
“I thought you wanted Lady Beatrice to be your first dance,” she stammered.
“I haven’t thought about her at all.” His eyes were serious. “I’m hoping to dance with my cousin. It’s her first season, and Hester is afraid she’ll spend it without a single name upon her card.”
Virginia’s pulse skipped. “That’s the news from London you’ve been missing?”
He nodded. “She’s a sweet lass. She deserves all the dances she might wish. I must get healthy in order to stand up with Hester without embarrassing her. Other than my ruined face, of course.”
“She won’t be embarrassed.” Virginia touched his cheek and smiled. “You don’t need to be fixed, either.”
She could not believe this moment was happening. She had confessed her darkest secret: that the only way she enriched anyone’s life was by staying out of it. And his response had been to pull her into his embrace.
Their waltz was slow and halting. Virginia did not mind. She’d had to live most of her life in such a manner. This moment was magical.
She was dancing with the man of her dreams. Not in a crowded ballroom, filled with too many bodies and too much perfume and dripping candle wax, but outside, amid the natural beauty she so cherished.
Theodore’s knee buckled. Virginia and the metal brace caught him before he fell.
“Shall we sit back down?” she asked.
“I’m not ready to let you out of my arms.”
“Try this.” She stepped closer, wrapping both arms above his shoulders and pressing her body to his for support.
“How am I supposed to lead you about like that?” he said gruffly.
“Don’t,” she said simply. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He lowered his arms to encircle her waist.
Instead of the wide steps of a waltz, they rocked side to side, slowly, peacefully. Not to the insistent three-beat rhythm of an orchestra, but to the lazy afternoon breeze and the thumping of their hearts.
“This is not how waltzes work,” he whispered into her ear.
“I know.” She lay her face on his chest. “It’s nicer.”
Being with Theodore was easy. If he wanted something, he told her. If she did something unexpected, he went along. With him, she could be herself. He liked her just as she was, peculiarities and all. Was it any wonder she had fallen in love?
She stumbled at the realization.
