She breathed in slowly, then let out the breath. “What did you do?”
“It’s in a legal trust,” he said. “In your name alone. Along with significant interest, as if it had been invested properly all these years, as ought to have been done.” He named an impossible sum.
She narrowed her eyes. “Yourmoney?”
“Not a penny of it. It comes from the profits of Mr. Thorne’s club, which arguably also should have been your money all along. Your new nest egg isyours, Unity. Just as it always was meant to be. This time, safe in a trust.”
“Safe from my cousin,” she said bitterly. “But what if I marry?”
He shook his head. “No man can ever touch a farthing of your fortune. Not even a husband. You’re completely independent and will never be helpless again.”
It wasn’t a fortune by his standards. Julian probably spent more money on grapes in a year than her parents had ever seen in their lifetimes. But it was more than enough to start the venture she had dreamed of for so long.
An inheritance her parents had meant for Unity to have all these years.
“What you choose to do next,” Julian said, “is completely up to you. Without any financial pressure.”
She frowned. “What I choose to do about what?”
He slid off of the bed and onto his knees, once again taking her hands into his.
“I’m sorry, Unity.” He kissed her fingers. “I was high-handed and I was arrogant, and probably a host of other adjectives you were too polite to throw in my face. You’re right. I was wrong. I am deeply sorry to have broken your trust.”
“I didn’t want to be saved.” Her voice shook. “I wasn’t looking for a savior.”
“You saved yourself.Withoutme. Despite Roger Thorne. You saved yourself time and again, from the very beginning. You didn’t need me then, and you still don’t need me now. I can only hope that you mightchooseme.”
Her heart beat faster. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, that money is yours and always has been. It didn’t come from me. It came from your parents. You can do anything you want with it. Just as you can do anything you please with your life.” He gazed up at her, his voice soft. “What I’m hoping you might do... is marry me.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“I’ll not control you,” he said quickly. “You can spend your fortune buying your own food and your own clothes and your own chair to sit on, if it makes you happy. Or you can beggar me down to my last guinea. AllIneed is you. You savedme.”
She stared down at him. “I saved... you?”
“I didn’t believe in love. Didn’t believe I was worthy of it. Didn’t believe I was capable of it. Life was about control, and never forming attachments with anything or anyone.” His thumb stroked the back of her hand. “And then came you.”
“I thought I was temporary, too,” she whispered.
“So did I. That’s what I told myself, reminded myself,warnedmyself. But the ice around my heart could no more resist you than the sun. Your warmth melted my defenses. You made me vulnerable. You terrified me. And now I can think of no worse future than one without you in it.”
Her hands shook.
He pressed them to his heart. “Meeting you was like finding the lost piece of my soul, when I hadn’t realized there was anything missing.”
She swallowed hard.
“Marry me, Unity. Please. I beg you.” He released her hands. “Or do not. It is your life, and I will never again attempt to inflict my will upon you without your consent. If you do not wish to marry me as eagerly, as desperately, as I wish to marry you, I will not stop you if you choose to go.”
She had dreaded the moment in which she had to walk away.
And now she didn’t have to.
That was his gift to her: Choice. He was placingherin control. Of not just her own life, but their future together.
“I almost forgot the most important bit of all. Good God, my hands are shaking. I haven’t said these words in decades, if I ever did back then.” His cheeks flushed and he took a deep breath. “I love you, Unity.”
