“I’ll have you locked in the cargo hold, then.” She gave them a haughty look—an impression of her husband at his snootiest. “Or better yet, the kennels.”
The thugs left, slamming the cabin door behind them. Lord Granborough gasped as though he’d been gut-punched. The breath was knocked from his lungs.
She’d never seen him looking so low.
“Is that all of it?” she asked, demanding total honesty from him now.
He nodded defeatedly. “That is everything I currently owe, but there will always be more. I’ve told you of the roof, drains, and death duties—it will take hundreds of thousands, Louisa.”
Money meant nothing to her, in the grand scheme of things, but she understood that it meant everything to him. He had married her to save Granborough. He had sacrificed his future happiness to protect the estate from bailiffs, creditors, and debt collectors breaking it up piecemeal.
“Oh, Giles, if you were in trouble, you should’ve come to me.”
“Surely, you can understand why I didn’t. I was buried so deep that I couldn’t see the light.”
Louisa joined him on the red brocade sofa. She had witnessed this vulnerable side of him before. He’d given her fleeting glimpses behind the mask when the shadowed curtain slipped to reveal the frightened, wounded gentleman beneath.
“You’re a proud man, but there is no shame in having debt. You didn’t squander your birthright. In fact, you’ve gone to great lengths to preserve what you have left.” She took his trembling hand in hers, lifted it to her lips, and kissed each gloved knuckle. “Believe me, I understand your sacrifice and will happily pay whatever is necessary to lift that burden from your shoulders. There is nothing I wouldn’t do for you.”
His free hand stroked her face. “Please, don’t give up on me,” he pleaded, softly. “My pride is all I have left, and I’ve clung to it. Now, you know the depths of my mortification.” Long fingers feathered over her cheeks. “What manner of man have you married, Louisa?”
He carried great shame over things that weren’t his fault.
She had more faith in him than he had in himself.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” she told him. “It’s what you do going forward that matters. And yes, this is a marriage, and it’s work—but it’s work that I wantwith you.”
Lord Granborough had been on a journey, she realized, from the emotionally repressed, guarded, haughty aristocrat she’d married to this thoughtful, unguarded man who sat beside her now. Louisa wondered what fresh challenges awaited them in England when they reached the other side of their voyage.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Although bailiffs and pawnbrokers had taken everything else of value, the heirloom jewels he’d smuggled to New York were too precious to part with. The Granborough Emeralds, as they were known, were all he had left to give her, and he’d produced them from their tattered case on the eve of his wedding.
Tonight, Louisa retrieved the parure from the purser’s desk in honor of the Captain’s dinner, and the wearing of them was meant to be a surprisefor him.
“I hope you like it, Giles,” she said, emerging from the bedroom clad in an iridescent green silk gown dyed to match the parure he’d presented her in honor of their marriage.
She spun for him, flaunting her nipped, corseted waist and sweeping, bell-shaped skirts. The bodice was cut low across her breasts, and the puffy, gigot sleeves defied gravity above her slender arms. The Marchioness of Granborough was a vision to behold.
“I love everything about it,” he said, awestruck. She was magnificent in all her finery, yet the sight of her wearing his family heirlooms—the same stones as his grandmother and great-grandmother wore before her—moved him. This simple act held more significance than he would ever have imagined.
Shewas his wife. Even after the distasteful events of the afternoon, Louisa hadn’t spurned him. The symbolism of her now, choosing the jewels, embracing the role, and stepping into the forefront as Lady Granborough bound them together more than any golden wedding band ever could.
Emeralds were emblems of lovers’ vows. Giles hadn’t cared before, yet his hands shook as he traced his fingertips along the heavy, polished gemstones gleaming at her throat.
“Oh, Louisa…”
He’d been humbled today. He could have endured the humiliation of debt, but to watch Louisa be pulled down into the mire alongside him—his wife threatened by hired thugs!—brought him lower than he’d ever been.
Yet she made him proud. She had fought for him, proving that Lord and Lady Granborough could endure life’s challenges together. He would share in the running of the estate with her, open the grounds and gardens to paying gawkers and holidaymakers, and install the necessary amenities to bring the house, farms, and tenant cottages into the twentieth century.
He might’ve had generations of noble blood pumping through his veins, but Louisa had pluck, gumption, and common sense. She kept a cool head in a confrontation when he was highly-strung and liable to panic.
She balanced him out. He provided a position in society in which she would thrive. They would make a good team—in marriage and in the business of running Granborough. She would indeed be Lady Bountiful of the county, while he would be forever known as the man who’d been clever enough to recognize the woman she already was.
Tonight, she was wearinghisjewels.
He looked forward to watching her shine.
