The sun is playing peek-a-boo with a light scattering of clouds, and the three of us are seemingly alone. It truly is a lovely day.
“I have not been treating you as you deserve,” Selwyn suddenly says.
My head whips around to face him. “You treat me better than anyone ever has!”
A stricken look crosses his face. A look of pain clouds his eyes. Then he shakes it away. He drops his gaze and stops walking to look at a pretty yellow flower.
I pause and wait for him.
“You deserve the world, Laurie. I wish I could give it to you,” he says quietly to the flower.
I frown. We were having a lovely time. What has brought this strange mood on?
A silence settles over us. Three paces away, Loki starts digging, her front paws determinedly scraping at the ground. She’s going to make quite a hole. But given the wild state of the gardens, I don’t think anyone will mind.
“I find my feelings for you complicated,” Selwyn says.
My attention snaps back to him. He is still regarding the beautiful yellow flower and not looking at me.
His words rattle around my head, and my heart sinks. Oh. That was a very nice way of saying he doesn’t like me.
Selwyn takes in a deep breath. “The intensity is frightening. Sometimes I resent the power it holds over me.” He pauses and breathes again. “If you would grant me your grace, I shall endeavour to be worthy of it.”
He turns slowly to face me. I blink up at him. Is it the translator or my own stupidity that is causing me difficulty? Whatever the cause, I’m not grasping what he is saying.
I glance down at the yellow flower he is holding. He plucked it? I thought he said plucking flowers was a terriblewaste and should only be reserved for extremely special occasions?
His eyes lift to mine. Swirling with emotion. His hand moves, and he carefully tucks the flower behind my ear, threading the stem through the plait he wove there this morning after we shared another bath.
My eyes widen. My stomach flutters with stupid, wistful hope. My mind scrambles over what he just said.
Then my mouth is falling open, and my hand is clamping over it.
He likes me, and he is not used to it, so it makes him grumpy, and he is asking me to be patient with him.
He likes me! Selwyn is saying he likes me! My husband is fond of me! This is amazing. It is far beyond my wildest dreams.
A beautiful smile stretches across his face, and his eyes sparkle.
My heart goes crazy in response, and it is quite right. This is beyond wonderful. It is perfect.
My husband likes me.
I don’t care about anything else. It’s all insignificant. It doesn’t matter what he is up to.
Because when your husband has feelings for you, what’s a little treason?
Chapter twenty-six
“This one is an anthurium. It only grows here on Earth.”
Selwyn proudly shows me another one of his plants. I think he is going to introduce me to every single one in his collection, and that’s delightful.
I’m in his inner sanctum, and he is sharing the things that bring him joy with me. I’m so honoured and flattered.
Yesterday, a walk in the gardens where he declared feelings for me, today this. It is all too good to be true. I’d think I was dreaming except my imagination has never been this good.
The yellow flower he tucked behind my ear, is safely pressed between the pages of one of my sketch books. I can check it every time I need reassurance that this is real. I am going to keep it forever. It is my most prized possession.
