Hattie’s cheeks flushed. “Of course it isn’t. I heard it from someone else, I am certain.”
Before Catriona could pursue the matter, the butler arrived on the threshold of the chamber. “The Earl of Rayne and the Duke of Montrose, Miss Lethbridge,” he announced.
Alessandro was here.
With Monty.
Her traitorous heart pounded faster, and hope rose within her against her will.
“Tell them we are not at home to mendacious curs,” Hattie announced.
“Tell us yourself, Miss Lethbridge,” came the cool, almost detached voice of her brother.
And just behind him stood the beautiful, beloved form of her husband. His dark stare met hers and held. “Querida, all I require is a few moments of your time.”
She gazed back at him, terrified he had only sought her out to tell her goodbye. Foolish enough to know that she loved him so much, even a few more minutes in his presence would be worth the pain.
“You do not have to go with him,” Hattie told her quietly.
She gave her friend a sad smile. “Yes, I do.”
“I understand, dearest.” Hattie gave her a stern look. “Holler if he upsets you in any fashion, and I shall come charging to your rescue.”
Catriona gave her friend a quick embrace. “Thank you.”
She hoped she would not need rescuing, but that, like her heart, was ultimately in Alessandro’s hands.
*
Alessandro faced hiswife in a small morning room across the hall from the salon where he had initially found her. Love for her, so profound and strong, overwhelmed him.
All he could think, was that he had found her.
ThankDios.
And then, he realized how pale she was.
“How are you,querida?” he asked softly.
“Why have you come?” she returned instead of answering.
“You left me.” He took a step closer to her. “Where else would I go but where you are?”
“Spain, perhaps?” Her lips tightened.
He did not miss the bitterness lacing her dulcet tones.
He deserved that bitterness and her distrust both. He had wronged her. Again and again.
“I am not going to Spain.” As the words left him, he felt indescribably light, as if the weight of a cartload of bricks had been lifted from his shoulders, from his heart. “Not now.”
She frowned at him. “When, then? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?”
“I do not know,” he answered honestly. “Spain has been a home to me for all my life, and I want to return one day. But not without you. I am not leaving you,querida. I cannot leave you or thebebé.”
“I do not understand, Alessandro.” Her gaze searched his. “What does all this mean? Mere days ago, you could not wait to see me settled in London so you could go. Here I am, settled. You are free. I am free. It is all done. I will not try to keep you here, where you do not wish to be.”
He reached her then, and he could not resist drawing her against him. She was trembling, but then, so too, was he. Alessandro buried his face in her soft, sweetly scented curls, inhaling deeply. “There is nowhere else I would rather be than here, with the woman I love.”
