She cocked her head, her light-blue gaze searching. “I might ask the same of you. You left me. Why?”
He clenched his jaw against the emotions that threatened to overwhelm. “You were nearly killed because of me.”
“I didn’t see a flintlock in your hands that day.”
“I may as well have been the one to shoot you.” He raked a hand through his hair, self-loathing threatening to choke him. “I was the one Levering was after. I dallied with his wife. I made him a cuckold. I was a ne’er-do-well scapegrace without a thought for consequence, and you paid the price for my sins. It was my fault that you were vulnerable that day. Tierney had warned me, but I was too prideful to believe the earl would be bold enough and mad enough to come for me again after the first time. I was wrong.”
“You couldn’t have known what he would do,” Eleanora said softly. “You didn’t know. No one has ever championed me or protected me as you have. I have no doubt that if you’d had an inkling of what would unfold, you would have done everything in your power to keep me far from Lord Levering.”
“I should have been wiser, stronger. I should have remained at Tierney’s until we could formulate a plan. But I was foolish. Reckless, just as Princess Stasia warned you. I left Tierney’s protection because I wanted you as my wife. I was selfish and greedy, and look at the cost.You.My God, Eleanora, if you had died that day…”
“I didn’t.” That stubborn chin he loved went up. “I’m still here.”
“No thanks to me,” he snarled bitterly.
“I have brought something for you,” she said, surprising him.
“A gift?”
A small, curious smile played at her berry-pink lips, and he had to tamp down the urge to seize her and take her mouth with his. “Of sorts.”
She flitted to the table, retrieving a small, carved wooden box.
Turning back to him, she offered it. “Here you are.”
He accepted it, staring at the small box in his hands, then at Eleanora.
“Open the lid,” she urged.
His fingers found the smooth underside of the lip carved into the box, and he pulled, the top coming off with ease. Within was a tidy bundle of gray bits. It looked like…
“Ashes?” he asked, more confused than ever.
She nodded. “The annulment documents from Varros and the deed to our town house in London, along with the letter concerning the transfer of your funds in trust to me.”
Hope rose within him.
“You burned them.”
Another small smile curved her fetching lips. “I burned them.”
Nando swallowed hard, the smooth box in his hands scarcely any weight at all, worth almost nothing and yet utterly priceless. “Why did you burn them, minx?”
His pet name for her fell from his lips without thought, naturally.
He didn’t correct himself.
“Because I don’t wish for an annulment, nor do I want your money. And I certainly don’t want to live in the London town house unless you are in it with me.”
Her eyes grew wide as she finished her pronouncement, and he could see that she had stunned even herself with her stern words.
He had to take a moment to gather his whirling thoughts.
“Why not?” he asked when he could find his wits and his tongue again.
“Do you not know?” Her brow furrowed, and she took the box from him, replacing it on the table, before she reached for his hands.
He allowed her to take them, threading their fingers together. Sweet God, to touch her again. It was Elysium, pure and simple.
