Lord Cliffrows scowled. “I don’t see why you would involve yourself in things that have nothing to do with you,” he huffed. “Who is my daughter to you?”
“As good as my sister,” Arthur said evenly, and Isabella felt her whole body grow warm with love for him.
Her father seemed to have little else to say, and after a few more stilted attempts at conversation, he got up and showed himself out.
“Oh, my goodness,” Felicity said with a little laugh of relief. “I can’t believe how well that went. I can’t believe he’s actually going to leave me alone and allow me to make my own arrangements.”
“And you should know that Taylor has already spoken to me about proposing marriage to you,” Arthur replied, smiling. “In your father’s place, I’ve given him my permission to ask you.”
Isabella gasped. “You didn’t tell me that!”
“Well, I didn’t want to raise anyone’s hopes until we knew for sure that it could happen. But I would anticipate that he’ll be here to ask for your hand any day now, Miss Felicity.”
Felicity jumped to her feet and spun in a circle. “I can hardly wait!”
EPILOGUE
“Alone at last,” Arthur said quietly.
It was evening, and Felicity had gone to bed early, exhausted from all the excitement of the day. She would dream pleasant things, Arthur was sure, and in the days to come, all her dreams would become reality. It had been wonderful to hear Taylor say how much he cared for her, how much he wanted her to be his. Arthur was thrilled that it was all working out so neatly.
Now, he sat in the library across from Isabella. The lights were low, and they each had a drink, but neither one of them had bothered to pick their glasses up. Every time Arthur thought of reaching for his, something stopped him. He wanted to be clear-headed tonight, he supposed.
Isabella seemed to have the same impulse. She sat back in her chair, looking as relaxed as Arthur had ever seen her—but not looking as though she was in any rush to pick up that drink.
He took a deep breath. “There’s been quite a lot going on lately,” he said.
“There has,” she agreed. “Between the arrest of Lady Reeves, dealing with my father, and now, Isabella’s impending engagement, it’s felt as if there hasn’t been any time to simply stop and think.”
“Well, there is now,” Arthur said. “And I think you and I owe one another a conversation.”
“I agree,” Isabella said.
Her eyes didn’t leave his face. As usual, he found her beyond impressive. What courage she had to look him in the eyes and never turn away. He found it challenging to return her gaze though she was so important to him—and this moment was so pivotal—that he knew he must.
“We need to talk about what I said to you back when you first came to live here,” he said. “When I told you that I didn’t want an heir or a romantic connection with my wife.”
“I think we’re beyond that,” she replied quietly.
“But it ought to be explicit. You need to know that I don’t feel that way now,” he said. “You need to know that I never truly felt that way. I thought those were things Icouldn’thave. I was afraid. I thought that if I allowed myself to depend on anyoneagain, the way I did with my parents, I would risk losing them. That I would get hurt.”
“And you don’t feel that way now?”
“If I don’t let myself get close to you, I lose you anyway,” he said softly. “And it’s too late to guard my heart, Isabella. I’ve fallen hard for you. I never meant it to happen, but I couldn’t resist the way you make me feel.”
“Well, I’m glad you couldn’t,” Isabella replied. “I fell for you a long time ago, you know. Almost as soon as I came to live here in the first place. It amazed me how quickly I shifted from thinking it was a terrible idea to knowing that I couldn’t fully be happy without you. I had resigned myself to the knowledge that my life would never feel full because you would always pull away from me.”
“I’m sorry I ever did,” he said earnestly. “I’m sorry I made you worry about that.”
“You’re sorry because now Lady Reeves has been accounted for, and you wish we hadn’t suffered the way we did?”
“I’m sorry because even if she was still at large, I would want you,” he explained. “Even if there was no hope of her arrest. I would have been better served by spending my time building a fortress around you to protect you—to protectus—because at least we could have been together. I’m so sorry that I made such wrong choices.”
She shook her head. “You didn’t,” she said quietly. “I understand the way you felt, Arthur. Truly, I do. I’ve spent my life worrying about protecting my sister from our father. Not a murderer, of course, but I knew he never cared about giving her the best life she could have. It’s nearly impossible to even realize what you want for yourself under conditions like that. I don’t need you to apologize to me for not knowing. Until I was married to you, I believed the best course of action for my life was to remain on my own, to never fall in love or marry. How could I possibly fault you for thinking the same thing?”
Arthur supposed there was truth in her words. “We have lived rather parallel lives, haven’t we? Losing our parents, feeling as though we had responsibilities that kept us from living the lives we might otherwise have chosen.”
“And yet, we both ended up here,” Isabella said with a smile. “In spite of the obstacles, we found our way to one another. It’s rather miraculous when you think about it that way, isn’t it?”
