“Oh!” Bridget gasped. “In all the worry about everything else, I’d forgotten. Is the driver all right?”
“He will be,” Reeves said. “He made it home safely, and he’s being tended to now. He’ll recover.”
“Thank goodness.” Bridget sighed. “I was so terrified when I saw him fall. I can’t believe all this has happened. I don’t know what I would have done if not for him. If he hadn’t made it back home to tell you…” she shook her head. “But on the other hand, I reallydidn’twant you to come.”
“Do you still wish I hadn’t?”
“No,” Bridget admitted. “I’m glad you came, and that you had a plan. But I couldn’t see how you would get me away from Gareth without putting Emma in danger, and helping me wasn’t worth that.”
“I understand,” Reeves said quietly. “I know that’s how you feel about it, and it means the world to me that you do. I know I can trust you with my daughter.” He sighed. “You were willing to lay your life down for her. That’s more than anyone other than me has ever been willing to do.”
“I care for her very much,” Bridget said softly. “Just as I do for all the children I’ve looked after… but there’s something special about her, too. There always has been. She’s touched my heart in a very unique way.” She sighed. “I should have stayed with you at Greystone,” she murmured. “That’s where my heart always wanted to be. I should have admitted it to myself. I should have stayed when you asked me to. If I had, none of this would have happened.”
“You couldn’t have known.” Reeves cupped her cheek gently, and she closed her eyes. “Neither of us could have known what was going to happen. And if wehadknown, you wouldn’t have had any choice in the matter. I’d have locked you in your room rather than allow you to walk into this danger. No matter how angry it made you, I wouldn’t have let you leave if I’d known what lay ahead.”
“If we’d known, you wouldn’t have had to lock me anywhere,” Bridget assured him. “There’s no way I would have gone under those circumstances.”
“We have to forgive ourselves, that’s all,” Reeves said. “What happened here tonight wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t yours. And what matters most is that we were able to get ourselves out of the situation.”
“You got us out of it,” Bridget said. “You saved me. You saved Emma. You must never again tell yourself that you’re powerless to protect the people you love, Reeves. Tonight you saved my life, and you did it while keeping Emma out of danger. We owe you everything in the world.”
“I couldn’t do anything else,” Reeves said softly. “Gareth knew that he was putting me in an impossible choice by taking you the way he did. My one mistake in all of this was allowing him to see how much I cared for you. He knew he would be able to use that against me, and that knowledge created danger for all of us. If I’d been able to keep my feelings to myself, it would have been better.”
“You kept them to yourself better than you think you did,” Bridget told him. “I had no idea.”
“How could you not have known? When I was begging you to stay at Greystone? When I kissed you? Was it not obvious that I felt something?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “You didn’t want me to know, Reeves,” she said. “You were hiding it from me as best you could. You know you were. If you had really wanted me to realize that I meant something to you, you would have said the words.”
“And what about you?” he asked her. “You never said anything either.”
“I couldn’t.” She shook her head, smiling. “You’re right, Reeves. You’re right—and so am I. We should have confided in one another from the very start. We should have been honest with each other.”
“Well, we’ll do that from now on,” Reeves pledged. “From now on, I’ll tell you exactly what I’m thinking. And you’ll do the same, I hope.”
She nodded. “I will. I promise, I will.”
“Then I’ll tell you the truth right now,” he said. “I love you, Bridget. You’ve shown me the meaning of love. What I feel for you, I’ve never felt for another person in all my life. I know loveis real because I know you. And I can’t imagine not asking you to be my wife.”
She gasped. “Are you… Are you asking me?”
“I’m imploring you. Marry me. Stay with me. Raise Emma with me—she longs to have you as a mother. We can be a family, the three of us, if you’ll agree. Will you?”
She stared up at him, her eyes searching his as if she might find the answer to his question there.
“I love you,” he murmured. “Tell me that you love me too.”
“You know I do, Reeves.”
He did know. After all the doubt and uncertainty, facing her now, he couldn’t remember how he had ever managed to feel uncertain of her feelings for him. They were written all over her face. Nothing could possibly be clearer.
“Then be my wife,” he whispered, caressing her cheek.
And Bridget nodded. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, Reeves. Of course I will. I would love nothing more.”
CHAPTER 37
“Ijust can’t wait to see everyone again,” Bridget said happily as the carriage stopped in front of the orphanage. “Thank you so much for coming with me today, Reeves.”
