“What was the performance meant to mean?” Louise’s voice emerged barely above a whisper.
Aaron’s hands found hers where they gripped the chair arms. His touch sent electricity through her entire body, every nerve remembering what it felt like to be held by him.
“It means I’m a fool.” The words tumbled out, rushed and desperate. “It means I let fear control me, dictate my choices, steal my happiness. It means I nearly lost the best thing that ever happened to me because I was too much of a coward to believe I deserved it.”
Louise pulled her hands away, needing distance to think. “You sent us away. Without a word of protest, without asking us to stay.”
“I know.” Aaron remained on his knees, making no attempt to chase her withdrawn hands. “I stood there and let you walk out because I convinced myself it was noble. That I was protecting you. But I was only protecting myself from the possibility of happiness I didn’t think I’d earned.”
“Do you have any idea what these days have been like?” The words escaped before Louise could stop them, raw with accumulated pain. “Watching Emily cry herself to sleep?Pretending to care about other men’s attention when all I wanted was you? Living half a life because the other half stayed behind in your house?”
Aaron’s face crumpled. “I’m sorry. God, Louise, I’m so sorry. I’ve been sitting in my study, drowning in brandy and self-pity while you suffered for my cowardice. There aren’t enough words to tell you how sorry I am.”
“Sorry doesn’t erase the pain, Aaron.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He shifted closer on his knees, still not touching her but close enough that she could smell his cologne, that mixture of sandalwood and something uniquely him. “But maybe time could? Maybe patience? Maybe a lifetime of proving that I choose you over fear, every day, every moment?”
Louise looked down at the velvet box still sitting untouched in her lap. “What is this?”
“Open it.”
Her fingers trembled as she lifted the lid. Inside, nestled on white silk, lay a ring unlike anything she’d ever seen. Not the massive diamond she might have expected from a duke, but something far more precious. An emerald surrounded by pearls, intimate and perfect.
“It was my mother’s.” Aaron’s voice dropped to barely audible. “The only jewelry of hers Father didn’t lock away because shewas wearing it when she died. She told Cecilia she wanted her son’s wife to have it. That she wanted it to represent love chosen freely, not obligation or arrangement or duty.”
Louise couldn’t see the ring anymore through her tears.
“I love you.” The words emerged from Aaron raw and desperate. “I’ve loved you since you tried to seduce me in that ridiculous dress, terrified but determined. I loved you when you faced down Bragg for Emily. I loved you when you made our house echo with laughter it hadn’t heard in decades. I loved you when I sent you away, and I’ve loved you every miserable second since.”
He reached up, his fingers ghosting across her cheek, catching tears she hadn’t realized were falling.
“Marry me, Louise. Let me spend every day proving I choose you over fear. Let me wake up beside you and know I’m exactly where I belong. Let me love you the way you deserve to be loved, completely, without reservation, without walls.” His voice broke entirely. “Please. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness, but I’m begging for it anyway. Begging for you. For us. For the future we could have if you’re brave enough to trust me again.”
Louise covered his hand with hers, pressing his palm against her cheek. “You absolute idiot.”
Hope flickered in his eyes.
“You beautiful, noble, infuriating fool.” She pulled the ring from its box with shaking fingers. “Yes.”
“Yes?” He looked stunned, as if he’d never actually believed she might agree.
“Yes, I’ll marry you.” Louise held out the ring to him. “But you have to promise. No more walls. No more choosing fear. No more protecting me from happiness.”
“I promise.” Aaron took the ring, sliding it onto her finger with infinite care. It fit perfectly, as if it had been waiting all these years for her hand. “I love you, Louise. I’ll tell you every day until you’re sick of hearing it.”
“I love you too.” The words felt like coming home. “I never stopped, even when I wanted to.”
Aaron surged up from his knees, pulling her from the chair and into his arms. Their lips met with desperate hunger, weeks of separation making them reckless. Louise’s fingers tangled in his hair while his arms crushed her against him as if trying to merge them into one being.
A thunderous bark erupted from the hallway, followed by multiple voices shushing frantically.
“Quiet, Buttercup!”
“They’ll hear us!”
“George, control that beast!”
“He’s not my beast!”
