He picked up the suitcase and headed toward the door, but knocking sounded on it, followed by the sound of a familiar voice.
“Yuri? Are you in there? Can you open up?”
Rosalind?He wrenched the door open.
“I can’t stay at the Commonwealth.” She brushed past him and stalked into the room. “I mean it.”
He scratched his head. “Is something not to your liking? If someone treated you poorly I’ll ride out to the property myself and give Mrs. McWhirter a piece of my mind.”
“It’s not that.” She spun and faced his direction, and she was a mess. Her shirtwaist was crooked where it tucked into her skirt, her updo was disheveled and sliding to one side, and golden whisps of her hair poked up every which way. “The Commonwealth is lovely, really. It’s a nice, peaceful place for women who need a better life.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You’re not there.”
“I’m not—” His throat closed, and any words he had shriveled on his tongue. “Are you saying...”
“I’m saying that I still want to stay married to you.” Her voice grew hoarse, and moisture crept into her eyes. “I know you must hate me for what my father did to your family. I know you can barely stand to look at me and will probably turn me away. ButI also know that the coach comes this afternoon, and I had to tell you how I felt before you left. That I can’t imagine my life without you, nor do I want to. So if you can find it in your heart to forgive me for what my father did, then I want to be by your side. I don’t care where we go or what we do.”
He dropped his suitcase to the floor with athunk.“Is that what you think? That I don’t want to stay married because of your father? I don’t blame you for what he did, Ros. Those were his actions, not yours.”
“You don’t?” A tear slipped down her cheek. “Then why did you pull away when I kissed you? Why have you been so distant from me?”
He reached out and pulled her into his arms, then dropped his forehead down until it touched hers. “Because I was worried about your father finding you if we stayed married. And because I wanted you to see the Commonwealth. I wanted you to know what your choices looked like, not blindly choose me. I can’t offer you much more than a rented apartment in a dirty city while I work far too many hours trying to get my family’s new shipyard operational.”
“You’ve offered me more than that from the very beginning.” She reached up and rested a hand on his cheek. “You’re the kindest person I’ve ever met, and I love you for it. Just like I love you for the way you helped me with my charity letters even though you barely knew me when we started, and for the way you insisted on naming the library after my family to try to protect me. For the way you asked me to leave Sitka and go somewhere safe time and again, and for the way you sat by my side the day after I was injured. Or how you dropped everything to take me to Washington, DC, and then here, never mind that you’re supposed to be in San Francisco right now helping your family. You promised to love and honor and cherish me on our wedding day. But the truth is, you were loving, honoring, andcherishing me long before we got married, and I’m taking you up on that promise in earnest. I won’t let you get out of it so easily.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it, not quite sure what to say. “I’d hardly call what we had a wedding day. You didn’t have much choice about marrying me.”
She blinked. “Is that what you’ve been telling yourself? That I married you because I felt like it was my only choice? Iwantedto marry you. Back in Sitka. I didn’t agree to a rushed wedding because of my father or Leeland or my ribs. I agreed because I was already in love with you, and I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of my life by your side.”
Once again, his mouth opened, but no words came out. Had she truly felt this way about him? All this time? “Why didn’t you say something?”
“Because you didn’t want to marry me.”
“Not want to marry you?” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Why would you think that? Wait. Was it because of the things your father tried to do to my family?”
“Of course. Like I said, I can’t blame you for not?—”
He stepped close to her again and pressed a finger to her mouth. “That was never it. I never blamed you for what your father did. Not once.”
She stepped away from him. “But you didn’t even have to think before you shot down Alexei’s idea that we get married. You told him no before he even finished talking. Then you left the room to talk to him, and when you came back, it was with a plan for a temporary marriage.”
He’d never meant to give her that impression. All he’d done was set his own feelings aside and try to protect her first and foremost.
But he’d been so fast to quash Alexei’s initial suggestion that they marry. If she’d had feelings for him—if she loved him—how must that have looked to her? And then when she’d asked if theycould stay married in Washington, DC, he’d been fast to tell her no again.
But he’d left her at the Commonwealth for two days, and somehow she’d found a ride to Belton and sought him out entirely on her own.
He’d just been praying that God would give him strength while he said good-bye to her a final time, but then she had appeared before he could even rent a horse, answering his prayer in a way that was entirely different from what he’d expected, and telling him that she was choosing him freely—not out of fear or duty or obligation.
He reached out and stroked one of the wayward wisps of hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “Are you sure you want to stay married and come to San Francisco with me?”
“San Francisco, Sitka, Juneau, Washington, DC. I don’t care where it is. I just want to be with you.” She reached up and laid a hand on his cheek, their faces so close that their breath mingled. “I love you, Yuri Amos.”
“I love you too.” He pulled her into his arms, savoring the familiar way she fit against him. “I’ve loved you for years, ever since you moved to Sitka, really.”
Tears filled her eyes, and she sniffled. “Then why did you tell your brother no when he first suggested we marry? Why did you insist on an annulment?”
