“What are the two of you doing here?”
“I know why you're running,” Wesley said. “You don't have to be afraid. I'm not ever going to change my mind about how I feel about you. With or without my memory.”
“You don't know that,” she said. “I don't want you to be forced into something you don't want.”
“You wouldn't be forcing him,” Ned said with a laugh. “He's been in love with you since the moment he met you. I don't know how you haven't noticed.”
“Ned, please,” Wesley said. “Can you give us some privacy?”
Ned grumbled and stepped away. But then he returned. “Platitudes won't convince her. This is Willa, in case you've forgotten, and she's smarter than both of us. You don't have your memory. I have watched you trip over your own damned feet for this girl. I won't see you fail.”
Now Wesley pinched the bridge of his nose, but Ned ignored him and stepped into the gazebo. Willa would have found it all amusing, but her heart was suspended in half hope and half terror. Had she really been so blind? Was his endearing friendship always meant to be more?
“We were too late that day. We chased after the first coach, thinking you were on it.”
“I overslept,” Willa said. “Mrs. Gobstone robbed me, and I missed the first coach.”
“We realized that when we reach the second inn, and you weren’t there. We raced back and we heard the shot, but you were already gone by the time we reached the stagecoach. He went after you. The mad fool that he is—madly in love with you, that is.”
Through her tears, a laugh burst from her.
Wesley stepped forward. “That's still true. Nothing will change that. I love you, Willa. I always have, and I always will. And if you don't believe me, believe Ned, who knows both of us.”
“So, you both were going to follow me all the way to London?”
“I didn’t want to do it,” Ned said. “I thought we ought to tell your family straightaway, but he insisted you be allowed to go your own way with us watching you. Whose plan was better?” Ned asked, pointedly.
Wesley rolled his eyes. “Will you give us privacy now? I think she understands.”
“Fine,” Ned relented, “but don't ruin all the hard work you and I have put into this.” Ned strolled away this time, giving them privacy.
Wesley entered the gazebo, looking around. “Have I been here before?”
Willa chewed her lip, breathless and a little lightheaded. “I’m not sure you have.”
“It's beautiful.”
“I’ve never seen so much in bloom.”
“So, I’m right not to remember this.”
“And you don't remember me,” Willa said.
“Willa, you are the only constant in my mind. You are the only thing that makes sense to me. The way I feel for you. It's not going to change. It never changed. It never went away.”
She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes.
“If you don't believe me, believe Ned. He remembers for me, and someday I’ll remember too. Or maybe I never will. But it won't change the way I feel about you now.”
“You didn’t seem sure at breakfast, when Ned and your father mentioned the proposal.”
“I was shocked, I confess. I… I don’t know myself right now, but to have what I knew already in my heart validated, made it startlingly real. But I didn’t enjoy the way they talked about it around us, making our plans for us.”
She took a shivery breath. “Neither did I.”
“I know how I feel about you. What I need to know, is how you feel about me.” He dropped to one knee before her. “Will you be my wife? In sickness and in health, no matter if I am Knightly or Wesley?”
“You silly fool.” Willa leaned forward and cupped his face. “There was never a Knightly. That was just a silly name I gave you. You were always Wesley. I just had to see you in a new way. My heart has changed. And while I loved you as a friend, that has changed too. I am in love with the man you already are.
