“I’m so glad to see you smiling. Earlier tonight, well, you do not wish to know what I was thinking and feeling.”
“Me too.” She walked towards him and offered her hand. “Come to bed?” she asked. His eyebrows shot up.
“Is that wise?” he said softly. “Your husband has just been carted off to prison. I rather think the staff aren’t going to go to sleep easily after all that commotion and gossip.”
“I have ordered the staff to retire early. Mrs Jarvis is seeing to it. Jessie is also under strict orders not to spread gossip, though from the smile on her face, I rather think she has the intention of telling everyone exactly why Gilbert has been arrested. I cannot blame her for that.” She offered her hand again. “I think they will be too busy with their own gossip to think of us.”
He couldn’t resist. He eagerly placed his hand in her own as she helped him to his feet. Wandering out of the sitting room together, they blew out candles on route, placing the sitting room and the entrance hall into darkness. As they meandered up the staircase together, Owen could feel the way Diana kept looking at him. He rather thought there was something on the tip of her tongue, but every time he turned to her, she looked away again.
In the hallway, they blew out more candles, until they reached her chamber, which was only lit by the fire. Owen went to light more candles, placing them around the room so that a soft orange glow encompassed them.
“I’ve been thinking,” Diana began, perching on the edge of her bed.
“About?”
“About where we go from here.” She beckoned him towards her. He was only too happy to finish with the candles and go to her side. “I have an idea.”
“Tell me more.”
“Jessie said it was possible before for me to make money from my writing.”
“Yes, it is certainly true.”
“Well, what if that could give us independence?” she asked. Owen hesitated; unsure he had heard her correctly. “What if you and I left together, Owen?”
“Ran away?” he asked with a smile. “We cannot elope. It would be bigamy!”
“But if we moved far enough away, no one would know who we were. We could live together as man and wife, and no one would know.” Her excitement made him pause, thinking through the idea.
Was it possible?
“Gilbert keeps money in this house, I am sure of it. We could take what I am owed, take the value of my dowry.”
“Take more! He owes it to you.”
“Enough for us to start to live on. If my writing does well, then we have our independence. A future!”
“But, Diana, what if …” He hesitated, shifting on the bed as he thought through the options. “What if you can’t make a lot of money from the writing?”
“Then we go into service together, and we work for our money,” she said excitedly.
“You would do that?” Owen asked, shaking his head. “No, Diana, I could not ask that of you.”
“Ask what of me?”
“To go into service,” he said, angling his body completely towards her. “You have lived a life as a duchess. I cannot ask you to leave all that for me.”
“You are such a good man, Owen.” She laughed and reached up towards him, kissing him. It was a gentle kiss, one that he had to angle his head for to avoid the pain in his nose. Yet their lips lingered, with the promise of what they had shared before in this bed and could share again. “It is because you would never ask something like that of me that I wish to do it. Owen, I love you. I want to live my life with you, no matter what the circumstances.”
Owen smiled, finding it impossible not to be happy now. It didn’t seem to matter that she was married to the duke. He was about to see a court for his crimes, and Diana was prepared to abandon her life here just to be with Owen.
“You would do that?” he asked softly. “To be with me.”
“I would. So, what do you say, Owen?” she asked excitedly. “Would you like to be married to me in every way except in name?” He laughed warmly at the idea, reaching for her hands and drawing her forward on the bed until she fell into his lap.
“I’d love that.” He closed his lips to hers, kissing her passionately. It went from gentle to urgent within seconds. Only when her nose brushed his did he have to jerk away. “Ah, the nose.”
“We will have to be more careful,” she said with a giggle.
