Rory blinked. “You didn’t?”
“I asked her… Well, I asked her…” He couldn’t finish the sentence, aloud or in his mind.
“Ah,” said Rory. “I don’t know Miss Hart all that well, but even I could see she isn’t the sort of lass who would accept an arrangement other than marriage.”
The words slammed into Archie with the force of a typhoon, for they begged a question: How had he not seen it?
Valentina’s words came to him.
Not even for you, Archie.
They’d been haunting him since she’d spoken them. But now, he saw something deeper than rejection nestled within them.
Longing.
It was there in thateven.
And another fact hit him.
She would’ve saidyesto the question he hadn’t asked.
She wanted him.Him.The light and the dark. All of him.
And he wanted her. He wasn’t sure he could create a life worth living without her, in truth.
So, it all begged yet another question—the most vital one…
If she wanted him, and he wanted her, then why onearth couldn’t they have each other?
He shot to his feet. “Safe travels on your journey north, my friend, but I must go.”
Rory stood and clapped Archie on the back. “I look forward to receiving a note bearing good news upon my arrival at Baile Ìm.”
Then Archie was outside, boots clicking across filthy cobblestones at a clip almost as rapid as the race of his mind. He stuck two fingers in his mouth and hailed a hackney cab with a sharp whistle.
As he saw it, he had but one obstacle… How to win her?
But that was easy. He would win her with what had brought them together in the first place.
And he knew exactly how he would do it.
He had some labor ahead of him this night—of the manual variety.
Valentina squinched her eyes shut against the music drifting through her dreams, trying to steal her away from slumber. She rolled onto her side and dragged a pillow over her head.
Through elusive sleep it hit her.
It wasn’t just any music.
It was Archie’s music.
And it wasn’t coming from her dreams.
Her eyes flew open. Her room glowed a soft golden pink as dawn peeked through her curtains. The music was coming from beyond them. From…outside.
How was Archie’s music coming from the high street?
Impossible.
