All my machinations had led to Elvira’s death.
Someone else had pulled the trigger, but it wasmeshe had followed.
More than anything, I wanted to atone for my behavior. I wanted to stop my mother from selling off artifacts that had belonged to Cleopatra. I wanted to discover what happened to my father. I was filled with so much tangible yearning, each a weight on my shoulders, pressing me down into the earth. All thatwantthreatened to bury me alive.
Unless I did something about it.
“Talk to me,” Whit whispered. “What are you thinking?”
I shook my head, trying to focus on the here and now. On the man who stood in front of me. Sometimes, I could read him easily. When our hearts connected, and for a moment, we saw the world the same way. Butmore often than not, I barely understood him. I still didn’t know whyhewanted to marryme.
A term of endearment was just a noun and not a promise.
“I have my reasons for doing this,” I whispered. “What are yours?”
He took a step back, nodding, as if he’d expected the question. His words from the day before still rang in my ear. The weight of them, said in his deep baritone, in his smooth and aristocratic accent. The breadth of his shoulders tight and sharp, his hands trembling. He had been nervous when he’d said them.
Marry me instead.
That had been then. Now that I stood before the church, I wasn’t sure I had fully understood the permanence of my decision. Marriage meant forever—or at least, I wanted it to mean forever. I studied Whit, who had gone stone-still, visibly weighing his answer.
He tucked his hands deep into his pockets.
“Proposing to you was my choice and no one else’s,” he said. “In the utter chaos of my life, you are the only thing that makes sense. You asked me what my reasons are, and I don’t know all of them yet, but I do know one important thing.” He took a shaky breath, his eyes never leaving my face, and the raw emotion lurking in their depths almost keeled me over. “You’re the one I want, Inez.”
My lips parted.
His voice dropped to a husky whisper. “Please make me the happiest man on this earth.”
And the planet tilted again, off-kilter. The ground seemed to shift under my feet, and my knees buckled. Whitford Hayes was a multifaceted prism, and I thought I had seen every side. The outrageous flirt with his equally outrageous winks, the soldier loyal to his general, the drunk with red-rimmed eyes and a flask hidden in his pocket, the adventurer who knew how to handle dynamite, the man who loved Egypt, and the brother who adored his only sister.
But I’d never seen his raw vulnerability.
That side of him left me breathless.
“Is that enough for you?” he prodded.
“Yes,” I breathed.
Whit nodded, solemn and grimly determined. Sweat beaded at his hairline, and it occurred to me that he might still be nervous. He might be trying to appear calm and reassuring for my sake, but on the inside, maybe his heart was beating just as fast as mine.
He opened the door and held out his hand. I didn’t hesitate, taking it with a small smile, feeling I could take on my uncle and my mother and my aunt and anyone else who stood in my way.
We walked through.
CAPÍTULO TRES
The inside of the church was even more beautiful than the exterior. At the foot of the grand room stood an altar, and beyond, lotus-shaped inlaid wooden panels decorated the walls. Three aisles divided up the space with rows and rows of wooden pews. And on the eastern end, there were three sanctuaries tucked nearly out of sight. Automatically, I began moving in that direction, curious to see the elaborate screens adorned in ebony and ivory.
Whit hooked his arm around my elbow, swinging me toward him.
“The art caught my eye,” I explained. “I just want a closer look at the pattern. Perhaps I’ll bring my sketchbook next ti—”
Amusement creased the corner of his eyes. “Have you forgotten why we are here?”
“Ofcoursenot. I was only curious—”
“Inez.”
