“No, no!” she protested, grabbing him by the arm to turn him back. “I’m sorry, Ian. You did just take me by…I just never thought that you might…that you truly…oh!” She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his.
Ian hesitated, but the heat of her kiss rapidly dissolved his dismay and he wrapped his arms around her waist, lifting her until her toes were off the ground.
“No pins,” she whispered against his lips. “No needles. I would love to be your wife. Everyone will think us mad, to be sure.”
“They can think as they please,” he said, then whispered more softly in her ear. “Should a hasty marriage also find me as speedily in your bed, I can only wonder why I did not think to compromise you earlier.”
“You were courting me, remember?” she teased with a smile, then her eyes widened with wonder. “Oh, you actually were courting me, weren’t you?”
He rolled his eyes with a mental groan. “You are a most frustrating woman.”
“You really did intend to ask me all along?” she asked. “You weren’t just saying that?”
“Truly, Hero, how can such a clever woman be so oblivious?”
Hero knew he meant his mocking words as a jest, and while they did not sting with insult they did hurt after a fashion. Pulling away from him, she leaned against the rail overlooking the stream, not seeing the dreamlike haven created by the hanging willows and summer moss but the ballrooms of years past. “Tell me, Ian. When you look at me, what do you see?”
“Is this a trick question?”
She could tell by his tone alone that the crow’s feet by his eyes would be just a fraction deeper, that his eyes would be aglow with light humor, and the corner of his mouth would be lifted just a notch. There was just that touch of amusement that disguised a trace of concern.
Glancing from the corner of her eye, she saw it there just as she had suspected, and he must have seen something in her as well. He crossed his arms over his broad chest and considered her thoughtfully.
“I see a lass of astonishing beauty both on the surface and in her soul. The gold of her hair outshone only by her golden heart. I see a woman I desire and love more than I’d ever dreamed possible.”
Pleasure spread through her heart his words. She knew romantic expression was new to him. His discomfort when voicing what Robert would surely have referred to as nothing but twaddle painted a clear picture of how often he’d spoken such words in the past. His declaration emerged in awkward tones, but they were more profound because of that lack of familiarity.
For all he might consider waxing poetic emasculating, or believe that saying what was in his heart made him less of a man, he still said the words. Just as he had that night in the music room to reassure her, as she needed to be.
Little did the male species know that what seemed to cost them so much enriched a woman tenfold. That words of love and admiration were a gift beyond measure that made many a woman think even more highly of a man.
“Hero?” He recalled her to the topic at hand.
Staring down into the water below her once more, she watched her reflection waver on the surface and saw once again the past. “Do you know what every other man I ever met saw? They saw my father. His wealth, his title, his connections. They saw a chance to align themselves with him. They saw me not as a person but as an asset. A thing. Mybeauty,” she sneered the word, “was merely a bonus. I was never courted by someone who wanted me. Justme. Robert asked for my hand after meeting me but twice. He wed me without knowing me at all. Afterward, over the years, we became friends but there was never this romance, this desire. You might think me dull-witted, my lord, but how is one to recognize something when it is the first time they’ve ever encountered it? Courting? I thought this only a seduction, though I am clearly lacking in experience there as well.”
With his arms still crossed over his chest, he frowned sternly down at her. “Hero, did I not clearly tell you that I was courting you?”
“You did say that but…” she bit her lip but he just waited. “I suppose that I thought you meant only to court me into your bed.”
“I believe I was also quite clear in saying that this,” he continued, waving his hand between them, “was not something that could be exhausted in a day’s time.”
Hero frowned. “You did, but I thought perhaps you meant an extended affair.”
“I told you I loved you,” he pointed out with noticeable exasperation.
“I thought you were only saying that because we were going to die.”
Tilting back his head, Ian groaned with open frustration before sliding a hand around the back of Hero’s neck and forcing her to meet his gaze. “You think too much.”
Embarrassed and feeling foolish, she responded with a grimace. “I’m sorry.”
“Ugh!” He pulled her to him, delivering a brief but fierce kiss that conveyed not only his aggravation but a curious amount of affection. “Come here.”
His arms opened and she slid into them, wrapping hers around his waist. Resting her cheek against his chest, she sighed deeply with an odd mixture of relief and contentment. Ian rested his chin on top of her head, his arms coming around her to hold her firmly against him.
“I have never told a woman I loved her before, but for my own mum. In truth, I’d never thought to say them at all, much less feel this way. I suppose in a sense you are right. My confession was prompted in part by our situation, but only in that the fear of losing you made me accept the truth far more quickly than I might have on my own. I can be a fairly obstinate man from time to time. A soul-baring admission, but there it is.”
His fingers stroked her back, the heat of his body warming her through the thin lawn of her riding habit. She felt his lips against the crown of her head, against her temple and then her cheek. “So you’re saying that you do love me then?”
