He reached up a hand to her.
She regarded those familiar fingers she’d longed for, the signet ring that once graced the hand of his perfidious father, and the thick wrists she loved to catch sight of at meals. Given the chance, she’d gnaw on those bones until he was as much a part of her as her own blood. But she didn’t need to, did she? He already occupied a position below her ribs, where the arteries that fed her heart attempted to twist free.
Letitia took his hand within her own and allowed him to pull her into his lap.
“I’ve been very sparing with my words on a particular subject, haven’t I?” he asked, his face pressed to her ear as if he wished to consume her, too.
“It’s not my place to wonder why you have the prettiest ring I’ve ever seen beside your most private possessions,” she said.
“You think it pretty?”
“It’s spectacular.” The ring was a glorious mash of metal and stones, with a stunning diamond at the center. It was the ring a man would give a wife he wished to make thrilled indeed. What a lucky woman she’d be, Anthony’s wife.
“Do you think my intended will say yes when I ask her to marry me, then? If she thinks it spectacular?”
Oh, he was impossible! Her heart kept leaping at what seemed to be signs he might…regard her as more than a mistress, but she didn’t wish to rush ahead of something he didn’t mean. Her stomach was flopping about like a fish caught on a line, struggling to free itself.
“It’s difficult to say…”
“Is it?” he asked, meeting her eyes.
“I suppose you’d need to make your intentions and feelings clear to the lady. A spectacular ring isn’t enough these days. She’ll need reassurance about the contents of your heart and mind.”
“Will she?” he asked as he kissed her neck.
“Yes! You’ve a way with words. Surely you’ll know what to say.”
“Will I though? When my heart is so full that I can barely assemble sentences? When I struggle to express my regard for fear she might bolt at how deep my feelings run? Have mercy on the love of a man who has only just let his hopes out of a dungeon in which they’ve moldered for far too long.”
Letitia slumped against him, the tears that had begun in the closet coming freely now.
“I love you, Letty. Never stopped. I was sick with thwarted love when we were apart, and now that we’re together again, I’m sick with fulfilled love. I know which one I prefer. If you need time,need to cry in my dressing room, I’ll let you. But I’m going to be right on the other side of that door, waiting for you to come back to me.”
Her fingers were about his neck, and she wept as he held her. It was more than she could have hoped, the antidote to years of despair.
“The ring you saw is yours. I bought it years ago. In fact, I fear that the purchase may have lured my father to town. He denied me the use of my mother’s ring, and I went to the jeweler the same day to buy my own.” Anthony nuzzled in her hair, as if he too had missed her scent, and continued. “I’m glad he did. I picked that for you. No other woman will wear that ring, only the one dearest to my heart. And I will buy no other ring.”
He placed his hands on either side of her face so he could look into her eyes. His were brimming with conviction, taking on a strange light.
“You understand what I’m saying, don’t you? If you deny me, I’ll never marry. There will never be another if you refuse me.”
Letitia studied his tormented eyes. He needed to get to the point and free them both from this uncertainty!
“How can you speak of me denying you when you’ve asked no question?”
“No question…” he trailed off, then smiled. “Letitia Delemere, heart of my heart.”
She smiled back, encouraging now.
“Will you consent to marry me? To be my viscountess? Be with me always?”
Anthony removed something from his waistcoat, and she saw once again that spectacular ring. The ring his bride would wear. If his words were true, the ring only she could wear.
“Yes, but—”
He didn’t let the doubts and worries spill from her lips before he placed kisses upon them and pulled her even closer.
“Good, because I’ve arranged a special license and will not let even God halt our plans this time. I have you at last, and only death would pry you from me.”
