She knew where he was. “I’ll be back,” she told her father quietly before turning and slipping back out the door.
He was in the stables, he had to be.
He would be uncomfortable in the ballroom and would leave as soon as he could. She ran through the hallways, holding her skirts up out of her way, and ran across the courtyard to the stables. The stable hands looked up as she burst through the doors.
“Where’s Dietrich?” she asked, and as one, they pointed toward his office, eyes wide.
She hurried down the aisle and opened the door to find him sitting in a chair, his elbows propped up on his knees as he carved something with his knife.
“It’s not going to work,” he was telling the black cat sitting at his feet.
“Who told you that?” Ella demanded.
Dietrich jerked to his feet, dropping his knife and a block of wood as he bowed.
“What are you doing?” Ella said, glaring at him. “Have I ever asked you to bow to me?”
“You don’t have to ask,” he said. “You are the duke’s daughter, and as such, you are deserving of respect.”
“But not from you. I don’t want it from you. I don’t want you to bow, or call me Lady Eliana, or anything like that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said woodenly. “You don’t get to make that choice. I am your father’s servant, and therefore I should show respect.”
“I don’t care who you are to my father,” Ella said, taking a step closer to him. “I care that you’re the man I love.”
Dietrich’s eyes widened, but he made no motion to move toward her, so she took another step closer.
“I’m going to assume you heard I was betrothed,” she said, taking tiny steps. “And you thought that meant you couldn’t be with me, so you ran. But that’s not how it works. I was betrothed, yes. Apparently, I’ve been betrothed since I was a child, and when I disappeared, they never bothered to break the betrothal agreement. But I do not love him, and my father would never force me to marry someone I do not love.”
She took a deep breath, staring into his eyes. “I love you, Dietrich, and I ended my betrothal. And if you don’t love me, then I suppose I shall have to find someone else to love. But it’s not going to be Percival, and it’s not going to be someone I’ve never met, so I would much rather it be you.”
She swallowed hard, hoping he would say something, but he only stared back at her as if he were trying to memorize every inch of her face, so she continued. “You are the only person who has ever made me feel truly seen and made me feel like I mattered for more than who I was born as, or for what I could do for them. And if you think that I’m going to let you leave me because you think you’re not worthy of me, you are wrong. Because you have proved, over and over again, no matter what, that you want what’s best for me, even if you have some misguided notion that it’s leaving me.”
Still nothing. She was so close, and he wouldn’t say anything. “If someone is going to cut in on my dances, it had better be you, because I don’t want to dance with anyone else. I want to dance with you for the rest of my life.”
She took the final step between them and stopped, looking up at him expectantly. He hadn’t said anything, and his face hadn’t changed. In fact, he looked remarkably as if she hadn’t said anything at all, which was concerning. But his fists were clenching, and he was breathing harder than before, so he must have heard her.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” she asked, her heart stuck in her throat.
Instead of saying something, Dietrich leaned down and brushed a stray hair away from her eyes.
“I love you too,” he said quietly before his hand cupped her cheek and he leaned down to kiss her.
Ella wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.
She could hardly think of a moment when she had been happier than standing there in the stable, kissing the man she loved.
Scattered applause began from beyond the door and Ella turned red as she broke off the kiss and rested her head against Dietrich’s shoulder.
“Go away!” Dietrich hollered, and the men standing beyond the door laughed before the door closed with a thud.
“That was an impressive speech, my lady,” Dietrich said, turning her face up to his with a gentle finger under her chin. “I did not realize you had trained in speech making.”
“I had no training,” Ella said. “I find the words come easily when you think the man you love is going to leave you instead of fighting for you.”
“I wasn’t leaving,” Dietrich protested.
“You were, and you know it,” Ella said, “but I forgive you. I suppose it’s intimidating when one falls in love with a duke’s daughter.”
