Suddenly her words would not come.
“It is almost as if you care for me, Thomasin, as more than a cousin?”
She could only stare back at him, open-mouthed as the truth of his words seeped through her.
Holding the back of his seat, Giles pushed himself up to a standing position, so his face was level with hers. “I could almost believe that you care for me the same way that I do for you. Ilove you, Thomasin. I think I have for a long while, only I did not realise it until lately.”
He leaned forward and kissed her, gently at first, but when she did not pull away, his lips became more urgent. The kiss had taken Thomasin by surprise, but it seemed to wake her from sleep, shaking her into a realisation she had been denying. It felt right — different from Rafe’s kisses, but exactly what should happen.
Giles pulled back briefly and looked at her. “You do feel the same?”
The admission sprang to her lips at once. “Yes, I do. I know that I do!”
“I think I felt it the first time we met, two years ago, but I thought it a passing fancy, and we were cousins, although your mother had hopes for us. While I was away in the north, I found myself thinking of you often, as I went about my business, and since my return, every occasion that I have seen you has filled me with a conviction that there is no other woman I would choose. You must have guessed, Thomasin? Everything I have done for your family, I have done for your sake, as a mark of my devotion to you. I looked for signs in you, Thomasin, that you might return my feelings, but sometimes I thought you shied away from me, until today, that is.”
“I did not realise my feelings until today. I knew your worth at once. I saw, long ago, that you were the truest and best of men, quite deserving of my love, but I feared getting close to you. I must tell you, I have trusted men before, and been betrayed by them, and I’ve seen the same happen to my sister and cousin, and to the queen. I feared giving my heart away, only for it to be broken.”
“I would never hurt you, Thomasin. I have only the most honourable of intentions.”
“Of course you do, but I still doubted … whether a man and woman might be happily married for their lifetimes, in such an atmosphere as this.”
“Then let us prove it. I mean it, Thomasin; let us be the example. We will live quietly, away from court, among those we love, enjoying the simple pleasures of everyday life, raising a family, tending our estates, doing what good we can in the world. All you need to do is say yes.”
“You are asking me to marry you?”
“Yes, Thomasin,” he said, laughing. “Marry me. Be my wife. What do you say?”
She did not need a minute to think. “Yes, a thousand times yes!”
He laughed, his eyes shining, and pressed his lips against hers. “I never thought I could be as happy as in this moment. But when does your father depart for Suffolk? I must ask his permission.”
“On the morrow, so you had better be quick.”
“Ah.” He pointed down at his foot. “Quick is one thing I cannot be. I will take a carriage first thing, if you will be available to assist me?”
“Of course.”
“You do not mind marrying an invalid?”
“Oh, you will be quite well enough when the time comes to walk down the aisle, I am sure.”
“Nothing on earth will stop me!”
“You are…” she began, faltering, “not afraid to marry into a family that has suffered such misfortunes as mine?”
“My darling Thomasin, there is nothing so shameful in your family that could deter me. I have made your family struggles my own, but it is nothing more than that your sister has fallen in love with an unsuitable man, and that is something that might befall even the wisest of people.”
She thought briefly of Rafe, with his cruelty, jealousy and arrogance. She had felt intoxicating passion for him, but his behaviour had destroyed all her finer emotions. How little Rafe had anticipated this outcome when he had taunted her with Giles’s accident.
“Such feeling is infatuation, not love. Love comes from respect, kindness and understanding.”
“And impatience! Let us be married as soon as we can. I can’t wait until you are Mrs Waterson.” He pressed his lips to hers again.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Thomasin curtseyed low before the queen. Catherine sat back in her chair, beside the roaring fire, trying to digest what her lady-in-waiting was asking her.
“You need a carriage, to take yourself and Sir Giles Waterson to Thames Street?”
