She trembled in his arms. With all of his emotions spent, he held her tightly, silently, and awaited her answer.
“I love you.” He would tell her again and again if she would hear him.
She choked on a sob and then allowed another to escape. God help him if he’d lost her. God help them both.
And then, “I will think about it, Chance. But I can make no promises.” Her voice sounded thin, almost a whisper.
“But you will think some more.” His heart could beat again. “That you promise me.”
An almost violent shudder ran through her. Chance knew it was not only confusion. It was not only sadness. It was passion. It was desire. And God help him, it was love. “But I need time to think. It will hurt him. He knows nothing of us.”
But he would know, by God, he would know soon enough. Chance twisted the ring on his finger, the one he’d retrieved from the corner of his chamber. Mr. Richard Cline would know when Aubrey walked down the aisle and became the Duchess of Chauncey in the eyes of God and the law.
“I will wait until the end of the Season for you to decide, and for you to tell him.” He could not drag this out longer than that. If she did not know by then…
This time there was no laughter as Chance mounted the majestic but gentle horse and then assisted Aubrey up to before him.
All of the pain he’d caused them both, and yet he could not change the past. Even if he could, he would not.
She rested her cheek against his chest and in the ten minutes it took them to return to her home, her hand never left his.
He brought the horse to a halt and dismounted and then helped her to the ground.
“Send for me when you have made your decision.” There was nothing more that Chance could do. His cards were on the table. All he could do was wait to see how she chose to play hers. Would she gamble on him knowing they could win the prize of a lifetime, or would she take her losses and walk away?
Chapter 22
Chance
The first day of waiting Chance did nothing but second guess everything he’d done since returning to London.
Should he have left her alone? Had the entire mission been driven by his own selfishness? He’d wondered in the beginning if he had inflated his feelings over time.
Having held her the day before, having felt as though all the colors of the world were brighter when he was with her, he knew that was not the case.
He yearned to plan their life together. He wanted to know her dreams and then be a part of them. But she needed to trust him again. Her love needed to be stronger than her fear.
Restlessness drove Chance on the second day. He went riding and on impulse made a visit to tattersalls where he discovered the perfect horse for her. He itched to purchase the gentle mare and have her delivered along with everything she would need for her care but refrained.
He’d promised he would leave her alone to think.
On the third day, he spent the afternoon with Hollis, in the man’s study, consuming a good percentage of the contents of his liquor cabinet.
Before the first week passed, he was jumpy, irritable, and not at all his normal disarmingly charming self.
He longed for the fields ofSecour,even if she did not go with him. At least that way he’d have something productive that he could do.
But to have her with him… To take her to the cliffs, the beach, to teach her to ride, introduce her to Adelaide…
He alternated between feeling optimistically confident and devastatingly hopeless.
After waiting for ten days, without hearing a word from her, he broke.
He would not go to her, but he returned to her garden, to the hot house more specifically. He could work there. He’d completed the actual construction, but he’d not done much to put it to use. The long worktable remained pristine and all of the tools he’d purchased hung on the wall, still gleaming and shiny.
The task had ironically planted something inside of him. He wanted to learn some horticulture alongside her. Together they could plant, and together they would watch the blossoms burst out in color.
God, she had him imagining children, grandchildren, growing old together.
