“That’s right, I do. He does. You do. Now everyone knows, yes?” I asked.
“I don’t understand the mind-fuckery you’re–”
My eyes widened at Willoughby’s outburst, but Eli pressed the back of his glove to his chest and gave him a look that tempered it. Then he handed him the parchment.
“What is this?” Daniel asked.
“That is the marriage contract I'm going to offer your father later today. You’ll find the terms in the center there.”
He furrowed. “This says I’m to marry a Baroness of Dawne. No. I don’t accept it, and I certainly don’t understand what you think you’re proving here by–”
“You just said you loved her?”I looked at Elías and then back to him. Then I gave a slightly wicked grin. “Didn’t he just say that, Lord Commander?”
“Aye, he did,” Elías said.
Willoughby froze. He reread the document, this time with more caution.
“I don’t understand,” Josie said. She shook her head, there were tears at the corner of her eyes. “Why–What–Who is the…” Her words faded.
I took her hands, both of them, and drew them toward my chest. “Jocelyn, you’re the Baroness,” I said.
“W-What?”
Willoughby stared at the order, then he looked up at her. “You… I don’t… How is this possible?”
Josie shook her head. “I’m not a baroness, my lady, I’m just a maid. I’m not anyone.”
“Youwerea maid, as of five minutes ago, but you were neverjustanything. You’ve been my friend through the hardest months of my life. You dragged me from a fire, risking your own life, and then you stood beside me–you didn’t run–when bandits tried to burn my mare. If you were a man, I’d have knighted you twice by now, and honestly, if I thought that’s what you wanted, I would have done it anyway, but instead, I’m giving you a barony. It’s a good manor. It’s very pretty, there’s a courtyard in thecenter of the home that has a fountain. You can grow flowers there. You can do whatever it is you like. It’s your home now, yours alone.”
“W-What? No. No you can’t justgiveme a barony. I don’t know how to run a barony! I don’t know how to do any of that! I certainly don’t deserve it. I–”
“You do deserve it, don’t defy your Queen by disagreeing. She’s very certain about this whole thing. And sure, maybe you don’t know how to run an estate, butLord Willoughbydoes,” I said. I looked at my cousin. “Lord Willoughby has been raised to marry well. And now, by order of the Queen, he will marry very, very well, and he will help you with your affairs. Won’t you cousin?”
Daniel watched me. “Yes, I will,” he said. He slowly passed the parchment to Miss Jocelyn. “I don’t know what to say.”
“You will?” Josie asked. She let go of me to face him. “You mean…?”
Elías and I stepped back.
“Such a strange turn of events, Lord Commander,” I started. “Now that Miss Jocelyn is Baroness, she technically outranks our Ser Willoughby, doesn’t she?” I knew the answer, but the explanation was for my cousin’s benefit. “So really, this marriage would be beneficial to her only if it were based upon emotional attachment then, yes?”
Elías nodded, collecting his hands behind his back. “Indeed. A love match. Something gold can’t buy.”
Willoughby’s whole demeanor changed. His rigid posture relaxed, he looked almost wistfully at Miss Jocelyn as she read the paper. He leaned down, slightly, closing the distance of their heights, nearly collecting her face, but then stopping himself. He knelt, taking her hand in his.
“Your Ladyship,” he said. He swallowed so intensely that I could see his Adam’s apple move. “I’ve been such a fool.” Therewas a quiet lull between them. “If you’ll have me, yes, I will help you with your estate. I will do anything you ask.”
She was so still, it was almost like she’d turned to stone. But then a laugh broke from her like a wispy breath. Then another. She nodded quickly. “Yes,” she said. “But only if you ask me proper. I can do that now, I’m a real lady.”
Willoughby lost a happy sound of his own. He squeezed her hand. “Your Ladyship. Baroness Jocelyn. I have traveled the world. I have met men who feared nothing. I have been a man who feared nothing, and then I met you, and suddenly I feared so much. Vulnerability, for the first time in my life, both physical and romantic–there've been moments I’ve had to contain myself from kissing you because I knew I could not give you what you deserved, and there've been times that I feared death–feared not ever seeing your face again. I have been so foolish, as I said. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I needed this moment to realize what an ass I am. I’m sorry I’ve withheld from allowing myself to express my feelings to you until the Queen ordered it. I’m–”
“Daniel, I’m not mad at you,” she said. She knelt, too. Her hands met his jaw on either side. “Everyone has their secrets and their fears. …I love you. Do you love me?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “Ever since I first saw you in the hall. I’ve never been the same. I love you, Jocelyn.”
“Then stop with the dramatics and ask me, will you?” she said. “That’s all I want.”
He half-grinned. “Will you marry me, Jocelyn?”
