“Let me finish. It was stupid of me to leave with Lisette. She forged a letter from my butler, saying that there’d been another attack at Camden Manor. I panicked and decided I needed to go back straight away.”
“That’s understandable. You’re a strong woman, love, used to looking after your estate and those who depend upon you.”
“But that wasn’t really why I fled.” She took one of his hands, so big and strong, knowing that that strength would always protect her. “I fled because I was afraid of how much I loved you.”
“Angel.”His eyes flared, his hand gripping hers.
“I should have told you earlier…but I’m so in love with you Wick, I can hardly think straight. And it terrifies me. How much I need you, how I’d do anything for you…how you are everything to me.”
“You are everything to me, Beatrice. I love you,” he said fervently.
“I know you do. That is the miracle of it.” Her breath hitched at the power of all she was feeling, but there was more she needed to say. “For so long, I believed that I would never find a man who could love me as I am, and then to find you, to find such happiness—I kept waiting for it to end. The way my former life did when I got scarred. And when things with the railway came to a head, I told myself that that was it: that was the end to our joy, which I’d always known would come.”
“Nothing is ending,” he declared. “You’re mine, and nothing can change that. The railway venture won’t go as planned, but that doesn’t make me a failure. You’ve given that to me, angel. Shown me that the redemption I sought was already mine. What I truly need isyou: your love fills me with joy and purpose and makes life worth living.”
She knew that she would treasure his words forever.
“You’ll have my love for as long as I live,” she vowed. “And you’ll have my estate as well.”
He frowned. “No, Beatrice. I won’t take it.”
“You will because Camden Manor is to be my wedding gift to you. Well, not gift exactly—I’ll expect a fair price for the land, and I’ll use that money to make sure my tenants are well settled wherever they wish to go.”
He shook his head—stubborn man.
“I won’t let you make such a sacrifice. I know what your estate means to you. It’s the refuge you built for yourself and others, the one place where you feel safe, and I will never take that away from you.”
She knew he meant it, which made her choice even easier.
“Do you know what I was thinking when I was trapped in the warehouse, thinking I was going to die?”
His features hardened, his hands closing convulsively around her waist. “What, love?”
“I was thinking how foolish I was for leaving you.Youmake me feel safe, Wick, not some piece of land. I put up walls to protect my heart, but what I truly needed was for you to tear them down. You taught me to trust again, to see that true beauty—beauty not of the skin but of the heart and soul—does exist. Your love is the greatest security I’ll ever know, and your arms are the only haven I need.”
The love in his eyes warmed her to the depths of her being.
“In that case,” he said, “I believe a negotiation is in order.”
She gave him a quizzical smile. “What sort of negotiation?”
“If you want me to buy your land, then you’ll have to do something for me in return.”
She had to laugh. “Isn’t that rather a winning proposition for you?”
“I’m not London’s best negotiator for nothing.” He winked at her, then went down on one knee. “Lady Beatrice Wodehouse, would you do me the honor of marrying me by special license because I cannot wait another damned minute to make you my wife?”
What could she say to that, except “Yes, yes,yes!”
To the cheers of their friends, he rose, spinning her in a circle that made her dizzy with joy. Then he claimed her with a kiss that proved that, in this deal of a lifetime, there would always be two winners.
Epilogue
“Wick,we cannot abandon our own guests,” his wife said breathlessly.
He pulled her into their shared study and closed the door, muffling the sounds of the masquerade.
“The Ellerbys are showing off their reel,” he replied. “No one will notice that we’re gone.”
