“I didn’t know the identity of my father until a year ago,” he said steadily. “Mymamanwouldn’t talk about it, just told me that he’d died before I was born. I suspected I was a bastard. She worked as a seamstress, barely earning enough for us to survive. I stole, fought, did whatever I could to help put food on our table. She died when I was twenty, and for all the time I knew her, she never had an easy life.”
Fancy didn’t know what to say. Even though she knew he had a rags-to-riches story, she hadn’t realized that his rags were, well,actuallyrags.
He took out a handkerchief, drying her tears as he went on, “Last year, I was summoned to the deathbed of Arthur Huntingdon, the Duke of Knighton. For reasons too lengthy to get into now, he told me that he’d abandoned my mother, but they had been legally wed. Which meant that I was his legitimate issue and sole heir.”
“That must ’ave been shocking,” Fancy said, wide-eyed.
“To say the least.” He cupped her cheek in his big hand. She knew she ought to pull away, but she was mesmerized by his warm and smoky gaze. “I’m telling you my history because I want you to understand that I have never thought you were beneath me in any way. If anything, you are too good and sweet for a man like me. You deserve a fellow who can give you all of his heart, and I cannot do that. But I have other things to offer, if you’ll do me the honor of listening to my proposal.”
His thumb brushed briefly along her cheekbone before he let her go. He waited silently, his hands clasping behind his back, his manner watchful.
Tell ’im to leave,the voice of reason said.Don’t let ’im ’urt you again.
Alas, her heart had never been sensible.
“What are you offering?” she asked.
He let go of a breath that she hadn’t realized that he was holding. The fact that he obviously cared about her response lowered her defenses a smidgen more.
“I am not a prince, but I do have a castle,” he said intently. “Several, actually, if run-of-the-mill mansions count. If not, there are a pair of chateaux in France we could visit any time you want. You said you wanted a place to settle, and I can give you that.”
‘E remembers,she thought wonderingly.’E paid attention to the details o’ my foolish dream.
“I can also give you a family in the form of four half-siblings and an aunt. I must warn you however: when you meet them, you will likely wish to give them back.”
His wry humor caught her off-guard, and she gave a watery chuckle.
“They can’t be as bad as all that,” she said.
“They are worse. But if you want to take them on, they’re yours.”
As she mulled over that, he cleared his throat. “They are, of course, not the only family I could give you. That I would wish to give you, if you were my wife.”
Her pulse skipped at the heated look in his grey eyes.
“I want you, Fancy,” he said huskily. “While desire is not the same as love, I still say it is the more reliable of the two. And what I feel for you is not just physical attraction. I like you.”
He wants me. He likes me.
Thrill tip-toed up her spine; she halted it.
“What do you like about me?” she asked cautiously.
“I like that you are easy to talk to. That you’re caring and loyal to your family and friends. I like that you’re honest and practical, that you’re not one of those milk-fed misses prone to bouts of silliness.”
She blinked at the readiness of his reply. She had no idea that he thought these things about her. And there was more.
“I like that you care about cantankerous donkeys, that you don’t back down to fish bigger than you are.” A smile lurked in his eyes. “I like that you’re constantly getting into trouble so that I can come to your rescue.”
“I don’t constantly get into trouble,” she protested.
He raised his brows.
Sighing, she amended, “Although, o’ late, it ’as been finding me.”
“It is a fortunate thing that you have me around,” he said and chucked her under the chin.
The casual, affectionate gesture was the nail in the coffin of her resistance. Although Knight didn’t promise her love, it seemed that he could give her the other parts of her dream. That he wanted to.
