Page 16 of Sunshine for Christmas

“Then, why won’t you say yes? I warn you, I will not let you go until you either accept me or offer a good reason for refusing.”

She turned her head away, her face scarlet with mortification. “Because . . . because I could not come to you as a bride should.”

He thought about that for a minute. “Could you be more specific? I want to be sure I understand.”

“Before William went into the army”—her breath was coming in ragged gulps, and she could not meet his eyes—“we . . . we gave ourselves to each other.”

“I see.” Profound tenderness welled up inside him, and another emotion too unfamiliar to name. Releasing Elizabeth’s hands, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close so that her head was tucked under his chin. She was trembling.

Gently he stroked her unruly curls, trying to soothe away the unhappiness he'd caused. “Because you gave yourself in love to the man you were going to marry, you think you are unfit to be a wife? On the contrary. I can think of no better qualification for marriage. Will you marry me, Elizabeth? Please?”

She pulled back and stared at him. Her glasses had steamed from her tears so she took them off so she could study his face better. “Do you really mean that, Randolph? Or would you have second thoughts later and feel cheated?”

“Yes, I mean it.” He stood and drifted over to the steps of the shrine, searching for the best way to explain his feelings so that in the future she would never doubt him. “As you guessed, my marriage was not a happy one,” he said haltingly. “I wasn’t really in love with Chloe, but I had given up hope that Alyson would ever return and I wanted to marry.

“Chloe was well-bred and very beautiful, and she made it clear she would welcome an offer from me. Everyone said what a ‘good match’ it was. She was very proper and reserved, but I thought that was just shyness which would pass once we were married.

“I was wrong.” He turned to face Elizabeth, who stood a half-dozen feet away in grave silence. “I had thought her desire for matrimony meant that she cared for me, but soon I realized that though Chloe wanted the status of wife, she did not want a husband. Perhaps it was me in particular that she couldn’t bear, but I don’t think so.”

He looked away, swallowing hard, thinking that it was simple justice that he must speak of something that was as painful for him as Elizabeth’s confession had been for her. “She did not like to be touched, ever. Nor did she ever touch me, except in public sometimes she would take my arm, to show other women that I belonged to her.

“I don’t mean just that she disliked marital relations, though she did. As soon as she had done her duty and conceived, she told me not to come near her again. Being denied her bed did not bother me half so much as her lack of interest in giving or receiving any kind of affection. Perhaps the need for warmth and affection is deeper than physical desire. Even when she was dying, she would not take my hand. There was nothing she ever wanted from me except my name and fortune.”

He caught Elizabeth’s gaze. “Do you understand now why I welcome the knowledge that you are a warm and caring woman? If you could give me even half as much warmth as you had for William, I would think myself the luckiest man alive.”

“Unfortunate Chloe to be unable to accept any love or affection,” Elizabeth said with deep compassion. In a few swift steps she closed the distance between them and flowed into his arms. “And unfortunate Randolph, to have so much to give and no one to value the gift or the giver.”

Her embrace was more than passionate. It was loving. And as he crushed her to him, Randolph identified the emotion that had been growing inside him.

“I was wrong,” he said softly. “There are second chances. I thought I wanted to marry you for companionship, but my heart must have known before my head did. I love you, Elizabeth. I came to Italy for sunshine. I found it when I met you for your smile lights up the world.”

“Truly?” She tilted her head back. “You hardly know me.”

“Wrong.” He rubbed his cheek against Elizabeth’s curly hair. She was a very convenient height. “We may not have known each other long, but I know you better than I knew Alyson, and infinitely better than I knew Chloe.” He gave her a teasing smile. “Is it safe to interpret your shameless behavior as a willingness to wed?”

“It is. You were quite right, Randolph, I am ruined, so hopelessly, madly, passionately in love with you that I shall be good for nothing unless you marry me!” Elizabeth gave him the heart-deep smile that made her incomparably lovely. “Just as Lady Alyson is your past, William is mine. I loved him and part of my heart died when he did, but the woman I am now, plain middle-aged spinster that I am, is yours, body, heart, and soul. Will that do?”

“You are going to have to stop talking such nonsense about how plain and middle-aged you are. Just how old are you?”

“Thirty.”

“A wonderful age. Thirty-one will be better, and fifty better yet.”

Randolph kissed her with rich deliberation, working his way from her lips to a sensitive spot below her ear. She gasped, thinking her knees had turned to butter.

He murmured, “Do you think I would want you this much if I thought you were plain?”

Elizabeth was twined around him so closely that she had no doubts about just how much he did want her. “I think that you need spectacles more than I do,” she said breathlessly, “but since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, your opinion is inarguable.”

“Good. I can think of much better things to do than argue.” Randolph was about to start kissing her again when a shout sounded from the direction of the path.

Elizabeth called out an answer. After a lengthy exchange, she reported, “Vanni says they’ll have us out within two hours, so we can be in Naples for Christmas dinner.”

“Tell them not to rush,” Randolph murmured. His slate-blue eyes warm with love and mischief, he removed her spectacles and tucked them in his pocket. “We don’t want your glasses to steam up while we wait, do we?”

Her heart expanding with joy, Elizabeth lifted her face to his. As the Christmas sun rose in the sky, they celebrated the season of hope.

Together.