“Do you also believe that because I am angry with you, I no longer love and wish to have you as my wife?”
“Do you?”
“More than I have wanted anything in my life before.” He slid an arm around her back and pulled her close. “I love you. Nothing you do or say would ever change that, Beth.”
The starch went from her spine, and she softened against him.
“So many things have happened. I fear everything became a tangled mess inside my head.”
“An apt description, my love.”
“I could not cope were we to part again, Nathan, and yet surely we must when the actions of my family are revealed. My father and I—”
“Will you trust my brothers and me to deal with this, my sweet?”
“But how will you deal with it? My father willingly sold English secrets to the Russians.”
He cupped her cheeks. “Your father is a sick man and made a foolish error in judgement many years ago, and you were forced to do what you did to ensure your family’s safety. We will put this to the king.”
“I feel ill at the thought,” she whispered.
“We will get through this together.” Nathan kissed her softly.
Chapter Thirty-Four
He held her hand as they walked into the building. Her gloved fingers felt right inside his. Small, yet strong.
Tomorrow they would leave for Gabe’s estate to celebrate his marriage to Dimity, but today the king was hosting a function in his honor, to thank Nathan for his actions that day at Vauxhall. Beth also was being acknowledged for her part in the events.
She’d been horrified when the Deville brothers had fabricated the part she played, turning what she’d done into the honorable actions of a woman desperate to save her king and family. It had helped secure both her and her father a pardon, for which Beth had been so relieved when he’d told her, she’d sobbed hysterically.
“I’m not entirely sure if my last meal will stay inside my stomach, Nathan.”
“That would certainly make an entrance.” He leaned down to kiss her cheek.
She was beautiful in pale gold satin, her hair in a mass of golden curls on her head, small diamonds sparkling around her neck.
Beth was no longer the sweet and malleable Miss Carlow. She now met him head-on and stood at his side. She challenged and teased him. He sometimes wondered if his heart was big enough to hold the love he felt for her now.
“I wonder if there will be someone at the end of that aisle ready to clap me in irons and drag me away to Newgate.” Beth was still nervous her exploits as a thief would come back to haunt her even after the pardon.
“I will be sure to bring you peppermint sticks should your incarceration happen,” Nathan said, looking down at her, his eyes going to the valley between her breasts encased in the palest gold silk.
“Are you looking at my breasts?” she queried as they started up the steps past the liveried servants and huge, impressive columns dominating the entrance.
“Of course. They are, after all, splendid.”
Her giggle touched that place inside him he’d thought dead. She lit him from the inside, and he wasn’t entirely sure this desperate need he had for her would ever wane.
“Chin up now, my sweet. One slip, and we will be drawing room discussion for months to come.”
“Nathan?” she whispered as they entered the long room and took their first step onto the red carpet. Both sides were lined with members of London society, all eyes on them.
“Bethany,” he replied.
“I need you to know that I only lived a half life without you.”
“And you needed to tell me this right now?”
