She tilted her head to look up at Darcy. He watched her, but although she saw no sign that he would send her away, it was still unclear what was the state of her marriage. “I am tired of looking up at you. Will you not sit?”
Aside from the chair by the table on the other side of the room, there was nowhere to sit but on the bed. Darcy hesitated, but sat next to her on the edge, the stolen items resting between them.
“You are right; I had no one to truly rely on. I have been in the habit of knowing what to do for myself, because I could not depend on anyone else. But I should have known I could turn to you for help and depend on you not to believe Wickham.”
“I should not have assumed you would rely on me simply because you married me. You did not choose me, either. Marrying me was just the consequence of a series of strange events, after all. And I should never have let you believe that public opinion andtongossip mattered more to me than your happiness.” He sighed and looked away. “I hate that you did this in service to me. I hate that I made you feel you owed me something. That I cared more about my reputation than you.”
“You never did that,” she insisted. “I wanted to give you what you wanted most. You wanted your family name to not be disgraced and for your sister to live apart from Wickham.”
He snapped his head around to look at her. “That is not what I want most. What I want most is for my wife to love me back.”
Doubt, surprise, and hope alternately prevailed. “You want me to love youback?” she repeated.
“You look perplexed, dearest,” he whispered, taking her hand in his.
“I never felt more at a loss for words.”
“But does the idea of my loving you make you happy?”
She gave a strangled laugh. “It is such a surprise as could only add to my happiness!” She tugged his hand to her lips to kiss it. “I scarcely thought you would allow yourself to love me, given our beginning.”
“Regardless of the beginning,” he said slowly, “I think when you marry someone, you submit to the union. You take a knee and say, ‘I will do whatever is in my power to meet their needs.’ And the next time you are in need, I hope you will turn to me rather than keep it a secret.”
“I thought I was doing all in my power to meet your needs by bringing Georgiana home and then by keeping Wickham silent.”
“I never wanted a wife who thought she had to oblige me.”
“You also never wanted a wife you did not choose.”
“I wanted a companion, someone I could speak to on any subject, a woman with wit who roused me, interested me. Someone who could understand me more deeply than anyone else. Someone who will not make me guess her opinions.”
She laughed a little. “There is no mistaking that.”
Darcy brought his other hand up to her cheek. “And through mischance and misadventure, I found that person.”
“I am sorry,” she whispered. “I was so afraid, but that is no excuse. How can I atone for lying, stealing, and not trusting you?”
“I am sorry too, for making you doubt my constancy and devotion.” He leant a little closer. “But I would rather hear again that you love me.”
“You really have come to love me?” she whispered.
“I love you with an unalterable ardour.”
Her heart lodged in her throat to hear him say the words. “I love you too.”
“Tell me again,” he said roughly. “If it is true, say it again.”
“I knew very early that I could cherish you through life, but now I love you with all the enthusiasm and passion you could hope for.”
He drew her forward, his fingers through her hair as his thumbs tipped her chin up. The kiss was so fast and so deep that she had to cling to him to keep her balance before kissing him back. He took advantage of her surprised but pleasured gasp to coax open her lips. She felt his satisfying sigh when their tongues touched and the tension in his shoulders under her hands fell away.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and dragged her against his chest. The moan that slipped from her mouth startled him.
Darcy broke the kiss, his lips pressing a kiss to her forehead. “I should?—”
“Stay.” Despite how his gaze dropped back to her mouth, he seemed reluctant. “You must have thought me ready to yield to you after kissing you in the library.”
“I would rather your attitude not be in terms of ‘yielding’ or ‘submitting.’”
