“But Buckford means everything to you.”
“No,youmean everything to me.”
My knees buckled. Only William’s grip held me up. He was willing to give up everything for me?
My mother muttered something.
“He obviously hasn’t seen it yet,” my father replied under his breath.
Oh God. They were right. He can’t have heard.
“William,The Bulletin. They’re saying I… listen, it’s not true, you have to believe me?—”
William pulled me into him, cradling me. “I don’t care what the papers say. I know you. I know your heart. I know the papers. I know who I believe. I willalwaysbelieve you.”
Relief washed through me. I nuzzled into William’s neck. William pulled me tight against his bare chest. I could feel his heart hammering.
“You’d really give it all up, for me?”
“Every square inch. I’m moving to London to be with you. If you’ll have me?”
I pulled away so I could see his eyes. He meant what he said, but I could see the grief, the sacrifice. He could never be happy in London. Buckford would always be calling to him, to the iron in his blood, and it would be too late.
“I… don’t want you to sell,” I said. The words slipped out so quickly I hadn’t thought about them, but I meant them with my whole heart. “Not for me. Do it for you, if you want to. But I can’t… I couldn’t… please don’t put that on my shoulders.”
William frowned. He studied me for a moment, as if he was considering something. “Jonty said you’d say that.”
“You’ve seen Jonty?”
“Stayed with him last night.”
William was still frowning. “He and Lola did suggest a plan B.”
“A plan for what?” I wasn’t sure I trusted any plan devised by Jonty. Although Lola was a smart cookie.
“You’ll see.” William’s hand dived into Achilles’s saddlebag, and he pulled out a mobile phone.
“When did you get that?”
“Yesterday,” he said, painstakingly tapping out a message. “Thought I might need it in London. Not that the reception is any better here than at Buckford.”
The wait was killing me. “What’s plan B?”
“Be patient. You’ll see.” He slipped the phone back into the bag.
“Is there a reason you brought Achilles?”
William’s head bobbed around. “It seemed romantic.”
I pointed at his boxer shorts. “And these?”
He shrugged. “My suit of armour is back at Jonty’s place.”
I laughed. “Of course. You didn’t think maybe your riding gear, or a shirt and chinos?—”
Gran cackled. “Your dangly bits fell out when you jumped off your horse.”
William grimaced. “So sorry, Peggy.”
