“Carry me off into the sunset, for crying out loud.”
“Right you are!”
As we galloped across the common, I leant into William’s ear. “Did you mean it?”
“What’s that?”
“That you love me. Did you mean it?”
“Of course I did. I think you know that.”
As Achilles’s hooves trod the road back to Buckford Hall, every cell in my body was bursting with a sensation I’d never experienced before. I couldn’t name it, but it felt the way I imagined the earth must feel in spring, when it explodes with new life. Overwhelmed, I cried.
Chapter 38
William
Iwas in the bathroom at Buckford Hall, freshly showered, wearing my red satin boxers, giving myself a pep talk in the mirror. I’d declared my love in front of the whole village, my mother, and that bloody reporter fromThe Bulletin. It was a whole, complete, indisputable fact. I loved Petey. Over these weeks together in the folly, living like an old married couple in private and pretending to be engaged in public, I’d come to know him intimately. His kiss. The way his body felt against mine at night. The smell of his clothes after a day of work, his hair after he’d washed it, his body in the funk of the bed in the morning. It all drove me wild. He’d rewired bits of my brain. When I heard the folly door open each evening, my whole body responded. If I was a whippet, my tail would have been knocking books clean off the shelves. When Petey was going back to London, I’d been miserable. When fate intervened—with lashings of assistance from Bunny Winters—and bought us an extra few weeks, I felt incredible relief. Because it felt right for him to be here. Like he belonged here, with me. I had never given my body to anyone before, not because I was afraid or virtuous. I just hadn’t met anyone I wanted to do that with before. I’d known, ever sinceBerkeley Square, that I couldn’t fall into bed with someone I didn’t love. Andthiswas love. And it was time.
There was a knock at the door.
“I thought I gave you the night off, Bramley? You should be six pints in at the village pub by now and trying to charm that chutney recipe out of Birdie Craddoch.”
“It’s not Bramley.”
My heart fluttered.
“Come in,” I said, still bent over the sink, hands resting on the vanity.
The door opened, and Petey’s eyes sized me up before landing on mine in the mirror.
“That really is the world’s most magnificent arse,” he said.
“Thank you.”
He was freshly showered and had a towel slung low around those glorious hips. He held up his phone and waved it at me. “I thought you might want to know, we’re going viral.”
I let my head slump. “How bad is it?”
Petey rested an arm on my back, and I watched the footage of today’s little scene play out on his phone.
“If we ignore the cynical alpha bros calling you a ‘beta cuck’—”
“Yes, I think we can safely ignore those.”
“Then based on the comments of the queers, the girlies, the fantasy nerds, and anyone who’s ever read a Saddle Club book—in fact, everyone else except some bloke from the Richard the Third Society, who was a bit of a dick—general opinion seems to be we’re the greatest love story the internet has seen in at least a couple of weeks.”
I sighed, looking at myself in the mirror. My face was tired.
“I don’t want to be famous, Petey. I never asked for this attention. I want a quiet, honest life with the man I love.”
“This will blow over,” he said. “All of it. We can face it tomorrow. Together. But tonight, I want you to hold me in your arms and tell me again and again that you love me. Can you do that?”
I grinned. “I would be honoured, my liege.”
“Good.” Petey slapped my arse. “I’m probably going to want to nibble on that. So you know.”
Then he turned around, let his towel drop, and strode out into the corridor. I nearly slipped on the wet tiles rushing to watch his cute bubble butt bounce up the hall to the folly. But I didn’t follow him. I spent a few more minutes at the mirror psyching myself up. I loved Petey, and I was going to show him exactly how much. I jumped up and down a few times and belted my chest with my fists, like I was preparing to run onto the rugby pitch. I shook my head, loosened my neck. Amped and ready for the big match, I ran up the corridor to the folly.
