She nodded. “Who is that?”
“Lord Damon Ashby. He’s a… reclusive sort.”
“I think I have heard of him,” she said. “Was he not injured when he was young?”
“He was,” Asher said, but they would speak more of Damon later. Right now, he wanted to get his bride home — to a home where she felt welcome. “I want you to know that I spoke to my mother.”
“About?”
“Thalia told me what my mother said to you about moving to the country,” he said. “While perhaps I hadn’t done anything to dispel her notions that we were anything more than an arranged marriage, she never should have said that to you. I made it clear that Ravenscar House is your home, and you are to feel that as much as anyone else.”
“Thank you,” she said, biting her lip. “I do want her to like me, Asher, as crazy as that might be.”
“I don’t know how anyone couldn’t help but like you,” he said, placing his arm around her and squeezing her close against his side before helping her onto his horse. “I know I am smitten.”
“You are sweet.”
“Can’t say anyone has ever called me that before.”
“Then they are missing the real you,” she said before smiling at him. “But that’s fine. You can save him for me. Be what your position requires of you as the Duke of Ravenscar. With me, you need only be Asher—and that is enough.”
He pressed her hand against his cheek before leading them home. Together.
Evelyn’s eyesclosed the moment she lay down in bed. Her lips curled into a smile when Asher climbed in beside her, wrapping his body around her, tugging her in close.
“Sleep,” he murmured in her ear, and she let herself fall into him, having never felt more secure in her life.
He was still there when she woke the next morning.
“What time is it?” she asked as he nuzzled her neck.
“Ten in the morning.”
“Ten?” she asked, her eyes flying open. “And you’re still here? Do you not have so much to do?”
“I do,” he said with a shrug, and she realized then that he had no shirt on. “But it can wait. I wanted to stay with you. Make sure you are well.”
She turned over, facing him, unable to keep her eyes and fingers from trailing down his chest, tracing the indent of his muscles.
“I am well,” she said before sighing. “Still slightly shaken at all that Lord Norwood did and the lengths he went to, but it helped that all along, I knew you would come for me.”
“You did? Truly?” The smile that lit his face was one that replaced any doubts that he might not actually feel anything for her.
“I did,” she said with a smile. “I didn’t doubt it for a second. Even if you hadn’t been…” she swallowed, still unable to believe the truth of it, “in love with me, you are too good a man to ever let down someone who needs help, whether you feel that person is your responsibility or not.”
He looked down before meeting her eyes. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel that you would be a burden. Because you’re not. I don’t see you as a responsibility, but as a privilege.”
“As I see you,” she said in reply, tilting her head up and giving him her lips. He took them eagerly, and she slid her arms up, wrapping them around his neck.
“Asher?”
“Yes?”
“How would you feel if I redecorated these rooms? I don’t want to do it because I am the duchess but because?—”
“Because they are awful? Ostentatious?”
“No,” she laughed. “Because I want to make them true to who we are.”
