There was a short silence.Neither of them moved.His eyes bored into her.Finally he said in a curious voice, “You didn’t mean it?”
“No, of course I meant it.I just planned never to tell you, to burden you with my ..my feelings.”
“Burden me?”he repeated in that same curious voice.
She nodded.“You made it clear when you proposed that you didn’t want a love match.I should have told you back then that I thought I was falling in love with you, that I’ve been half in love with you since I was a little girl.But I didn’t.”She hung her head.
There was another long silence, broken only by the breeze fluttering the leaves, the far of cry of an owl, and the distant bark of a fox.
“You love me,” he repeated, as if checking his ears hadn’t deceived him.
She nodded.“I’m sorry.”
He took a deep breath.“I’ve been in love with you almost from the start.”He paused, looking down at her, gripping her shoulders in a light firm hold.“I was so sure you didn’t want to marry, that I made you think a practical marriage was all I wanted.”He swallowed.“But we don’t have a practical marriage, do we?”
Her heart to full to speak, she just shook her head.
His arms tightened around her.“At the time, I thought that’s what I wanted, too.But I was in love with you long before I realized it.I’m not very familiar with love, you see, so I didn’t recognize it at first.”His ice-gray eyes burned as he said in his deep voice, “But I love you, Tessa, darling, so very, very much.”
“And I love you, too, so very, very much,” she responded.And then they were kissing, and for a long time there was no more talking, only the giving and receiving of love.
Later they walked to the otter pond, and saw two otters playing and diving.It was getting dark, and the clouds were coming back, so by mutual consent , arm in arm, they walked slowly back to the house.“I first realized I felt more for you than I knew that time you were kidnapped.I was beside myself, fearing you’d be harmed—or worse.And I could do nothing—nothing!—to help you.The thought of going the rest of my life without you in it—” His voice broke and he kissed her again, hard, his kiss showing her what he couldn’t find the words for.
“And then,” he said as they resumed strolling, “on our honeymoon everything just kept getting better and better.”
“It was the same for me,” she said.“I was bursting to tell you what was in my heart—oh, so many times—but having married you under false pretenses I couldn’t burden you with my unwanted feelings.”
“False pretenses?”he laughed.“What a pair we are.But it’s not a burden—far from it.I’m a changed man from the one you married, all cold and repressed and buttoned-up.In fact, I’ll show you!I was longing to do this after you’d been kidnapped, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.”And without warning he swept her up into his arms and carried her, laughing and exclaiming that she was too heavy—to which he merely snorted.He carried her up the front steps of Alverleigh, where he paused.“Could you ring the doorbell please?I don’t want to put you down.”
She pulled the bell pull and Peverill opened the door.“My lord,” he began, with a perturbed expression.
“Just carrying my bride over the threshold, Peverill.Nothing to be concerned about,” Marcus said airily and, with his precious burden, headed toward the stairs.
“Very good m’lord,” the butler said and beaming, he began to clap.Within minutes another half dozen servants appeared and seeing what was happening, joined in the applause.A shrill wolf-whistle showed that young Joey had joined them.Attempting to maintain his habitual dignity, Marcus continued carrying his laughing bride up the stairs, kicked open their bedchamber door and deposited her, with a sigh of relief, on the bed.
“And now, my darling Lady Alverleigh...”
She opened her arms to him.“Yes, now please, Marcus darling.”
