Her smile broadened. “Thank you.”
The sound of her voice made his heart leap again, and he reached out to take her hand, feeling that warm and soft appendage against his calloused skin. It felt wonderful.
“The cottage,” he said, lifting a hand to the walls around them. “Did you have time to do what you needed to do?”
Ophelia nodded. “Aye,” she said. “Lady Munro and Lady de Merest had great ideas for the room. They said it looked like a man lived here and they wanted to make it look like a woman lived here. Are you displeased? I can remove anything you do not like.”
“Please don’t,” he said, lifting her hand to his lips for a gentle kiss. He couldn’t help himself. “They were right—it did look like a man lived here.Ilive here. But now you live here, too, so you may do whatever you wish with it.”
Ophelia wasn’t quite over the kiss to her hand. It had been so warm and gentle. The only one who had ever kissed her hand like that had been Cecil, and it hadn’t been nearly as exciting. She had trouble concentrating on Creston’s words, instead looking at her hand because she was certain his lips had left a brand on her flesh.
She could still feel them there.
“They… they brought the pieces of furniture,” she managed to say, gesturing to the chairs. “Lady Matheson had the table brought over. See it over there? And she found four chairs to put with it.”
Creston could see the table in the adjoining chamber, complete with a wooden pitcher that had a bunch of wildflowers in it. They grew wild all around Blackchurch but he’d never once thought to bring her any.
He pointed.
“The flowers,” he said. “Did you pick those?”
Ophelia turned to look at the blue and yellow flowers. “Nay,” she said. “Lady de Merest brought them to me. All of the ladies are lovely and friendly and they were all so determined to help. It was truly touching.”
He was still holding her hand. “They are kind women,” he said. “I hope you can become friends. It would mean a great deal to me if you did.”
She was electrified by their hand-holding. “I wish the same,” she said earnestly. “When I fostered at Okehampton, I had many friends, but when I returned home, there really wasn’t anyone except my mother and Cecil. I should love to make new friends.”
“Good,” he said. “You’ll find that we really are a family here. We work together, live together, and share life together. We all get along very well, so I am glad you are agreeable to making new friends.”
She nodded, but her smile was fading. “My family is small,” she said. “It is just my mother and my grandfather. My father died some time ago, as did my grandmother, and I never knew my father’s parents.”
“No cousins?”
“None,” she said. “I suppose I have some distant cousins, somewhere, but none that I really know of. I think that is why my grandfather was so eager for me to marry someone with family ties, like you have to your brother. He wants us to be fruitful and multiply, I fear.”
Creston chuckled. “God willing, we will,” he said, but his eyes inevitably trailed to her belly, which was concealed by the flowing robe. “I suppose we have already started.”
Her smile faded. “I suppose,” she murmured. After a moment, she sighed. “Creston, even though I told you everything, I still feel… guilty. Guilty and ashamed that my grandfather thinks he has made a fool of you.”
He regarded her a moment. “In keeping with our policy of honesty, I will say this,” he said. “No one has ever made a fool out of me. You saw to that when you told me the truth. But I will ask you now and you will be completely honest—you do not havelingering feelings for Cecil, do you? I am not going to wake up one morning to the news that you have returned to him?”
Ophelia was shaking her head before he even finished speaking. “Never,” she assured him with soft conviction. “I have had two months to think about this. I thought I loved Cecil. I truly did. I did everything I could to keep him. But when he left me at the church, I realized there was never any true love between us. If there was, I would not be here with you now. It’s ironic what you realize in hindsight.”
“That is true,” he said. “I think we’ve all had those moments of clarity once a situation is over and wondered whatever drove us to behave in such a way.”
She shrugged, her mind wandering to the godly man she’d been such a fool for. “Ihavewondered,” she said flatly. “And clarity did come in the realization that he never once went in pursuit of me. It was me going in pursuit of him. I convinced him what we had was special, but he never once took the initiative with me, and I think the more apathetic he seemed, the harder I tried. Like a challenge, if that makes sense. In the end, I was left trying to save my pride with a man whom I’d never truly been able to forge a strong relationship with. Something like that… it was never meant to be.”
Creston grunted softly. “I cannot imagine any man being able to resist you,” he said. “Cecil must have been stupid and blind.”
She smiled faintly. “And that,” she said, pointing at him, “right there. What you just said. Cecil would have never said that about me, not ever. This… all of this… with you has been so simple so far. We talk, we laugh, and we speak honestly. That has helped to open my eyes a great deal about what I thought I had with Cecil. I sacrificed everything for a chance to be with him, and in the end, he still left me. You cannot know how ashamed that makes me feel. The fact that you are so accepting… Creston, you did not have to accept anything, and it makes me realize howincredibly unworthy I am of you, but I hope to change that. I truly do.”
He smiled, somewhat modestly. “As I told you yesterday, the sheer fact that you confessed the scheme makes you quite worthy,” he said. “I’ve made my own decisions, Ophelia. I believe they are sound ones. I believe we can make this marriage a success.”
“Why do you have such faith?”
“Because our marriage was not built on lies, but truth,” Creston said. “Where there is truth, there is hope. Where there is hope, there is happiness. I’m ready to be happy. Aren’t you?”
She really didn’t have to think about it. “Aye,” she murmured. “I am. I truly am.”
