Constantine did not shout this time, but the warning glare he gave her would have stopped anyone else in an instant.
“You may not want to admit it, Your Grace, but it is clear that your arrangement has changed,” Mrs. York continued, clearly unfazed. “This temper of yours is not going to fade until you bring your wife back home.”
Pain’s sharp claws dug deep into the tender flesh of Constantine’s heart, nearly sending him to his knees.
“Mrs. York.Please.”There was no shouting this time. No rage. Just a plea. “She does not wish to be here. If she did, she would have stayed. I made her a promise. If Evander were alive, I would free her from this marriage. I am not going to break it for my own selfishness.”
Mrs. York tsked her tongue, and he did not have to look up to know the matronly housekeeper had crossed her arms and was rolling her eyes.
“You men are so very strong,” she sighed. “But you can also be so blastedly dimwitted as well. She loves you! Can’t you see it?”
Constantine shook his head, not daring to hope.
“I told her I loved her,” he confessed. “She did not say it back.”
“Did you tell her as you were rescuing her brother? When you were in the thick of danger?”
Constantine went still and glanced up at Mrs. York.
“Yes?”
“Oh!” Mrs. York groaned, throwing her arms up in the air. “Of course, she did not say it back! She thought you only said that to comfort her! You need to go to her. To talk with her and let her know that you truly mean it!”
“And what if she does not feel the same?” he testily shot back.
Mrs. York snorted.Actuallysnorted.
“Please, Your Grace. Your quarters are not soundproof. No woman of Her Grace’s caliber would give herself to you like that if she did not love you.”
Constantine’s jaw dropped. Mrs. York was a bold woman. Always had been. However, she had never beenthisbold. Yet as he reached for his anger and will to scold her for such words, he could not grasp them. What she had said might have been grossly inappropriate… but it was also true.
There had been a physical attraction between them from the moment he had met Elara, dressed in that beautiful crimson she wore at that fated masquerade he had hosted, but what they had shared those last days? What they had discovered about one another? It was more than just lust.
He knew lust. Reveled in it for a long time, and understood what it looked like on women—nobles and servants alike. The way he and Elara started to look at each other during those last days? It was not lust. It was something much deeper than that.
“Shall I get the carriage prepared?” Mrs. York asked, clasping her hands together before her. “Have James lay you out a clean shirt and cravat?”
Constantine nodded, still in awe over the rather blunt realization Mrs. York had thrust upon him.
“Yes, Mrs. York. Thank you,” he murmured.
Mrs. York gave him a stiff, single nod, then held out her hands.
“Give me master William. He will want to look his best for Her Grace as well.”
Still half dazed, Constantine handed William over to her. As he reached the hallway, his broken heart started to beat faster. His steps changed from slow to a run. He was heading to see Elara—and hopefully, he would bring her home.
“Elara,” Constantine whispered.
She stood at the bottom of the stairs, a look of shock on her face, but no less beautiful than ever. Her piercing blue eyes shone with unshed tears, and her plump lips parted in a smallO,as if in shock.
“Constantine.” she breathed his name, but in the silence of the foyer, it might as well have been a scream. William had finally quieted his cries as their carriage had pulled up in front of the Mason residence, as if somehow the boy knew where they were.
Suddenly, he let out a loud, beautiful coo that startled both Constantine and Elara, and he began to squirm in Constantine’s arms. A most gorgeous smile spread across Elara’s face then, and a tear slipped down her cheek as her eyes shifted from his gaze to look at the baby in his arms.
Constantine blinked as if he had just been under a spell; then he followed her gaze and saw that his nephew was straining in his arms, reaching for the woman who had captured both their hearts.
“Oh, little lamb, look at you,” Elara sniffled.
