I moved to sit next to her, half afraid she was going to fling open the carriage door and run off into the night. “I am not having fun at your expense. I am in earnest.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t believe you. This isn’t real. Why would you want to marry me? You don’t care about me that way. You don’t love me.”
I shook my head. “What does love have to do with it?”
She laughed. “I suppose that’s true enough. Why would anyone care for me in such a way? Still, I’d hoped to at least find friendship.”
“I can offer you that, Diana. I’ve always liked you. True, it was something of a shock to realize the young girl I’d once known was now all grown up. But from everything I’ve seen, and from what Kendrick and Caroline have told me, I know you have a level head on your shoulders. Our families have known each other for at least a decade. I respect you. And most importantly, I wouldn’t constrain you the way your aunt and uncle do.”
She turned to look out the carriage window at the small scene that was illuminated under the lamp post. We’d stopped before a townhouse with darkened windows. I happened to know that no one was home. The occupants had long since left London.
I waited for what felt like an eternity before she twisted back to look at me again. “You want my money.”
I shrugged. “I assure you, I have no need of your money. I am quite wealthy in my own right. If you’d like, I will sign an agreement that allows you to keep ownership of your father’s business.”
She searched my face for several seconds, and then sighed. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. In the end, any man who marries me would do so for my fortune.”
Anger filled me and I wanted to shake her, tell her that her guardians had clearly poisoned her self-esteem. Taken away everything that had been joyful about the young Diana I’d once known.
I vowed that if nothing else, I would see to it that she came to realize she was so much more than what her aunt and uncle had made her believe. But I had more pressing concerns at that moment.
“I ask you again, Diana Atherton. Will you run away with me to Gretna Green?”
She didn’t hesitate. She lifted her chin, met my gaze, and said, “Yes, my lord. When do we leave?”
Relief poured through me. “Now is as good a time as any. Unless you need to sneak back into the house. Do you have anything you couldn’t bear to leave behind?”
She shook her head. “No. I have absolutely nothing there.”
“So we leave now.”
She nodded. “Take me, my lord.”
Awareness sizzled in the air between us. I wouldn’t just be taking Diana away from here to keep her safe. When she became my wife, she would well and truly become mine.
I wouldn’t marry her and then desert her for other women. I hadn’t expected to marry yet, but a bone-deep certainty settled within me. I couldn’t say how I knew it, but Diana would make a good wife. And once we loosened her hair from that horrible hairstyle and dressed her properly, I had no doubt she would blossom into the woman she was always meant to be.
I rapped on the sliding panel that separated the interior of the carriage from the driver. Three sharp knocks, signalling to him that our voyage was underway.
CHAPTER 10
DIANA
Clifton reached across me to close the curtains, enshrouding the carriage in darkness again. He hadn’t returned to the opposite bench, and I was acutely aware of his presence next to me. We weren’t touching, but he radiated a warmth that made me very aware I wasn’t alone.
I started to wonder if I was dreaming. Perhaps I’d fallen asleep after the maid took away my dinner tray. I’d lain across the bed to wait and was now having the most unbelievable dream of my life. But if this was, in fact, a dream, would I be sitting here, trying to decide whether this was really happening? Surely I’d be fully immersed in the fantasy, and Clifton would have declared his undying love for me.
To be sure, I pinched my side. The sharp zing of pain told me that this was, indeed, happening. I was actually fleeing to Gretna Green with the one man I would have chosen above all others to marry.
As the silence became uncomfortable, I searched for something, anything, to say. But my customary selection of appropriate subjects for small talk fell short in this situation.
We hadn’t gone far when the carriage began to slow. When we came to a stop, I opened the curtain a fraction. We were in front of another townhouse, though I couldn’t say what street we were on.
I looked at Clifton, who was watching me carefully. “Why have we stopped?”
“I couldn’t take you away from London with only the clothes on your back. I made arrangements for a trunk to be packed for you.”
Gratitude filled me that at least one of us had given thought to the practicalities of running away. I certainly hadn’t. “Should I stay here?”
