“Brilliantly so.” The sun is sinking. “You couldn’t have enough of the beaches, the lighthouse, that castle across the way. At times I had to go and fetch you out of the rain.”
My eyes slide closed. I watch it like a magic lantern show—being carried over the bricked causeway from St. Michael’s Mount, rain pouring down, and I’m shivering in someone’s arms, a bundle of emotions. “You rescued me.”
“A time or two.” His smile is affectionate. “No one could tell you what to do.”
That much, at least, is the same. “How long have we been married?”
“It seems forever. I cannot remember life before you.”
“No children?”
A hitch, then, “No.”
When he crouches to pack up the brushes, I blurt out the question buried in the base of my headache. “Rupert…why did I leave?”
A short laugh. “You truly don’t remember, do you?”
I watch his face, awaiting his answer.
“Come, let’s take you inside and tell everyone you’ve returned. I cannot keep you to myself forever.” He pulls me close in the gathering dark and runs his fingertips along my face, down my neck. His thumb traces the loose neckline of my gown. “Oh, Merryn.” He touches his forehead to mine, closing his eyes.
A shout sounds from the building below. “One more thing.” The ball of dread hardens.
“Hm?” He moves back, taking in the sight of my face with a contented smile.
I take a breath, then I tell him about the snare into which I’ve fallen. The asylum, Sabine, the sanity hearings. And finally…the brief marriage to a hustler who seems unwilling to part with me.
He goes rigid. “So is it…are you…marriednow? To him?” He unlaces our hands and takes a step back.
My heart fractures. “A marriage of convenience, but one that isn’t even valid, it seems. I am already married…to you.”
This does not make his expression relax. Why would it? His wife married another man.
“I can make this right,” I whisper. “I need to go to Cheltenham.”
His brow furrows. “For what?”
“There’s a solicitor there who knows everything. He’s the one who told me—well, it hardly matters. He will help. And I have money there—a fortune, actually.”
“I care not for your fortune, dear Merryn,” breathes Rupert, caressing my cheek, loosening my hair with eager fingers. “I only want you.”
His simple statement cools AJ’s deception deep in my core. It left jagged scars through my soul, and I didn’t even realize until Rupert’s words begin to mend the edges. I place a hand on his chest. “I shall return, then, once the matter’s settled, fortune or no.”
He casts a longing glance over me. “I cannot let you go again. Please.” He closes his eyes and breathes deep. “Run away with me, Merryn. Let me whisk you away from here. From him. We’ll vanish into oblivion and live out our days in peace.”
I reach up and touch his face, his earnest, loving face that is focused on me. I’ve learned from AJ, though. Betrayal whips through me as I think of the man. “Let’s start with Cheltenham.”
“As long as I can accompany you.” He mounts his horse, pulls me astride, and guides the animal back down the path toward town. “I must return for my things. I haven’t any money and thefood is gone. A change of clothes is in order. Shall I fetch a few of your old things?”
“You’ve kept them?”
A warm smile over his shoulder. “Of course.”
I resist melting, but it’s growing harder. It would be easy to fall for this man, I think. Easy to be swept up in his protective nature and this romantic notion of running away together.
“What do you think of Italy?”
Italy, where the poet-lovers ran away, living out their days in romantic bliss. “I think you’re making it terribly hard to say no.”
