She shook her head, tears falling faster.“Then I must be honest too.”She pushed the paper into his hands.“Look at this.”
A murmur ran through the room, anticipation, confusion, dawning realization, while Nicholas studied her newest drawing.
Beatrix lifted her chin.Her voice broke as she turned to face the gallery and announced, “I am B.Adroit!”
Silence.
True, crushing silence fell over the House of Lords.
Then…absolute anarchy.
Shouts erupted from every bench.Men stood, outraged.Some laughed in disbelief.Hargrave sputtered like a kettle ready to boil over.Winston lunged toward his daughter, face redder than Nicholas had ever seen.
“You!”Winston choked.“You—you cannot?—!”
Bea whirled away from him, while Nicholas stared at the paper, breathless, unable to move.
“You didn’t have to do this,” he said, his voice cracking.
“Yes.”Her voice wavered.“I did.”
“But they’ll?—”
“I don’t care what they do,” she whispered.“I only care that you know I’m not hiding from this any longer.I’m not hiding from you.And,” she swallowed hard, “I love you.”
His throat tightened.
Hargrave jabbed a finger in her direction.“Arrest her!She has libeled half this chamber!”
The chancellor pounded his gavel desperately.
Winston lunged forward again and grabbed Bea’s arm, but Nicholas was there in an instant, stepping between them.
“Touch her again,” Nicholas said in a low, deadly voice, “and you will regret it.”
Bea gasped.
Winston froze.Outrage quickly covered his features, but he let his hand drop to his side.
Nicholas shoved the paper under his arm, then he took Bea’s hands gently, as if everything around them wasn’t madness.Around them, men bellowed for order, for discipline, for her removal, for the vote to be cast, for someone—anyone—to explain how the country’s sharpest satirist had been living in Winston’s house under his nose.
And was a woman no less!
But none of it mattered.
Not to Nicholas.
Not to Bea.
In that moment, there was only them.
Nicholas squeezed her hands, voice low and aching.“You’ve just upended Parliament.”
She gave a watery, shaky smile.“I’ve always wanted to do that.”
He laughed softly, astonished, undone.“Beatrix Winslow, I love you.”
She stepped closer, voice breaking.“I love you too, and I’m so proud of you.”
