The horizons beyond the mountains were lightening from dark purple to pink, then to orange and yellow. The cold of the rock seeped into her bum. The cold tips of her fingers felt good on her eyelids, which stung with an unexpected heat in wakeof her lack of sleep. Her life would never be the same. Which was honestly something she’d been longing for even before the Matterhorn. Then why was she a little sad?
Because suddenly her future was entirely unknown, and a life with Karl could possibly keep her from returning to England forever. This was the moment, the point so obvious Ophelia could put a pushpin in a map for it, where Justine grew up.
After what she and Karl had just done, she could be a mother. But she would most definitely become a wife—likely within the week. Who knew what Francis and her parents would insist upon.
She heard the swish of grass above her. Normally she would never be still enough to hear it, but this was an unusual morning. Turning, she saw Karl startle as he spotted her.
“Early morning hike?” she asked, her voice shockingly loud in the spacious dawn sky.
He cleared his throat. “You did not wake early enough to catch me this time.”
“Would you have waited?”
“If I had known, yes.” He strolled up to stand beside her rock. Sweat glistened at his temples, and the tip of his nose was red from cold. He sniffed and discreetly wiped his nose with the back of his wrist. Even his hands were ruddy from the cool, Alpine night temperature. “What has you up early?”
She gave him a reedy smile. “I’m getting married, haven’t you heard?”
Karl huffed, which sounded something akin to an embarrassed laugh. “How could I not?”
They were quiet for a moment, and then Justine realized she was being rude by taking up all the space on the boulder. She scooted over to give him room. He gave her a questioning look, but when she patted the empty stone, he hopped up beside her.
“Justine, I—” Karl stopped, looking down at his hands. Justine watched as his fingers climbed over each other, trying to find a position of rest and failing. Finally he looked in her eyes, and she saw the turmoil in his. “If you do not wish to marry me, then don’t. I couldn’t bear it if you thought I had trapped you in some way. A bird will not sing if she is caged against her will, and I want you to sing.”
Perhaps because she was already feeling so many emotions at once, or because she was admitting to herself that her childish life had finished, his words penetrated deep. “It’s because you don’t want to cage me that I agreed to marry you, Karl.”
“Agreeing from family pressure and jumping up and down saying yes are very different things. I would prefer the jumping kind for someone to marry me.” Karl held her gaze, grimacing, almost as if he was bracing for her rejection.
She looked down at her own hands and held them up to tick off her reasons. “The reasons I would marry Karl Vogel. One, and I deeply regret saying this out loud, you are extraordinarily attractive. Straight nose, excellent teeth, jawline sharper than a carving knife, and shoulders broader than an ox. So aggravating.” She glanced over to see how he was taking her complete inability to discuss her feelings directly.
“Number two, he lives in a place that I have fallen absolutely in love with. Number three, he, very annoyingly, can keep up with me physically. Very few can.”
Karl laughed with what sounded like genuine delight. “Keep up with you? You keep up with me!”
“Number four,” she said, louder to emphasize that she was still talking. “Karl Vogel has either already climbed all the best mountains and therefore knows the way, or knows how to climb all the best mountains and would absolutely do it with me.”
“Number five, he doesn’t mind if I drink brandy in the middle of the night.”
At the reminder of the night they met, Karl’s face melted into gentle peace. He leaned back and folded his arms, waiting for the rest of her enumerations.
“Number six, when he says he is not after my family’s money, I believe him.”
Karl nodded succinctly at that, but didn’t interrupt.
“Number seven, he knows how strong I am and doesn’t try to take that from me.”
His expression turned grave. “Never.”
“Number eight, if I say I don’t want children, I think he would respect that, and if I said that I did, he would respect that, too.”
Karl nodded, his eyebrows raised as if contemplating the new topic.
“Number nine, I’m fairly certain that Karl worships the ground I walk upon.”
This caused a massive smile to break out across his face, and he reached for her, but she stopped him. It was this last reason that made her heart pound, and her stomach seize.
“And number ten, if I told him that I loved him, he wouldn’t laugh at me.”
This time she didn’t stop him as he threaded his hands around her face and kissed her. She folded herself into his lap, allowing every emotion she had been feeling to open and lay bare to him, as if she were lining them up for his inspection. She did love him. She did. And marrying him would be no hardship, not really. It was a new adventure, and if there was one thing JustineBad NewsBrewer loved, it was a new adventure.
