Mr. Croome rubbed his chin. “This fellow and I…have more in common…our good looks. Bex, come back for cake. Get us out trouble with Mrs. Croome…I’ll hire him.”
The young man jumped up and down. “Go for cake, Mr. Bex. Jonesy likes cake and a good job.”
Ester took hold of Arthur’s hand. His bare palm could feel her thin fingers sheathed in satin, melting into his. “Seems cake is a cause you can champion.”
“Jonesy, help Mr. Croome into his carriage. Sir, I’ll follow in my phaeton with your daughter, unless she wants to ride with you.”
Her father, with Jonesy’s help, climbed into his Berlin and slammed the door, but stuck his head out the window. “Cake before midnight.”
The carriage started to move, and Croome’s wonderful team of horses streaked forward in the night with Jonesy whooping for joy on the back.
Ester sighed. “Well, what do we do now?”
He put her palm in the crook of his arm and started walking around to the mews where he and Jonesy had left his phaeton. “I suppose we head for cake.”
In silence, he hitched up his horse as she sat along the rail. When he had everything ready, he put his arms about her waist and lifted her onto the seat. When he took his place beside her, she had the reins in her hand and started his horses before he could stop her.
“You intend on driving me, Ester?”
She didn’t say anything but kept the speed even.
He sat back and studied her beautiful form. “Have you been practicing? Your hand is steadier.”
“No, but I’ve more peace about me. I’m not fretting or rushing to be anywhere. I’m merely riding with you. Bex, thank you for my present. It was very thoughtful.”
He folded his arms. “Just because you stopped loving me, didn’t mean I stopped loving you, or that I didn’t think about you every moment.”
“Arthur Bex, I’ve loved you for two years. You think that went away because I was mad? It didn’t, just my hearing stopped. I didn’t give you a chance to explain. I’m sorry, very sorry.”
“Ester, what did you say that wasn’t right? I take risks.”
“A lot of things. I owed you a fair hearing. And yes, you face risks. In that cellar, many of them don’t want change. You’re in danger.”
“Wilberforce has lived all these years. I’ll be fine. After cake, I intend to do some traveling, anyway, and let tensions cool.”
“I won’t cool for you. My emotions have always been high-strung, irrational, really—all about you.”
When they came closer to the Thames and the warehouse district, she slowed the gig, making the animals come to a complete stop. “I won’t be fine without you. I was too stubborn to admit how much I need you. Too stubborn to see that you were trying to hide me from the ugliness. You and Papa are very much alike. Maybe that is why I love you both so much.”
His heart began to beat a little faster, but the things that drew them apart where still there. “I’m a flawed man, Ester, not one of the heroes I play on the stage. I don’t want to be the one to disappoint you. I can’t stop fighting for the causes I believe in. Maybe the cost for us to be together is too high.”
She crawled into his arms and grabbed his lapel. “You listen to me Bex-Bexeley. You love me, and you know it, and that’s enough. I don’t want you to stop being you. I believe in us, and I know you have to fight. You just need to be prepared for me to be at your side. If you fight, I fight with you.”
He wrapped her in his embrace, drawing her to that space reserved for her against his chest. “I’ll be as safe as I can be. I’ll think through things. I’ll prepare, even if it’s merely a trip across town. You are my bride. I won’t put lines on your forehead unnecessarily. I want to be with you forever, Ester. But I can’t promise to run from danger. Sometimes the cause of justice is dangerous.”
“I know, Bex. I know.”
“But know, Ester, I will be as safe as I can. I want to come home to you. Your love is the home I need. Can we start again?”
“Yes. I’m saying yes to Arthur Bex-Bexeley. Yes, to us. I believe in us again. I found my faith to believe again.”
He shifted and sank on one knee. “You proposed to me first, Ester, and now I propose to you. Love me. Love me like I love you. Every inch of my heart is yours. My voice, my body is yours. Be my wife for as long as we both shall live.
She clasped his hands and kissed his thumbs. “I love you, your strength, and how you know me. I love how you let me be me, and I promise to let you be you. We’re better together.” She laid her forehead against his. “I’ll always want you, from this day forward for as long as we both shall live.”
Who began the kiss, he wasn’t sure, didn’t truly care, but with her arms about his neck and access to her kissable throat, he was home. They’d found each other again, and this time he’d never let her go, never let anything but a blanket or a bathtub come between them.
A bell tolled in the distance. Twelve long gongs. “Midnight, and we are still here, Ester. This love must be true, not make-believe.”
