“I’m afraid I haven’t any chocolate,” a deep voice replied as the door swung inward. “But hopefully, I’ve brought you something better.”
On a gasp, Evie scrambled into a sitting position and yanked a pillow against her chest as if it were a shield of iron instead of a soft pile of feathers sewn in cotton. “What are youdoinghere?” she asked, gaping at Weston. “When–when did you leave Hawkridge Manor?”
“As soon as I realized that you had,” he said simply. His hands sliding into the pockets of his trousers, he regarded her with a vaguely bemused expression, as if he’d been presented with a puzzle that he couldn’t quite solve. “Youleftme, Evelyn.”
“You gave me no choice, Weston.” Dashing her fingers beneath her eyes to remove any stray tears, she straightened her spine and regarded him with as much composure as she could muster, given the circumstances.
Evie hadn’t abandoned the manor in an attempt to lure Weston away. It was not some grand plan to get him to come after her. Rather, she’d left because she couldn’t physically stand to remain in the same house as the earl…and his future countess. Listening to people congratulate them, raising a champagne glass in their honor…it would have been too much to bear. Seeing another woman wearing her mother’s ring wouldn’t have just broken Evie’s heart. It would haveshatteredit. And she knew, as clearly as she knew her own name, that she’d never be able to find all the pieces.
Thus she had run, as far and fast as she could. And in all that running, she had never–not once–allowed herself to think that Weston might actually follow. Yet here he was all the same. Dressed in the very same clothes he’d worn yesterday. His hair tousled and his face red from the wind, as if he had galloped the entire way.
To her.
“What are you doing here?” she repeated quietly. “Why have you come?”
“It was not only me you left behind.” Stepping into the room, he closed the door behind him. Sunlight trickled in through the window beside the bed, softening the stern brackets around the edges of his mouth. “Posy will wonder where you’ve gone.”
Evie hugged her pillow closer. “I left her in the care of my lady’s maid. She’ll feed her with a bottle until she’s grown enough to be with the other sheep. I couldn’t bring a lamb to London.”
“And an earl?” he asked. “I suppose you couldn’t bring one of those either.”
“I would have, but I–” She stopped herself short. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.” He moved closer. “Youmatter to me, Evelyn.”
Her brow creased with annoyance. “You’ve an odd way of showing that.”
“I know I haven’t made any of this easy. For you, for me. I was…I was in a constant battle, between my head”–sliding his hand free of his pocket, he grimaced as he tapped a finger against the side of his skull–“and my heart. A long time ago, I made the decision that I never wanted to be hurt or disappointed by anyone ever again. But in order to do that, I had to close myself off. From the badandthe good. From what had been, but also from whatcouldbe. And I grew so accustomed to being in that isolated room that I never even noticed when the walls closed in and the light turned to shadow.”
“Why…why are you telling me all this?” she asked, wetting her lips.
“Because I would have stayed in that dark, windowless room for the rest of my life if not for you.” His mouth curved in a wry grin, the first she’d ever seen. It made him appear more youthful. More carefree. As if an enormous weight had been lifted off his shoulders. “You didn’t just open the door, Evelyn. You kicked the damned thing down.”
“Ihavebeen told I am very strong for my size,” she said modestly.
His grin deepened. “I should have just walked right through the door the minute you kicked it down. It was open, and you were standing on the other side of it. Bold, and brazen, and beautiful. I didn’t know what to make of you. Hell, part of me still doesn’t. But Idoknow that I never want to lock myself in that room again. I want the light, Evelyn. I want you.”
It didn’t feel real.
Hedidn’t feel real.
But wasn’t that the very definition of a dream? All of your wildest fantasies come true. Except it was happening while she awake. Unless shewasasleep. Slightly panicked, Evie pinched the inside of her elbow.
“Ouch,” she exclaimed, and Weston chuckled.
“Come here,” he beckoned, extending his arms.
“Why?” she asked, even as she set her pillow aside and slid off the edge of the bed. The floorboards were cold against her bare feet, but Weston’s hands were warm when he gently grasped her face, his thumbs resting on the edge of her jaw as his fingers splayed across her cheeks.
“Because,” he said huskily, “when I tell you that I’ve fallen in love with you, I want to be able to look straight into your eyes. Do you know that since the day I met you, I have started noticing blue everywhere? The sky in all its varied shades, the water, even the damned curtains. But there is no blue more clear, nor more stunning, than the blue in your eyes.”
As the floor tilted beneath her, Evie grabbed on to the lapels of Weston’s jacket to steady herself. “You’ve fallen in love with me,” she echoed, unable to keep the astonishment out of her voice…or her heart from doing a joyous leap within her chest. “Is this…is this a jest?”
“No, I am not jesting. Nor would I about something this important. I may have resisted falling at first–”
“Mayhave?” she said, arching a brow.
Another grin, this one even bigger than the last, as if his facial muscles had been frozen along with his heart, and when his chest had finally thawed so had every other part of him. “All right, I chained myself to a boulder. But you held the key. All this time,youheld the key. I could have no more not fallen in love with you than the sun could stop shining in the middle of a summer day, or the rain could stop falling in the midst of a storm.” His knuckles brushed across her cheekbone as he tucked a loose curl behind her ear. “Loving you was always inevitable, Evelyn.Always.”
