It was everything she had wanted to hear. Everything she had dreamed of. Everything she had waited for.
And she was at a complete and utter loss of words for how to respond.
Her mouth opened. Closed. Stunned, she could only blink slowly at him, like a fish staring out of a glass bowl.
The man she loved beyond reason, the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, had just confessed his love for her…and she’d turned into a goldfish.
“Why, Miss Thorncroft,” Weston drawled, as if he sensed her dilemma and was thoroughly amused by it. “Have I done the impossible and rendered you speechless?”
“I-I am notspeechless,” she said defensively. “I just…don’t know what to say.”
“Unless I am mistaken, that is the very definition of–”
“Oh, just be quiet and kiss me.” Rising onto her toes, she pressed her mouth to Weston’s and with a low chuckle, he obeyed her request.
There were no need for words after that.
At least, not for a very long while.
But when they eventually surfaced from their haze of passion, there was something Evie needed to say. Lifting herself up on her elbow (somehow, they’d ended up sprawled on the floor in a tangle of limbs), she absently drew a circle in the middle of his abdomen with her finger.
“But what about Lady Martha?” she asked, stealing a glance at him from beneath her lashes. “Isawyou proposing to her in the parlor. That was why I left. I could not bear the thought of you marrying another.”
Capturing her wrist, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed the back of it as he gazed steadily into her eyes. “I was not proposing, I was searching for an earring that she dropped. And explaining that while she will undoubtedly make a man very happy one day, I am not that man. I took it upon myself to steer her in the direction of a good friend of mine. If I had to guess, she’ll soon have the proposal that she wanted. Which reminds me…”
Rolling nimbly to his feet, he briefly scoured the room before he found his jacket draped over a bedpost. From an interior satin pocket, he pulled a square wooden box, and from the box he removed a gold ring with a ruby heart in its center and a diamonds on the side.
A ring that had belonged in his family for generations…until it was given away to an American with Evie’s blue eyes, Joanna’s willful spirit, and Claire’s tender heart.
“When my father gave this ring to your mother, he broke a long-standing tradition,” Weston said quietly as he knelt in front of Evie and reclaimed her hand while she sat absolutely still, intent on his every word. “You see, the men in my family are not meant to love their wives. Or if they do, it is a happy convenience that occurs over time. But for all of his many faults, the Marquess of Dorchester loved Anne Thorncroft. More than he loved my mother. More than he will ever be capable of loving Brynne or me. And I am glad that he did. I amgladthat he loved her, for if he hadn’t…if he hadn’t, this ring never would have led me to you.”
“Weston.” When tears threatened, Evie blinked them away. She wasn’t about to ruin this moment by letting her eyes get anymore puffy than they already were. “I never wanted this. I mean, Idid.” She gave a watery laugh. “But only because I desired your title and your wealth. I wanted to be the Countess of Hawkridge. I wanted to incite envy wherever I went. I wanted those who had turned me away to feel poorly for their decision, and beg me to be their friend once again.”
Weston frowned. “Is this a declaration of love, or a list of reasons why Ishouldn’tmarry you?”
“You mademewait long enough,” she said, flicking his thigh. “You can wait a little longer. I’m just getting to the best part.”
“By all means, then, continue.”
“AsI was saying…I wanted frivolous things. Prideful things. Things that would never make me happy in the end. And it took falling in love with a stubborn, arrogant, mule-headed–”
“Maybe we can skip this part,” Weston interjected.
Another flick. “–handsome, intelligent, protective earl to fully understand that love is what’s important. Love is what will see you through the years. Love is what will keep you warm at night, and greet you each morning. Money, prestige, social influence–they are no substitute for what matters most.” Her lips curved. “Not to say ithurtsanything that you’re an incredibly rich nobleman who will one day inherit a dukedom, but–”
“Be quiet and kiss me,” he ordered, dragging her onto his lap.
“And now?” she asked, looping her arms around his neck after she’d pressed her mouth to his in a quick, impertinent kiss.
“Marry me. Marry me, Evelyn, and be my wife.” Reaching between them, Weston gently placed her mother’s ring upon her finger.
It fit perfectly, and even though Evie had never tried it on, she knew, somehow, that it would.
“Yes,” she said, and now she did let herself cry, but they were happy tears and her smile blossomed through them, like a flower unfurling its petals to soak in the first gentle mist of spring. “Yes, I will marry you. I will love you. I will be yours, always.”
In the end, there was nothing else to say but that.
Epilogue
