Page 124

He strode over and stood before her. His beautiful eyes, sometimes so unreadable, glittered with naked anguish.

‘May we have a moment?’ he said to Haryo and Hart, not taking his gaze from her face for a second.

Hart and Haryo left, leaving her facing him alone. What to say? Where to begin?

‘Just tell me one thing,’ he said, voice low.

Eliza nodded.

‘Do you love me?’

‘Robert, I love you more than anything,’ she said, grasping his hands tightly. ‘It is because I love you so much that I have to protect you. Why I have to go.’

He closed his eyes and appeared to be grappling to maintain his composure. He opened them and carefully took her clenched hands and kissed her knuckles.

‘If you love me, nothing else matters. Nothing. There is nothing that could remove me from your side, nothing that could make me love you less. Nothing.’ His words were low. Calm. Sure.

‘But your family. Hannah and Edward. Your mama… the business. If this comes out, you could all be ruined because of me. I can’t do it to you. I love you too much for that.’

He moved closer and gently pushed back a wayward curl, then let his thumb caress her cheek, wiping away the tears she had shed. ‘Nothing else matters. If you love me, that is all I need. All I will ever need. Whatever happens, we will deal with it together. That’s all there is to it. I am yours if you want me. Yours until the end. By your side. No matter what.’

‘Oh, God, I love you,’ she whispered, her voice breaking. ‘And I am yours, if you still want me.’

His chin quirked, and he swallowed. ‘I love you.’ He pulled her into his arms, hesitated, then lowered his head to take her mouth in the most beautiful, most perfect kiss.

‘Oh, Robert,’ she whispered against his mouth. ‘I was so afraid.’

‘I know, my love.’ He took her gently by the hand and led her to the sofa by the roaring fire, and they sat.

‘You’ve had quite the time of it, haven’t you?’

Eliza nodded. ‘I insisted Charles tell me the truth, and he did. I thought I had lost everything. The only thing that I could think of to make sure you were not tainted by this was to leave you. To leave Haryo and Hart, and to go back to Northumberland so that people would forget me.’

‘And you imagined I wouldn’t mind being left?’

‘I… well, I hoped you might get over it.’

‘Would you get over me?’

She shook her head immediately.

‘I was planning to look after the children and then perhaps look into opening a school.’

His lips twitched, and he shook his head. ‘I think you have been reading too many novels.’

She leaned into him, and he wrapped an arm about her. She lay her head on his shoulder.

‘I can’t imagine what it must be like to discover your parents are not who you thought them to be.’

She shuffled a little closer, and he kissed the top of her head. ‘It is strange. I wish they had told me sooner. I wish I had known when the duchess was alive that she was my mother. She always treated me as though I were special. She made me feel precious, and I never lost that feeling. The letters and poems she wrote me make sense now.’

‘I think she must have loved you an awful lot.’

Eliza nodded. ‘I think she did.’

They sat, both staring into the fire, Robert holding her close with one arm, and holding her hand with the other, rubbing his thumb softly over her knuckles. He wasn’t wearing gloves, and neither was she. It was lovely.

There was a tap on the door and even that didn’t break them apart. Robert lifted his head.