Page 346 of From Rakes to Riches

Raphael reached for her, the backs of his knuckles brushing away a tear she’d not been aware had escaped.

“You look so bereft, I might weep,” he murmured, his eyes crinkling with a smile that hadn’t yet made it to his mouth. “It’s as though you thought you were not invited along.”

She blinked one. Twice. Her heart forgetting to beat as she analyzed his words.

“Are you asking me to...go? As in...with you?” Surely, she’d misheard.

“No.” He stepped closer. Never had she seen such emotion in his eyes. Such unmistakable meaning. “I’m asking for so much more than that. I’m asking foreverything.”

She drew back, pressing her hand to her forehead. “This can’t be real. You were just about to—to allow yourself to be killed not an hour ago and now you’re...you’re...what?”

Notproposing, surely.

“The only reason I contemplated leaving this world, Mercy, is to save the one person who has ever loved me. I thought no reality existed where I’d get to hope for a life that could offer a woman like you.” He gathered her hands, lifting each knuckle to drag beneath a worshipful kiss. “I don’t want to leave this world if you’re a part of it. Because you’re a part ofme, whether you love me back or not.”

She choked on her own breath and spasmed in a flurry of coughs. “I’m sorry. Did you say...love?”

“I said love.” He nodded, unabashedly. “I give you my heart, used and damaged as it might be. I offer you my soul, black as it is. My money, which is an obscene amount.” He grinned impishly, producing that bloody dimple.

Lord, but he didn’t play fair.

“My body is yours in every way. My protection. My trust.” He cupped her chin in his hand, and it humiliated her to find that more tears pooled in the grooves of his palm. “I would give my life, if only for a moment beneath the sun that is your smile. Your grace. Your passion. Come with me, Mercy. Let me prove that I can deserve you.”

She sniffed, so overwhelmed she felt as if she might simply float across the water like one of the gondolas. Desire so overwhelming swept her breath out of her lungs. This was what she wanted. This man. This life.

She opened her mouth as her heart sank. “I...Ican’tleave Felicity.”

“Go,” urged a weak voice.

She whirled to find her sister on her feet, leaning heavily on Morley, who had been astonishingly silent and stoic through the entire ordeal.

“What did you say?” Her blood was still for a full moment, while the person she held most dear looked her in the eyes with steady resolution.

And not a little bit melancholy.

“I cannot be your other half forever. You always needed more than that.”

“Felicity! You can’t think?—”

When Mercy would have gone to her, Felicity stopped her with one gesture. “Helovesyou. And I’ll be all right. I have Morley, Pru, Nora, and Titus, and it’s not like you’ll be gone forever. Perhaps I’ll visit you in exotic places?”

Was she truly contemplating this madness? “But our parents...I can’t leave you to face them in the wake of such a decision.”

“I’ll deal with them,” Morley sighed, running an exhausted hand over his face. “Prudence will have my neck in a noose for this.”

Suddenly her heart was pounding. Throbbing. Threatening to gallop away like a herd of stampeding horses.

“Surely you’re not agreeing to this, Morley.” She gestured at Raphael, not trusting herself to look at him. “Have you forgotten he’s a thief? A ne’er-do-well? A profligate libertine I’ve known all of five minutes?”

“A lesser man would be wounded.” Raphael placed a hand over his heart as if she’d pierced it.

“I was once all of those things.” Morley stared hard at the man who offered his heart to her. “I believe we do not have to be what our circumstances would have made for us. We can forge our own path. We can choose to be better.”

“All I want to be is worthy of her,” Raphael said with such vehemence, she found new tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

Morley nodded his approval. “London could be made safe for you... It would take some doing. Some time to change the narrative, to see where the balance of power shifts when all is said and done. Longueville will need seeing to. Leave that to me.”

“Everyone’s gone mad,” Mercy realized.

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