Page 447 of From Rakes to Riches

“Of course you couldn’t trust me, when I gave you no reason to do so.”

“Please don’t think my problems were because of you,” she said, looking away from him. “It’s taken me a long time to seethat I really didn’t trust anyone, except my sisters. Watching your struggle with your father made me realize how angry I was with my mother for shielding us for so long from their financial problems. She was caught in a terrible situation not of her making, and I blamed her for it. You see, David, you and I are not so different after all.”

“Are things better between you?” he asked quietly.

“Yes.”

A slow smile grew across his face. “Just as they are between my father and myself. So must we talk about them anymore?”

She smiled, feeling the small budding of hope in her heart.

“Ah, Victoria, sweetheart, you’ve endeared yourself to me with your very presence.”

His tone was low and sincere, his words so very earnest.

“When I married you,” he said, “I thought you were the answer to so many problems, as if you were an object created for my use, rather than a flesh and blood woman.”

He gripped both of her hands now. His eyes, with their pale color she once thought so frozen, now seemed to burn with sincerity.

“I used you,” he said.

“But David, we both?—”

“Yes, yes, I know I rescued you from a terrible situation, but I don’t want you to feel like you owe me. Do you think you could love me, just for me?”

She inhaled through a throat thick with tears. “Oh David, I have always loved you,” she whispered, trying to stop her tears, yet unable to. “From the time when you were just words and ideas and feelings, so full of energy and eagerness that I envied, to the man you are now, replete with so much goodness and courage that you would care for me and my family, regardless of our circumstances.”

He closed his eyes, his face full of relief. “Victoria, I wasn’t good. I was selfish.”

“You could have given me money and assuaged your guilt. But you gave of yourself.”

“Because it was you,” he said, cupping her face. “You, the girl who listened to any crazy idea I had, who encouraged me when there was no one else to listen, the only one I felt comfortable talking to. You see the best in people, and that takes a bravery I admire. I may not have realized it at first, but I could not forget what we’d been to each other. I love you, Victoria. Promise me I won’t lose you.”

“Oh David!”

She threw her arms about him, and he pulled her onto his lap, as if they both couldn’t get close enough to each other. The kiss they shared held no secrets, no worries, and was full of a trust they finally had in each other.

Victoria broke the kiss first, resting her forehead against his and looking into his eyes. “I have one more requirement I didn’t list at the beginning of our marriage.”

He lifted one eyebrow. “You do?”

“My last and final wish is that I can sleep in your bed.”

David groaned. “And I so value my privacy, too.”

“Well you must, because I’ve never even seen the inside of your room!”

He laughed and held her close. “Victoria, anything I have is yours. You only have to speak the words.”

“And if I write them?” she asked in a teasing voice.

“Sweetheart, I cherish every written word we ever shared, but trust me, communication with our lips is far superior.”

And he kissed her until she was breathless, and she believed his every word.

EPILOGUE

Dearest Victoria,

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