Page 81 of The Duke's Forbidden Bride
“You are very good at prying,” he countered with a small smile.
“Would you have told me? If I had asked you, would you have told me how you got it?”
Spencer thought about that. He thought about the man he had been a few months ago—weeks ago, even. A man who had been dragged from his former life, still angry at the world yet trying to fit into a society that seemed intent on shunning him. Trying to repair a fractured relationship with his sister, desperate to save her the way he could not save Anna.
“No,” he finally answered. “At least not back then.”
“And now?”
He held her gaze. “I promised you lowered walls.”
He reached for her, and for once he did not stop himself from cupping her cheek in his hand. He swallowed, not used to displaying affection so casually, but he saw the motion through.
He cradled her cheek, brushing his thumb beneath her lashes. They fluttered, and she gave a low hum, a ghost of a smile lingering on her lips.
He wanted to kiss her again.
Heavens, he wanted her more than words could express, but he had to focus on ensuring that Charlotte was safe.
Nathaniel would not have come if she wasn’t in danger, but he also wouldn’t have left her—even with the other men stationed at the cottage—if he thought her life was in absolute peril.
He understood that Spencer would want Charlotte closer now if she was being watched, where he himself could keep an eye on her.
“Eleanor,” Spencer spoke again, his voice tight. “You… you trusted me, back when we first met. Not only with your story and truth, but also with the hope of saving Charlotte. While I do not know if I am ready to share quite as much, I find myself ready to open up. The flowers in your gardens—flowers of rebirth—I would like to embody them as well.
“I have a lot of shadows in my past, many reasons why I was gone from London for so long. One day, I will share them with you. I will learn to let you in, as you have let me in. I am a haunted man, and that is something I cannot hide from you for much longer, but I believe you are a bright light against those haunting shadows. I believe you can help me chase them away.”
“Just like you chase away my own shadows,” Eleanor answered quietly.
She turned her face into his hand, kissing his palm lightly. Spencer sat with the new feeling in his stomach, the way he had not planned for her nor the way she was making him feel. He had not planned for how terrifying it was, how overwhelming and all-consuming.
“Tonight, you will meet my aunt properly and reunite with my sister, but after that, I want to take you somewhere beautiful. Somewhere you can forget about everything that has happened.”
Eleanor nodded, and the smile on her face only grew. There was such tenderness in her eyes that Spencer could not help but pull away.
He was learning. His wife was patient, but he could learn.
He could learn to call somethinghome, for as he gazed at her, he thought that a home did not have to be a set of walls. It didn’t have to be a building. Perhaps it could be a wild-haired, wide-eyed woman who had burst into his life unexpectedly.
But Spencer was not yet brave enough to admit such a thing, even in the silent recesses of his mind, so he shut down the thought and looked back up toward the storm that brewed over the countryside.
“Do you think the storm will hit before we get to the cottage?” Eleanor asked, after a beat.
His eyes keenly assessed the proximity of the clouds and the depth of their color. “I believe so, but we are not too far away now. Let us hope we do not get caught in the rain.”
They did, in fact, get caught in the rain, as the heavens opened when they were a mere ten minutes from the cottage.But the sound of Eleanor’s laughter as she dashed through the downpour was worth getting soaked through.
He paused for a moment as she hurried to the front porch, unable to tear his gaze away from her. He listened to her laughter dancing through the storm, realizing that she had the power to send him to his knees far more than any gust of wind.
“Are you not coming?” she shouted, squinting through the sheets of rain.
Spencer blinked, realizing he merely stood in the middle of it, watching her. He nodded, hurrying to her side.
As soon as he stepped onto the porch, the door opened, revealing his aunt’s surprised face.
“Spencer!” she cried, her mouth splitting into a wide smile. “Heavens, what a night to travel. Come in, come in!”
He didn’t miss how her eyes locked on his wife, eager and excited, as if she had simply waited for a moment to meet Eleanor properly.
