Page 67 of The Heir's Fortune
“I will be there for you, in any way I can,” she said, looking up at him, allowing the comfort and safety he always provided to wrap around her along with his embrace. “I did much for my father, and I will be of use to you, I promise. I?—”
“Madeline,” he stopped her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head. “You do not need to prove your worth. You need to do nothing but be you and say yes.”
“Yes?”
“To me. To marrying me and spending the rest of your days with me.”
“Of course,” she choked out. “I thought this was going to be goodbye. But instead?—”
“It is only the beginning,” he finished for her before sealing his lips over hers, kissing her with such passion that he took her breath away. She wove her hands into his hair as he wrapped her tight, ending the kiss far too early for her liking, but he brushed his lips over the tip of her nose, warming it. “It is far too cold out here. Let’s get you inside.”
“I do not want to see anyone else,” she said. “I want to stay with you, alone, for a moment, before we share all of this with everyone else.”
Mischief touched his eyes – mischief she hadn’t seen often upon him before, but it rather intrigued her.
He took her hand.
“Come with me.”
“Where?”
“Would you like to go for a ride?”
She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped.
“That sounds… like it could be fun?”
He grinned. “First, we will go to the stables.”
“That wasn’t the kind of ride I thought you were suggesting.”
He laughed out loud before beginning to tug her forward. “That can come afterward,” he said before stopping and looking at her with a much more serious expression. “I may have been on many adventures in the past, but there are none that I look forward to more than those that happen when I am with you.”
She smiled. “With more to come.”
“It’s a promise.”
CHAPTER 26
Madeline held Gideon’s hand as he led her in through the stable doors. He squeezed it tight within his, content with all that they had promised one another and what was waiting for their future. His only hurdle remaining was to speak with her father, but from what she had told him in the past, he had a feeling that Lord Trenton’s approval was not going to be an issue.
“Victor?” Gideon called out as they stepped through the stable doors, shutting them tightly behind him.
“Back here!” the stablehand called out before stepping out of one of the stall doors to greet them. “Lord Ashford. Lady Madeline. You look… well.”
Despite his obvious efforts to hold it back, a smile stretched across his face at seeing the two of them together.
“We are going to go for a ride, Victor, if you could help us prepare the horses.”
“Of course,” he said. “Lady has been an excellent addition to the stables, I must say, my lord, my lady. She fits in well with the other horses and seems to enjoy it here.”
“Does she now?” Gideon said, a smile tugging on his lips. Madeline loved how ready his smile was these days, comparedto the sombreness that had always been there before. “Well, perhaps we might have to arrange for her to stay with us longer.”
“That would be great news to all of us.”
Scout danced around their feet before going to all of the stalls and greeting the horses, who had become his friends since he had begun living at Castleton.
“It seems that Scout rather likes having her here as well,” Victor noted.
