Page 70 of Her Daring Earl
“You’re leaving me? Is the baby not well?
“Why would you say that?” she said, recoiling slightly.
“I need to make sure that it was neither of those things, for both would be the worst news imaginable.”
She couldn’t help but smile at that, liking what she was hearing.
“I had to tell you that I love you,” she said, the words coming out in a rush before she allowed her fear of saying them to overcome her. “You do not have to say it back nor even to return the sentiment. I know that we have made certain aspects of our marriage work rather well and I would like to continue that but do not want anything to be forced. I just wanted you to know… how much you mean to me.”
He stared at her unwaveringly. “Did you mean everything that you were saying before?”
“When?”
“Before I woke up.”
“You heard that?” she covered her mouth with her hand, absolutely mortified, and he moved his lips into the closest thing to a grin since she had arrived.
“I might have. Something about love, needing me, not being able to live without me… perhaps you should fill in the rest.”
“Fitz! How could you not tell me you were awake?”
“I wasn’t completely awake. But it’s stored in my mind now and will never come out again.”
Eliza looked down at her hands, placing them in her lap as she sat perched on the edge of the bed, slightly more ladylike than the initial flinging of herself over his prostrate body.
“Shall we forget I was so… effusive in my words?”
“No,” he shook his head, reaching his arms up to her. “Never. That’s part of what I love about you. Come here, Eliza.”
She blinked. His words had come so fast that she wondered if she had misheard him.
“I-I’m not sure that I can come any closer.”
“Oh, you most certainly can,” he countered. “Lie right beside me.”
She eagerly tucked into his side.
“That’s better,” he said, nuzzling his nose into the crook of her neck. “Now, I need to tellyousomething.”
She waited.
“I love you, Eliza. With all of my heart. For so long, I thought that the woman for me would stand demurely at my side and do all that I requested of her, but I have realized how wrong I was. The woman I need challenges me, makes me better, and ensures that I don’t venture off to London alone when there is a threat to my life. I need a woman who can forge her own path forward in life, but who wouldn’t want to, for she preferred to have me at her side. I know this baby brought us together. At the time we thought marriage was the only option, but perhaps it just meant that this was the only option for the two of us to be happy.”
The tears were back. Eliza found she could hardly take a breath, let alone form any words, so overwhelmed was she by all of Fitz’s revelations.
“Could we possibly be this happy together?” she whispered.
“I know we can,” he confirmed. “We’d better. It was the very reason I woke up from this.”
They laughed slightly at that, as morbid as it was.
“I must go tell Siena and Levi that you are awake,” she realized. “They have been so worried.”
“Levi’s here?” he asked, and Eliza nodded.
“I went to him and asked him to come help you, but we were too late. Perhaps, however, he can help you now.”
“If anyone can, it’s him.”
