Page 106 of Ladies in Hating
We,she kept saying.We will do it.
“Catriona,” Georgiana said hoarsely, and then stopped, quite unable to go on. She memorized Cat’s face. The tiny dip below her lip. The ringlets that curled up beside her ear. The curves and angles of her—so familiar, so long beloved.
“Georgie.” Cat’s palm came up and then down again, back to the letters. “Is there—”
“No. Wait. Let me say my piece first. I’m sorry, Catriona. I’m so sorry.”
Cat reared back in surprise. “You’re sorry? Why?”
“I’m sorry for all of it. For everything my father stole from you. He robbed you of your home and your security. He took away the man your father loved. If my father had not exiled the three of you from Wiltshire, Jem would have had the chance to know his father.Bothhis fathers. Everything could have been so much easier for him—for all of you. Fawkes would have paved the way. But my father razed all those hopes and did not even care what he had smashed. And none of us did anything to stop him.”
She stepped forward and gripped Cat’s fingers, felt the rough brush of paper beneath the softness of Cat’s skin, and oh, she had promised herself she would not do this. She’d promised herself she would not beg.
She’d lied.
“Please,” she said hoarsely. “Please forgive me. You promised that you would.”
“Georgiana—”
“No, please just—just wait.” She let go of Cat’s hand to swipe at her eyes. “I love you. I love your cleverness and your generosity and your joy. For half my life, when I have looked upon the stars in the sky, all I have seen is the shape of your smile.”
Cat was staring at her, lips parted, eyes as dark as nighttime.
“Whatever you choose,” Georgiana whispered, “I will respect your decision. I will never come here again, if you and Jem do not wish it. But—if you did wish it—I would lay the world at your feet.”
“I don’t want the world,” Cat whispered. “I only want you.”
Georgiana felt her teeth click closed. Part of her wanted to stumble back. Part of her—all of her—wanted—
“Say it again,” she said, and it was half a command and half a plea. “Catriona—”
“I want you.” Cat gripped Georgiana’s shoulders as if to shake her. “There isnothingto forgive.”
“I did not—”
“No. Stop it. Did you not hear your own words? In all that list of things your father stole from me, did you not consider what he took from you? Your sense of safety. Your belief in your own worth. God, Georgiana, when I think of him, I become so angry I could flatten this garden, but none of that anger is directed at you. You are not your father. His crimes are not yours.”
Georgiana took a quick sharp breath through her nose, and the scent of roses seemed to ground her, tethering her to the earth when her mind wanted to reel away. “Are you—certain?”
“Georgie mine.” Cat’s voice went low and soft and persuasive. Her hand came around to cup the nape of Georgiana’s neck. “All those things he took from me—surely you cannot think I would be foolish enough to let him take this too?”
They were closer—Cat’s fingers held her fast—Georgiana had only to dip her head for her mouth to find Cat’s. She kissed Cat, hard and desperate, her palms shaped to Cat’s waist, until Cat finally pulled away.
“You mad, foolish creature.” Cat’s voice was a gasp. Her mouth was ruby brilliant. “I thought you were leaving. I thought you came to tell me that you meant to go.”
“Never,” Georgiana vowed. “Never.”
And this time, when their mouths met, their kiss was a homecoming.
When they broke apart some minutes later, Cat pushed back the hair that had fallen across Georgiana’s face. “I love you. AndI don’t mind saying it again and again until my words fix themselves in your heart. I love you, Georgiana Cleeve.”
“It is not my heart that is the problem.” Georgiana felt Cat’s fingers brush her ear as she tucked back the lock of hair, and somehow it made her want to cry. “My heart is yours. It is my head, I fear, that gets wrapped round in knots sometimes.”
“Then I will be here to untangle you. However many times it takes. I will not leave your side, and if you fall—” Cat’s lips curled up. “No. I was going to say that if you fall, I will take you in my arms and carry you, but I’ve changed my mind. You shan’t fall. I will hold you too close to let you.”
Georgiana touched Cat’s cheeks with trembling fingers. Traced the curves of her lips, the upper and then the lower. “I believe you.”
“Good.”
