Page 92 of The Miracle of Love
He kissed her on the lips. “Always for you and me.”
Once her breaths calmed, he released her and rolled out of bed to toss more logs onto the fire.
Grace watched him, her eyes so filled with love for him he almost could not bear it. In truth, his feelings were just as unbearably strong for her. He climbed back into bed and drew the covers over them. “It is early yet. No need for us to get up.”
“Deklan…” She cuddled against him.
“Yes, love?” He had never been one to cuddle, but everything was different with Grace. He loved having her in his arms.
Breathing in the scent of her on his sheets and on his skin.
“How long do you think before the news of the crown is out?”
What he suspected she was really asking was, how long before they married and Grace was legitimately his wife? “I don’t know. Soon, I’m sure.”
They spent a quiet day which turned into a quiet week.
And then another week passed without a hint of anything going on in London.
If the Hydes thought it was strange he and Grace never went out or made any attempt to meet their neighbors, they did not remark on it. Nor did they comment when their supposed luggage cart never arrived.
But finally, the notice Deklan had been waiting for did arrive.
Two notices came at once, to be precise.
He received a letter from his brother on the same day the newspaper reports of renewed ties between the two countries made headline news. He scanned the newspaper account first, a report of a grand feast to commemorate signing the treaty of amity between England and the Kingdom of Silesia by their top diplomats. “Grace! Grace!”
He went in search of her and found her standing on the terrace looking out across the sea. It was a windy day and the waves were more turbulent than usual, striking the rocky shore with considerable force.
But his attention was not on those white-crested waves or their smash and roar as they broke upon the shore.
He had eyes only for Grace.
Gad, she was beautiful.
The sun shone down on her, bathing her in golden light. The wind whipped several strands of her long hair loose and they now brushed against her cheeks.
She turned to him, her smile stealing his breath away.
“It is done, Grace. We are free to return to London.” He lifted her in his arms and twirled her around.
He thought she would be delighted by the news, but her smile faltered. “Oh, that is wonderful. When will we be leaving?”
She wore one of her sturdy woolen gowns and had a wool shawl wrapped around her shoulders, but he felt shivers shoot up her spine as he held her in his arms. He understood what was worrying her, what had always worried her from the first night they had shared a bed. “We are not going straight to London. Gretna Green first. As I’ve told you, you will always be my priority. I am bringing you home as my wife.”
She hugged him fiercely, and then began to laugh. “Hurrah! I have been in agony, waiting to get my hands on your Olympian-god body. I was willing, Deklan. Shockingly eager to be claimed by you on Christmas Eve and then Christmas day. I thought for sure you would…then you didn’t…and you never did…I didn’t know what to think.”
“I am reckless and irreverent about many things, but never about you. First of all, you were tipsy on Christmas Eve so I was never going to take advantage. Even if you had not touched a single drop, I would not have claimed you then or now.”
“Why ever not?”
“For your sense of pride. You may want me, and I assure you I ache with wanting you. But you have been deprived of everything since your family’s downfall. I was not going to deprive you of your virtue as well. That is for you to give me on our wedding night.”
He noted the relief on her face.
“This was your reason?”
He nodded.
