Page 26 of Lady Elizabeth's Winter Stranger
“I wanted to shout at him to stop looking so self-satisfied.”
She gave a horrified giggle.“I’m glad you didn’t.The vicar would have had conniptions.Anyway, Papa spends most of his life looking self-satisfied.You’ll get used to it.”
He angled her hips toward him.“So you’re not going to run away?”
She shook her head and shifted from foot to foot, too jumpy to stand still.“I love you too much to want to leave you.”
Oh, dear…
A bristling silence crashed down.Elizabeth regarded Tom in dismay.He looked shocked, then his brows drew together in what she couldn’t help but read as displeasure.
She blinked against the sting of tears.She refused to spend her first night as a bride bawling like a lost calf.That would be outside of enough.Sweet heaven, what a miserable henwit she was.Why didn’t she keep her mouth shut?She’d guarded her secret throughout their engagement, not sure if declarations of love would place too much pressure on their brief acquaintance.Yet here she was, babbling out the fateful words and likely to spoil their wedding night.
“You’ve never told me that before,” he said slowly.She couldn’t interpret his tone.He didn’t sound angry.Or was that just wishful thinking?“We’ve only known each other for a few weeks.”
She bit her lip and tried to back out of his hold, but his grip tightened, keeping her where she was.“I know.”
He still looked troubled.Which annoyed her.That was better than feeling like she wanted to disappear into the wallpaper or turn into a sniveling mess.
“Long enough to marry,” she said with some vexation.If he told her that she was a silly girl who didn’t know her own mind, shewouldrun off to Great-Aunt Agatha.
At least he didn’t say that.It wasn’t much consolation.“Yes, but somehow love seems the ultimate commitment.”
Shocked, she met his gaze.“More than vowing to spend our lives together?”
“I know it doesn’t make sense.It doesn’t have to.”
She summoned all her pride, difficult when she felt so vulnerable.Elizabeth detested feeling vulnerable, which was why she’d hugged her burgeoning adoration for her fiancé so close to her chest.“I’m not asking anything of you.I promise I won’t make emotional scenes.”
To her surprise, he responded with sardonic amusement.“Yes, you will.”
Yes, she probably would.If he took a mistress, she’d pitch Great-Aunt Agatha’s vase at his head and grill his heart on the drawing room fire.
“Can we forget I said anything?”she asked in a small voice.She’d imagined telling Tom of her feelings at some stage.Preferably after he’d already declared his eternal devotion to her.
His frown deepened.“Why would we do that, for heaven’s sake?”
“Because you obviously don’t love me back,” she said in an even reedier tone.She didn’t want to cry, but if this went on much longer, she wouldn’t be able to stop herself.
“What nonsense is this?”Impatience edged his deep voice.“You know I’ve been head over heels with you from the moment you scowled at me in Hyde Park on that snowy Christmas morning.”
It was her turn to frown in confusion, as her frantic mind winnowed all their interactions.“No, I don’t.”
He let her go and stepped back.It shouldn’t feel like a distancing, but it did.“Well, you damn well should.”
“You never said.”
“Neither did you.”
She swallowed, knowing that the next few seconds would set the tone for her entire marriage.“Tom, what are you saying?Please be plain.I don’t want to get this wrong.Do you love me?”
He sighed again and ran his hand through hair already rumpled after their storm of kisses.Those lighthearted moments when they’d rushed up to the room felt like they’d occurred an eon ago.“Yes, I love you.I assumed you knew.”
She shook her head as a new kind of happiness found a home in her heart.Tom had made her happy from the first.But this joy descending upon her now carried a weight and significance that would nourish the rest of her life.“I knew you liked me.Or else you’d never have asked me to marry you.”
“I’d never have asked you to marry me if I didn’t love you.”
Of course he wouldn’t.What on earth had she been thinking?Love had turned her brains to custard.An elated smile curved her lips, as she held her hands out toward him.“I’m a silly wigeon.I should have guessed.”
