Page 105 of Lord Ashley's Beautiful Alibi
“I do better work here.”
“Unto your death.”
Amber nodded. “So be it.”
They stared at each other.
Gus struggled to her feet.
Amber looked pained but did not rush to help her.
Gus took one last look at her friend. “You have a chance of love and laughter. A long and happy life.”
Amber got a wistful look in her eyes. Then suddenly there were tears there, too. “I do.”
“You will not take it?”
“No.”
“Oh, Amber. You did once. You loved Maurice and valued every day with him. Ramsey loves you, and I know you love him.”
“I must do this alone, Gus. I must.”
“You think you are invincible,” Gus accused her.
“Like you?” Amber taunted her. “Did you not once tell me that? You were an island. A creature alone. No, Gus, I am not a creature alone. But I do what I can. Go. Leave me in peace.”
How she left Amber with the tears streaming from her eyes, Gus did not know. Yet she left.
But by the time she arrived home, she knew with crystal clarity one true thing.
At the door, seeing Corsini, she asked for her husband.
“The library,signora.”
Off she waddled up the stairs, down the hall, into the large, lovely library where her handsome, dashing husband worked.
At the sight of her on the threshold, he shot to his feet. “Are you well?” He rushed forward. “You look terrible. I should have gone with you and—”
She put two fingers to his lips. “No. No. You should not.”
“Tell me what happened,” he said as he helped her to the settee and sat down beside her.
“She will not come with us. She is so stubborn devoting herself to her work. She is noble, foolhardy, and sad.”
Kane lifted her chin. “She does what she must. For many reasons, I daresay, that we know not. Now we must leave her to God.”
“Yes, yes. You are right. But there is something I learned from her. Something I must tell you. And you must listen. You must.” She traced the arc of his cheekbone, the contour of his jaw. “I have not said this, and I must. It is a truth I have come to know in my heart and you must hear it. I must say it.”
Dark fear laced his ice-gray eyes and his hands gripped her. “No. You will not stay in Paris. You will not listen to her.”
“No, no.” She shook her head. “I have shocked you. I don’t mean to. I am not leaving you. Not staying here. I go with you away to wherever you are, wherever you go. And I want to tell you, share with you what I am. But I want to tell you. For all my life, I thought I was a creature alone. An illegitimate child no one wanted. Oh, perhaps I am the Boltons’ child, as it says in the records. But I always doubted it. Still, the idea affected me. I saw, Iperceivedthat I belonged to no one but myself. That I belonged wherever I was. A creature of every place and no place. Everyone’s and no one’s. But I have learned, these past joyful months, that I belong with you. You are my completion.You embody my aspiration and my hope. You are my one and only love, Kane Whittington. I love you, my darling, and I am so happy I have you and you have me.”
He wrapped her close, his words muffled as he buried his lips in her long black hair and said, “At last. You love me at last.”
She pulled back and smiled at him through her tears. “I do. I will. Forevermore.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
