Page 81 of Romancing the Rifleman
Ignoring her, Marcus took a step forward, and Harrington shrank back.It fell to Diana to pull on his arm so he did not retreat into the wall of a nearby booth.“Why do you not do the decent thing for once in your life and leave my sister alone?”
Harrington swallowed, and his eyes were defeated as he said, “Because I love her.”
Marcus frowned.“Because you… youwhat?”
Harrington spoke to Marcus, but his eyes, which were full of sorrow, were fixed on Diana.“I love her.I know I shouldn’t have done, but…” He waved a hand.“How could I help myself?I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but your sister is incredible.She’s perfect.She’s”—he ran a hand over his face—“everything I’ve ever wanted.”
Diana stepped closer to him, pressing his arm.“I love you, too, Harrington,” she said softly.
She wasn’t sure if he heard, for he continued, “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for her.I’d crawl through the mud.I’d step in front of a bullet.I’d dress in motley and perform jests if she asked it of me.”Blinking, he shifted his gaze to Marcus.“What I’m trying to say is, I don’t have the strength to leave her.Frankly, I don’t understand why she wants me around, either.But as long as she does, I’m going to be right here.With her.”
Diana had heard enough.Harrington’s speech had left her feeling elated and frustrated in equal measures.Elated because his feelings for her were everything she could have hoped, a perfect echo of what she felt for him.But frustrated because, in spite of her reassurances to the contrary, he persisted in believing that he was unworthy of her.
Something was going on.She suspected it went deeper than all those childhood pranks he had played on her brother.
She meant to get to the bottom of it.Today.
Tightening her arm around Harrington’s, she pulled him toward the main street.“Come, husband.We have things to discuss.”
Marcus started to follow them, but Diana rounded on him, jabbing a finger in his chest.“I cannot stand the sight of you right now!Go back to… wherever it is you’ve been staying.”
“With Lord Bandon,” Marcus supplied.
Diana sighed.How like Marcus, to show up on the local lord’s doorstep, expecting to be accommodated, and for the local lord to be delighted.“IfI am able to set aside my ire, I will summon you tomorrow.”
“Diana!”
She could hear Marcus shouting behind her.She ignored him.
She meant to resolve whatever it was that was troubling Harrington, once and for all.
Chapter42
Harrington was silent as Diana marched him back to their cottage as efficiently as any general in the British Army.
He was dreading the conversation to come.They hadthings to discuss, according to his wife.Damned if those were words any man wanted to hear.Still, he didn’t see how he could avoid the conversation other than making a run for it and hiding behind a tree, which seemed unbecoming for an officer and a gentleman, to say nothing of a man of nine and twenty.
So instead, he allowed his petite wife to drag him down the lane and propel him through the cottage door to face his doom.
Sunday was Maeve’s day off, so they had the cottage to themselves.Diana let Inge out into the back garden, then whirled to face him.
Harrington cleared his throat.Maybe if he ignored the problem, it would magically go away.“Are you hungry?Would you like me to?—”
“Harrington.”It was just his name, but she said it with a sharpness that he secretly liked, one that let him know she wasn’t here for any of his nonsense.She regarded him cooly with crossed arms and still blue eyes.“Would you care to explain whatthatwas about?”
No, thank you.It was God’s honest truth, not that it mattered a whit.It was the wrong answer, and well did he know it.
This called for a diversion.“You mean the part where I said I loved you?”He swallowed, because this was only a mite less nerve-wracking.“I do.I’ve been trying to work up the courage to tell you.I’m sorry I did it in front of your?—”
“And I love you, too,” she said in that voice that brooked no argument.
He would have thought hearing those words fall from her lips would fill him with elation.But he would have been wrong, although perhaps there was a sliver of joy mixed in with the queasiness.
“But,” Diana continued, and he suppressed a groan.He’d knownthere was abut.“We will discuss that after we have resolved the issue at hand.”
“Right.”He was rapidly running out of options.“What, exactly, is that, again?”
She seized his hand in a surprisingly strong grip for a girl who looked like she could be the model for one of those frilly porcelain figurines ladies liked to put on the mantelpiece and dragged him to the sofa.
