Page 21 of The Earl and the Vixen
“What?” she asked, lifting her head to look at him. “You did. Why are you doing this?”
He shook head, agony written on his features. “I didn’t.”
She climbed off the bed and dug around in her trunk until she returned with the crumpled piece of parchment,the one she had read thousands of times, which would remind him of the pain and destruction he had caused since he seemed to have forgotten. She shoved it into his hands.
He stood and unfolded the paper, holding it closer to the candle. She watched his pained expression and slumped shoulders as he read the missive. “I didn’t write this, Eliza. Where did you get this?”
“My father gave it…” her voice trailed off before the realization washed over her face. “I can’t believe this.” She shook, and a heart-wrenching sob escaped her body. How could their fathers have done this to her? To them?
Nick rushed to her and wrapped his arms around her. “I never stopped loving you, sweetheart, I promise.”
“I…I don’t know what to think.”
He eyed the missive again. “You have carried this with you for three years?”
She sighed and tears streamed down her cheeks. “I needed it to remind me why I was foolish to love you and why I could never give my heart to another.” Eliza had taken it with her everywhere she went and read it more times than she would ever admit. Part of her carried it with her because it was all she had from him and the only reminder that what they had shared had really happened.
Nick embraced her again. “I have always loved you, Eliza.”
She pushed back from him. The whole situation still made little sense. “Why didn’t you come for me? Why didn’t you meet me at the hunting cabin?”
“I came to call on you earlier that day for tea. I couldn’t wait until that evening to see you,” he said, reaching out to take her hand in his. “Your butler told me you had left for London.”
“So you just gave up and never tried to see me again? You just walked away?” she asked, trying to pull her hand from his, but he gripped it tighter.
“I left for town a quarter hour after I heard you had left. I hoped to catch up with you on the road, to no avail. Then, when I finally arrived, I went straight to your family’s townhouse. Your butler there said you didn’t wish to see me.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, and he sat beside her. Her father had their servants in on his deception. Servants she would have believed she could trust. “I can’t believe this.”
“I went back to your townhouse every day for weeks, begging your butler to have you see me. I tried to break into your house but was caught and thrown out. I left notes for you and I sent you flowers. At the start of the season, I went to every event and searched for you in every ballroom, hoping to find you there to make you speak with me.”
“I didn’t go to Town for the season,” she said, sighing. “I delayed my come out a year because I was too miserable and heartbroken to attend society events. I just stayed in my room and missed you. Hating and chastising myself for missing someone who I believed never loved me.”
She couldn’t control her sobs, and he pulled her close, rubbing her back as her shoulders shook. “If my father weren’t already dead, I might kill him,” he said.
“Why your father?” she asked, wiping her eyes with her hand. “My father must have done this. He had our entire household in on the deception. I can’t believe he would break his own daughter’s heart over something as frivolous as a stream.” She couldn’t imagine hatred and bad blood being so strong to ruin your own flesh and blood.
“I don’t believe he acted alone,” Nick said. “That letter you received is in my father’s hand. The only reason I stopped trying to find you is because my father told me after a couple months of my endless search for you that you had married. I didn’t even ask to whom. Ockham was in Italy, so with a broken heart, I left the next day so I wouldn’t risk seeing you with your husband.”
She touched his cheek, realizing how hurt they had both been these last few years. “When you saw me here, you asked where my husband was. I thought you werebeing cruel and mocked how I believed you would marry me,” she said. “I’m sorry I said such awful things to you.”
“Please don’t apologize. I will never forgive myself for falling into their trap or for the unforgivable things I also said to you,” he said, holding her tight in his arms. “I love you, Eliza. I always have, and I always will.”
“I love you, too, Nick.” She nuzzled his neck. She had never stopped loving him either, but she just hadn’t been willing to admit it to herself. Believing it made her a fool with no self-respect for loving a man who could discard her so easily, but like some sort of Shakespearean tragedy, they both loved and longed for each other every day they had been apart.
He released her and slid off the bed to kneel before her. He took her hands in his and looked up at her, locking on her gaze. “Lady Eliza Nelson, will you please marry me? I will spend every single day of our lives making up for the time we lost and every tear you shed believing my heart didn’t ache for you.”
“I want nothing more in this world than to be your wife, Lord Nicholas Craven.”
He rose and pulled her to him. She needed his kiss the same as she required air in her lungs. She sank into him, and they fit together perfectly, the same as they had from their very first kiss.
“We shall depart tomorrow,” he said. “Our hosts will understand once we explain things to them. We can get a special license and marry right away.”
“Yes, I don’t wish to wait any longer than is required,” she said. “It’s just…”
“What, my love?” he asked. “What is it?”
She laid her head on his shoulder. “I don’t believe I should wish to see my papa again. I don’t think I can forgive him for what he did. For whatever part he played in this scheme.” How could she be expected to face the man after what he had done to them? She wasn’t certain that she or Nick could do so without inflicting bodily harm.
