Page 65 of The Lady and the Footballer
He knew she didn’t just mean tonight but every night to come.
“I was trying not to worry about that,” he said wryly, lifting his head to rest it on his hand. “What are you thinking?”
“I am thinking about how I will never feel for another man what I feel for you,” she said, her eyes dipping down for a moment before lifting to meet his once more. “I am thinking about how I would love nothing more than to be with you in truth. I would have no problem leaving behind all that I know, Colin. None of it is worth what I could have with you.” He opened his mouth to respond, but she lifted her finger and gently placed it against his lips before he could say anything. “I know that you believe I don’t know what I am saying and would not enjoy the life you could offer me, but that is where you arewrong. I know what I would be giving up. I do. And I am ready for it.”
“I sense a ‘but’.”
“But if I leave my family, I do not know what my father will do to you. He would probably force you out of your job, away from the team. You would have to give up everything.”
“I would easily give it all up and leave it behind if I were the only one affected, which I could never ask you to do,” he said, to which she nodded in understanding.
Still, his heartbeat seemed to slow as he imagined what his life could look like—of Lily with him everyday, waiting for him when he returned home. But home from where? He knew she was right. Her father would never forgive either of them if he took Lily from them.
He had been over this again and again.
“Perhaps I try to find somewhere else to work.”
“The only other mill nearby is Lord Montgomery’s, which would no longer be an option, for Lord Nathaniel knows who you are and what you have done.”
“I would never want to work for a man like that, anyway,” he said bitterly. “There are other types of factories, or we could move elsewhere.”
“What about your family?”
He sighed, rubbing his brow. “Perhaps they would come along.”
But they wouldn’t want to leave the only place they had called home. Theywoulddo it for him, but at what cost?
“We will find a way,” he said. He had no idea how, but the thought of being without her was nearly too much to bear. “I will find us a way. I promise.”
She snuggled in close to him, and he wrapped his arms around her once more, even as he wondered how he would ever keep his word to her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Lily practically skipped into the house through the garden doors in the early morning hours. She planned to sneak back in as she had the previous time she had entered late.
But this time, she wasn’t so lucky.
She was halfway across the library when she abruptly stopped at the sight of her father standing in the doorway.
“Lily Evans, where have you been, and what are you doing?”
Together, she and Colin had done their best to reassemble her clothing and hair, but she still did not look as polished as she did when her lady’s maid put her together. They had laughed, mostly at Colin’s look of disbelief that she wore this to every event, in every type of weather, even if it was to sit at home.
She was no longer laughing.
“Does it matter?” she asked her father, lifting her arms to the sides. “You have already determined my fate. What will you do now, lock me in my room?”
“That might be my only option.”
She prayed he was joking.
“Lily,” he said, the anger fading somewhat, showing her the man he could sometimes be, when he gave her the time. “I don’t want it to be like this between us. But you haven’t left me muchchoice. You cannot sneak out of the house, running around who knows where with God knows whom. Do you know what you are doing to yourself?
“I do not want to do this either, Father,” she said, her exasperation equal to his. “But you are not allowing me to be who I want to be or be with the person I want to be with.”
“Which is who?”
“I cannot say.”
