Page 44 of The Duke's Improper Bride
Nora had no idea where to start now that she had rescued Danny.
“I’ll have the papers drawn up if you wish,” Isaac said, joining her on the balcony. “I hadn’t the chance before I left to find you. I needed to know you were safe.”
She shut her eyes at the pain that rang through her heart and grasped the railing.
“I don’t want an annulment,” Nora said softly into the night.
He leaned against the railing, inches from touching her. Oh, how she wished he would take her in his arms. Had he missed her as much as she had missed him?
“You won’t have to return to your parents. I’ll see that you’re comfortable and have a place of your choosing. Another house in Scotland, perhaps? Something quiet and in the country, a house in the mountains.”
She nodded, tears welling in her eyes. He loved her enough to set her free, to allow her to hide, but it was much too late. She had found her voice in Ireland. She had discovered that she was braver than she had ever imagined.
“I’m sorry I doubted you.” She faced Isaac. “I never should have doubted you. I wouldn’t be h-here now without your help.”
After a silence stretched between them for a moment too long, he reached for her hand and held it in his before drawing it up to his lips. He kissed the top of her hand, then opened her palm and placed the sweetest, gentlest kiss inside as if it were a secret she was to keep.
“I should have done more.”
She shook her head. “I was scared and i-impatient, and I knew the longer we waited, the worse Danny’s condition could become. I couldn’t lose him.”
But have I lost you?
In the night’s inky darkness, her husband’s features were impossibly handsome.
“I was scared, Isaac. Of you, of London, for Danny. And I was tired of others dismissing me.”
“And I’m the worst sort of human for wishing for just one more day with you, one more stolen hour, before we had to parade through London. I was selfish.”
“More than that. We weren’t honest with e-each other.”
“I owe you…well, I don’t know where to start. It’s a long story perhaps for another time, far from this. I hoped that by not telling you, then it no longer had to be a part of my life. But my family will always have a duty to the crown.”
Nora closed the distance between them, her body weary, and stood toe to toe with him. Still, he towered over her. She gazed up, losing herself to those green eyes of his—home, she thought—Isaac was home.
“I knew you’d find me.”
“Always.”
He became so still, holding his breath as her soft hands cupped his face.
“I love you,” she said.
She supposed she should have worked out something far grander to say, something poetic and beautiful, something sweeping. Surely, he had swept her off her feet. Every good man deserved the same.
But his lips came down to hers in a sweet benediction, and simple was enough. She was enough. And Isaac had given her that gift.
When they parted, Nora gazed up at Isaac. “Husband mine?”
“Hmm?” He smiled at her, his hands running through her hair. “Say it again.”
“I love y-you.”
His smile broadened.
“Take me to bed.”
He leaned down and kissed the column of her neck as he grabbed her hand. “Thought you’d never ask.”
