Page 127 of The English Duke
“I want to marry you because I want to marry you,” he said.
She only stared at him.
“Although I admit I wasn’t certain it was you in my bed until last night. I kept seeing you in my dreams. It makes sense now why, but not at the time. I thought I was just longing for you.”
The most wonderful thing about this moment was that she wasn’t imagining it.
“You told my grandmother you loved me.”
“I believe I made the declaration to the entire church,” he said.
Her heart was beating so fiercely surely he could hear it. The birds flying overhead could probably hear it, too, looking downward for that strange thudding noise.
When he extended his leg slightly, she glanced at it.
“How are you feeling?”
“Remarkably well, considering I’ve had little sleep.”
She could feel the blush creeping up to her neck. Should he really be commenting about that?
She glanced away, feeling as if she’d become someone else in the past few minutes. She wasn’t entirely certain she knew who this Martha York was. Surely she wasn’t this tongue-tied, silly creature who felt inept and incapable of speech?
“Despite the fact I announced it to the whole of the church,” he said, “I didn’t say it directly to you. Martha York, I love you.”
That announcement certainly didn’t make it easier to speak.
She could only stare at him. “Oh, Jordan.”
He hadn’t expected Martha to be terrified by his announcement.
She stared at him wide-eyed. Nor did she say a word in the next few minutes, the silence stretching out long enough to worry him.
All he had to offer her was a title and an albatross of a house. He suspected she didn’t care about titles and Sedgebrook didn’t seem to fascinate her, not as it had Josephine.
“Do you think me an invalid?”
He studied her eyes, certain he would be able to tell when she was lying. She was open about her emotions, something else differentiating her from her sister. Josephine used what she felt to manipulate other people. Martha didn’t.
To his surprise, she frowned at him.
“Why on earth would I think you an invalid? Because of your leg?”
He nodded, once.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I might always limp.”
She tilted her head and regarded him, still with a frown. What did she see when she looked at him? He found he wanted to know. Or perhaps it would be better if he didn’t.
“Does it matter to you?” she asked.
“It simply is. The fact does not require me to approve it or not. But it might be distressing to those around me.”
“Do you think people would call you names or whisper behind your back?”
“I’ve known a great many kinds of people, Martha. I don’t doubt they’d come up with a name for me. Something like the Damaged Duke, for example.”
