Page 125 of Courting Scandal With The Duke
He regarded her for several long moments. ‘Despite how little I like the fellow, I think there is a good chance they are rightfully his.’
She let go a breath. ‘Father cheated.’
He nodded.
‘So I will be penniless.’
‘Not if we wed.’
The words took her breath away. Her heart filled with joy for one brief wonderful second. Realitybrought her down to earth. After all she had done, how could she let him sacrifice his reputation?
‘No. Xavier. I could never be the sort of proper duchess you want. You know I could not.’
He grasped her hand in his and would not release it, though his touch was gentle, it was exceedingly firm.
‘I do not want a proper duchess,’ he said. ‘I want you.’ He shook his head ruefully.
‘That did not come out the way I meant it.’
He slipped off the sofa to kneel on one knee, kissed the back of her hand briefly and gazed into her face.
As he spoke, his voice became husky with emotion and his eyes were sincere and open and full of love. ‘You are therightduchess for me. You are kind and generous and loving. You are clever. You make me laugh at myself. You make me see the world with kinder eyes. I need that. I have been angry too long. I want to be happy.’
She peered into his eyes. ‘You aren’t angry any longer?’
‘All this time, I was angry at my father for marrying my stepmother. She took him from me first, because he loved her and then because he died trying to save her life. I never forgave him for dying. He should have stayed with me instead of following her.’
‘She made him happy.’
‘More so than my mother, who was by all account shy and very reserved. My stepmother was vibrant and young and yes, reckless. But she made him happy. Happier than I made him. I resented her for that, bitterly. Until I met you. Now I know what he felt for her. I wantthat.’ He hesitated. ‘But only if you want it as well. If you do not then I will arrange for you to live comfortably wherever you desire. No strings attached, I promise, and you would never have to see me again, even though I know it would break my heart to lose you.’
Hehadcome for her last night. The only person in her life to come to see if she was all right. The only person to offer her protection without expectation. How could she not want him? She loved him.
But for him to marry her… ‘You will be ruined. After what I did, I will bepersona non grata.’
‘Ruined? No. I will be a new man. A happy man. And to the devil with Society. I don’t care a damn what they think. I need you, Barbara.’
Emotion filled her eyes with foolish tears. She could not speak around the hot hard lump that had lodged in her throat.
‘I need you too, Xavier,’ she managed to say.
‘I love you,’ he said.
‘ButIlove you too well to—’
He touched a finger to her lips. ‘Don’t. If I lose you now I have finally found you, I don’t know what I will do.’
‘Oh,’ she whispered. It was the nicest, sweetest thing she had ever heard. How could she deny her feelings any longer?
‘I love you,’ she said. ‘I love you terribly, awfully, wonderfully. But best of all, I trust you.’ For the first time in her life, she had someone she could trust.
He kissed her.
Epilogue
‘The carriage is waiting, Your Grace,’ the butler announced when the wedding breakfast had been cleared away.
‘Shall we?’ Xavier asked his bride. Barbara looked radiant in a gown the colour of a summer sky. The diamond tiara gleaming on her brow did not sparkle as brilliantly as her eyes when she smiled at him.
