Page 78 of A Lady’s Fairytale Come True
Miss Digby looked up at him, still speechless. The expression on her face continued as one of shock.
He didn’t know what to say next. It had all been so much and telling the story, with as much detail as he could summon from what his grandmother had told him, Nathaniel had exhausted himself.
“Miss Digby, I understand what a shock all of this is. Indeed, I do. I was utterly astounded when my grandmother confessed it to me. But you must know that none of it changes how I feel for you. Indeed, it only makes my love for you stronger because I see how our paths were meant to cross, how we were supposed to come together,” he told her.
In his heart, Nathaniel meant every word of it. And he knew, with absolute certainty that it was true. They were supposed to be together.
Chapter 38
Olivia could scarcely believe it. Was it possible? Could it be true? This fantastical tale had seemed too impossible to be real. After all, how was she supposed to have believed these things about her mother that she had never known?
And yet, the pieces fell into place. The lack of love between her mother and father. The strange dress she had discovered. The mystery of Lady Kirby bringing the two of them together.
Yes, it must be true. However impossible, it had to be.
And knowing that all of this had taken place only served to increase her love for the earl.
Olivia looked at him with the greatest sincerity she could muster and tried to search his eyes. They found hers in return and the two could not look away from one another. She sensed that his love for her was equal to her own, something she might never have fathomed.
“Is it true?” she asked, wanting just a last bit of confirmation from him.
“It is true. At least, it is what my grandmother claims and everything that I have seen, all evidence has supported it. Miss Digby, I am overwhelmed, knowing this story. I imagine that you are as well. Perhaps, if you do not mind, we might be overwhelmed together,” he laughed.
“I think I like that idea very much,” she replied.
Olivia paused in consideration of what it could mean for the two of them. Yes, they were united by something immensely powerful. The love that their parents were never able to have was something that they could now share. It was something they would be afforded that had been sacrificed by her own mother and the late earl.
“Does that mean that you are willing to accept me as a suitor? That we might officially continue our courtship?” he asked.
“Yes, my lord. Of course we can. Nothing should make me happier,” Olivia replied.
She was awestruck that it had all come to this in the end. Olivia knew that love could happen between classes, but it had never been deemed acceptable. Now, here she was, evidence that it could come to pass. She was able to live the life she wished for, with the man she loved. They could finally pursue the romance that was between them.
His grandmother had clearly come to terms with it and had always been the one pushing for it. That meant that they would find no opposition in her. And as for Olivia’s father, he seemed to have come around to appreciating the earl.
There was, of course, the matter of still having to explain to him how Lady Kirby had brought them together.
“What do you think we ought to tell my father?” Olivia asked, biting her lip. She noted the hesitant expression the earl gave her.
“I have wondered the same. Indeed, I almost told him everything when I came to give him the letter. But I did not know how you might feel about it. How do you think he would respond to the information? Would it wound him?”
Olivia nodded before the words came out. “Indeed. I think he would be very hurt to know the truth. It would only provide him with further evidence that he and my mother did not have love between them. I know he knows it already, but it would only be a confirmation for him. He does not need that. He ought to remember her how he wishes.”
It was the truest thing she could think of regarding the matter. Her father deserved to be happy, he deserved to imagine a different version of their love if he wished to, and she believed that he did.
It would surely break his heart to know that she had loved, deeply, a wealthy man long before. It was the love that would hurt his heart, and the wealth that would wound his pride. What’s more, Olivia wondered if it would cause him grief regarding her courtship with the earl to know that his daughter had fallen for the son of the man his wife had loved.
The complexities need not touch him, and Olivia wanted to keep him protected from them all.
“Thank you for telling me the truth about it all,” she said.
“It is the least you deserved. In truth, Miss Digby, I wish that we had known sooner, although I think our own love might not have blossomed so easily had we been aware.”
Olivia nodded. “No, indeed, we would have tried to force an affection had we known. For my part at least, I would have. There never would have been much sense for me to know whether it was truly you I loved or simply an attempt to appease my mother,” she laughed.
“Yes, that was my thought exactly. We might have felt the weight of their love and expected it of ourselves, despite whatever we might truly have felt,” the earl replied.
Olivia smiled and he regarded her in kind. So much had been said. So many things had been divulged and now the truth had been lain before them.
