Page 55 of A Fiery Lady's Accidental Affair

Alicia could see his mind racing. His eyes darted about the barn, as though he was trying to collect several thoughts and piece them together into some semblance of truth.

“Why…why would she lie like that?” Laurence asked at last.

“I cannot say,” said Alicia with a helpless shrug. “I have always known her to do this, though. Ever since we were children, the truth has always been anathema to Grace if she could gain any advantage by making up a story. Or even just to deprive another of an advantage she envied.”

“But you are her own sister! She would make up such cruelties just to serve her own selfish whims?”

Now Alicia felt her cheeks spread in a wide, eager smile. “It doesn’t matter anymore, Laurence. Grace can spin her own stories to her heart’s content.” She stepped closer to Laurence, aching to press her body against his, to feel him wrap her up in his strong, thick arms. “Now I am here, and so are you. Nothing else matters. We can let our love bloom in its own time for the rest of our lives together.”

But Laurence once again rebuffed her advances, staggering to an upturned wooden crate and sitting heavily on it. His face was cast in shadow, but Alicia could see he was now crying in earnest. “No. No, don’t you see?” he asked, a tear running down his rugged cheek, a defeated look in his eyes. “Grace is right. Whatever else she may be, your sister is not wrong in this case.”

Alicia drew herself back, suppressing a shudder as she did so. “What do you mean?”

“Alicia, Iamwrong for you!” Laurence blurted. With that he dropped his head between his hands, his body seeming to shrink as he was crushed by the enormity of the tragedy before them. “You and I…we come from different worlds. And as much as I care for you, I cannot ask you to throw away your life out here in the country. You could have so much more than I could ever give you—you could marry any man in London, could live in the most opulent house in the land and have a noble title. Your children could be little barons or dukes or…or something!”

He paused, choking back another sob as he raised his head and set his chin in defiance. “Go back to London, Alicia. There is no noble marriage for you here, no elegant balls, or wealth to keep you in comfort. All you will ever find here is a plot of land and a dilapidated old house that smells of manure. Staying here would mean ruination of your family, your reputation…everything that really matters.”

“Laurence, I—”

Laurence cut her off as he stood abruptly, his muscles tensing as he wiped away an errant tear and crossed his burly arms. “If you ever loved me, Alicia, then do as I say, this once. Go back inside to your room. At first light, you can go back to London and set your life back on its proper track.”

She weighed his words in her mind, trying to consider their implications. Yet as reasonable as everything he brought up would seem to be, Alicia felt each of his objections waft away in the cool night breeze. All that lingered in her mind was an appreciation for how, even at this most miserable moment, Laurence was the comeliest man she had ever laid eyes upon.

And he will be mine, and I his,she thought with growing satisfaction.

Still unsure from where she was conjuring this confidence, Alicia stepped forward and rested a hand on Laurence’s tear-stained cheek. He flinched, then looked down at her, the light of the lantern dancing in his pure blue eyes.

“I will do as you say, Laurence,” she said coolly. “But not until you hear what I have to say.” Laurence regarded her cagily, then nodded, his eyes not leaving hers.

“I may have told you that my parents left me a sizable inheritance to serve as my dowry,” said Alicia, her fingers still brushing admiringly against the man’s cheek. “What I may not have made clear, through modesty or shame, was just how sizable that dowry truly is. It is a fortune, Laurence, far more money than I could spend on my own comfort even if I tried.”

With a scowl, Laurence began to object, “That isn’t what—”

But Alicia cut him off with a stern tap of her finger. “I listened to you. Now you must listen to me.” She waited for him to nod once again before she continued.

“I loathe opera. And balls, and parties. They are the absolutely dullest way a person can spend their time, I find.” This provoked the barest hint of a smile on Laurence’s face. “I cannot bear the thought of living in the same city as my sister, and I have no other living family. I have never met a ‘London gentleman’ who has been anything other than a rank bore. And Mister Woodruff is the most boring of them all!”

Spurred on by the smirk Laurence was fighting to keep from his lips, Alicia stepped closer still and poked him with a finger right in his brawny chest. “Most of all, my ‘reputation’ is something that does not bother me in the slightest. As far as I am concerned, reputation is a thing that only concerns people in London about whom I do not care in the least. I cannot eat my reputation, Laurence—it does not bring me happiness. Only you do that. Only you haveeverdone that.”

Alicia looked up into Laurence’s eyes, which now softened with her every word. “You see, Mister Gillingham, despite your best efforts to be a gentleman, there is in fact no reason in the world why I should not marry you. You should know better than anyone that I had never given a single thought to what I wanted until I came to this farm. And now there is not a single doubt in my mind—I want you. I want to be here, with you, right here in Dunwood, until the end of my days. I want to live a quiet life taking care of the animals at your side, learning about the beauty that has been right here under my nose all my life. I want to marry you and have children with you and grow old and cantankerous with you.”

Laurence gave her a smile of hope and straightened his broad shoulders.

“Now,” Alicia said, feeling tears begin to spring up from some deep part of her. “If you still want me to leave, I will abide by your wishes. But if—”

But whatever she was going to say vanished with the smoke from the lantern as Laurence did what she had hoped he would all along and smothered her words with a deep, passionate kiss.

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