Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Oh dear. It would never do.
“Lord August,” she said, her voice as brisk as her walk. “There’s no chance of my marrying you unless you promised you would not spank me again. Or at least, not very often. Perhaps once or twice a year, at most.”
“There’s no way I’m promising that. Why, I’d like to spank you right now. And you’d appreciate it afterward,” he said, ignoring her small gasp, “because you’d be thinking clearly again. You want to be married, and I’m offering marriage. I’m a mostly civilized gentleman, and very well off. I do love you, Lisbet.”
“As you love Felicity?”
She dared a look at him, saw his eyes widen, his nostrils flare. He composed himself quickly, not missing a step.
“Your father brought up Felicity with me, and I told him what I’ll tell you. That obsession is done and past. She’s blissfully married with lovely children, and I’m happy she’s happy. This is not about Felicity. This is about you.”
Elizabeth didn’t know what to do. She liked August, even loved him, as he loved her through their longtime acquaintance and family connection. She wanted to be married, but she’d pictured some unknown prospect, someone who came to her as a suitor, not a friend.
“I’m overwrought,” she said, her voice softening. “I just don’t know. What if our marriage is a failure?”
“We can’t be more a failure than the gentlemen who’ve come before me.”
It was a pointed reminder that she was out of options. She hated him for saying it aloud, but she loved him too, for offering to save her. She looked down at her hand on his strong, steady arm.
A dark-featured knight, tousled as if coming from battle. The possibility of violence. The solid stance.
Protection.
Those were fantasies, memories of ancient legends. The keep behind her was ancient, as were these gardens, these grounds. She’d come to this magical, ancestral place to be married…
A tremble ran through her as she remembered something else: her sure feeling that August must come to Wales, that he was meant to meet his destiny in a woman here. Was she that woman?
Her gifts were many and mysterious. She hated it when they spooked her.
“You can’t say no at this point,” said August, stopping to face her. “There are a hundred people watching us from the windows. I’ll never outlive the shame and embarrassment if I’m denied in front of all of them.”
“I was denied in front of all of them,” she said, holding his gaze. “I survived.”
“Elizabeth.”
There was a world of feeling in the way he uttered her name. Sympathy, poignancy. Exasperation.
“There is a rightness to it,” he said, as the sun’s scrutiny bore down on them. “We’ve both had our hearts broken.”
“Yes, and I don’t think I can bear it to happen again.”
“Nor can I. Say yes to me. We’ll protect one another.”
“But our friendship—” she pleaded. “What if it’s ruined?”
“It won’t be ruined. We’ll figure things out. We’ll make everything work.” He sighed. “I’ve wanted to get married, Elizabeth. My friends are all married now, so I need to marry too, but I wasn’t sure how to carry it all out. Now I know. The choice, in some way, is being made for us by…” He waved a hand in the air. “By whatever makes choices and fates.”
She looked at the space he sketched with his waving hand, saw possibilities in that whirl of air.
“It’s a bit arranged, yes,” he went on. “Your parents sent you out here, and I was given my marching orders. But I do care for you deeply. It’s not entirely forced.”
He persisted, convincing her, fighting for her. It was so stolid of him. So unselfish. Her eyes filled with tears.
“Of course I will have you,” she said. “Oh, August. Of course I will marry you, but you may live to regret it.”
“Never.”
He opened his arms, and she turned to him, into the solid expanse of his chest. He held her, his gloved fingers curving against the back of her neck where her bonnet didn’t quite meet her cape’s collar. Their onlookers must be smiling. Her parents would be relieved, thinking this a problem solved.
But it would bring more problems. She and August would need to learn how to relate to one another in an entirely new way. She became aware of his size as he held her, the broad strength of his body. She knew that strength, from his spankings if nothing else. She was as frightened as she was ecstatic. She was going to be August’s wife.
“It will be all right,” he murmured, and she realized she was weeping, her face buried against the front of his coat. “We’ll do it today. Tonight. We’ll have them put the decorations back up in the church. You deserve a beautiful wedding, to someone who loves you just as you are.”