me I’d once been a better man than the man I’d become. I fell in love with you because you dropped the coal scuttle in my bedchamber and shook me awake, and I’ve been awake ever since, and because you sing bawdy songs to Isabella, and because you love and protect her. I fell in love with you because you believed in me, Cecilia. Do you still believe in me?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “I’ve always believed in you, Gideon.”
He tipped her chin up and gazed into her eyes. “Can you forgive me for letting you go, and for hurting you? I never should have said those things to you. I was cruel, and worse, I was a coward.”
“You weren’t a coward.” Her dark eyes turned fierce. “You were afraid, Gideon. It’s not the same.”
“I was afraid, yes. Afraid I wasn’t worthy of you, or that I’d fail you somehow, but I’m not afraid of anything anymore, except losing you, Cecilia. I can’t lose you, sweetheart.”
“You haven’t lost me, Gideon,” Cecilia whispered, laying her hand on his chest. “I’m right here.”
Love and gratitude swelled inside Gideon, nearly bringing him to his knees. He leaned closer, hovering his lips over hers. “May I kiss you?”
“Yes.” She gave him a shy smile. “I really think you must.”
It started as a sweet, chaste kiss, but her scent and the taste of her soft mouth soon had him wild. He swept his tongue between her parted lips with a groan, and she returned his kisses with a passion that set his blood on fire. “You told me you loved me once, Cecilia,” he murmured. “Do you love me still?”
“Yes,” she choked out on a sob. “So much, Gideon.”
He slid his lips down her throat, groaning when she arched her neck in offering. “Marry me, Cecilia. Become my marchioness. Come back to Darlington Castle with me, and help Isabella and me make it a home again.”
“Yes.” She pressed closer, stroking the skin at the back of his neck until he eased away from her, afraid her teasing caresses would drive him so mad he’d forget himself.
“Does Isabella truly miss me?” Cecilia asked, when he drew away.
Gideon traced his thumb over her lower lip. “Very much, yes. Every day she demands to know when you’re coming back, and every night she becomes cross with me because I don’t know all the words to ‘The Fair Maid of Islington.’”
Cecilia laughed. “Oh, dear. I’ll teach it to you, if you like.”
“I would,” he whispered, touching his forehead to hers. “I’d like it more than anything.”
Epilogue
Darlington Castle, Edenbridge
Three months later
The sunrise peeked through the canopy of trees, dappling the patch of ground with its gentle rays. Cecilia sat with her knees drawn up and her head resting on top of them, enjoying the warmth on her back and the stillness surrounding her.
“It’s different here,” she said at last, her quiet voice breaking the lingering silence. She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of freshly thawed earth and tender new grass, and a wry smile drifted over her lips. “If you’d told me I’d grow to love this place one day, I’d have said you were mad, but it’s like another world here in the spring.”
She’d taken this same walk every morning for the past week, since she and Gideon had returned to Darlington Castle. They’d intended to remain in London until next year, or at least until the repairs on the eastern wing of the castle were completed, but…well, it was strange the way one grew to love a place—to long for it, even when the joyful memories were inextricably tied to the tragic ones.
“But it’s never too late, is it?” Cecilia turned her head, pillowing her cheek on her knees, and opened her eyes. “Never too late to make more happy memories.”
A soft breeze caught her words and carried them into the trees above, waking the birds dozing on the branches, who began a startled warbling.
“He’s happy again.” Cecilia raised the bouquet of white roses in her hand to her nose, breathed in their sweet scent, then nestled them at the base of the white marble headstone beside her. “Not in the same way he was when he was yours, but happy still. You gave that chance to him…to us. Neither of us will ever forget that, Cassandra. We won’t ever forget you.”
Cecilia remained where she was for a while longer, then rose to her feet and dusted the dirt from the back of her dress, anxious to return