The Consolation Prize (Brides of Karadok #3) - Alice Coldbreath Page 0,122
own father was, that much I do know.” She took a deep breath. “You did not want to win my hand, but once you had done so, you were unfailingly kind—”
He rolled into her again, pulling her roughly into his arms. “Don’t talk like that,” he said heavily.
“Like what?”
“About being unwanted. I want you alright.”
“Now you do,” she agreed. “But at the time—”
He gave her a slight shake. “Stop it. I don’t want to hear those words on your lips again.” He paused heavily. “Or that I’m a cheat. That’s all in the past.”
She regarded him thoughtfully. “It had better be,” she said serenely. “I don’t know how you could have continued to disappoint the King like that, when you knew full well, he was rooting for you to win.”
“I don’t give a damn about Wymer,” he said, frankly. “The only thing he’s ever done worth noting was bestow you on me.”
“Well, you can’t return me to King Wymer now, for I won’t go.”
He stared at her. “I wouldn’t let you go!” he thundered.
“And for all we know, there could already be a baby in my belly,” she continued as though he had not spoken. “And I don’t want to hear anything about how you will make a terrible father, and if you dare to go flinging off in a panic when it happens, I warn you, I will be furious with you!”
He stared down at her with a fulminating stare. “Is that what you think of me?”
“It is what you think of yourself, Armand,” she responded quietly.
He paused at that. “I am only thinking of what we will tell any children that arrive,” he said gruffly.
“What will we tell our children?” she prompted hopefully.
“We will tell our children,” said Armand gravely, “that their father was a useless scoundrel until their mother came along and took him in hand. We will tell them I couldn’t find my form until she was cheering me on, and we’ll tell them that the gods answered his unspoken prayers that day, when he won her hand.”
Una swallowed. “So, you do not mean to abandon me here at Lynwode?” she asked carefully. “While you go off adventuring to find the hidden Northern treasure?”
His eyes flared. “I had forgotten all about that cursed treasure. It is hardly uppermost in my mind. It has likely been dug up already, but if I ever do get the notion to venture North, then we will go adventuring together, wife. You are the only treasure I care about or need to be content in this life.”
“And you will take me with you? To the tournaments you attend as well?”
“Have you not been listening?” His tone was a little testy.
Una inclined her head. “I have,” she said quietly. “Most assiduously. Yet you have not spoken the words I most long to hear.”
He looked at her blankly a moment, then a dark flush scored across his cheekbones. “Why am I such an idiot when it comes to you?” he marveled, lifting his hands from where they gripped her upper arms to cup her face. “Una de Bussell, do you not know that your husband worships the ground you walk on? Not because of your birthright, but because of you, the only woman who ever captured my heart.”
Her face broke out in a smile. “It seems I do not mind fulsome speeches when you talk of such things,” she admitted. “And I love you,” she said simply. “Though I think you already knew that.”
He looked rueful. “I hoped you might. Both hoped and feared,” he admitted. “In equal parts.”
“You are not going to let me down, Armand,” she told him firmly, placing her own hands on either side of his face.
“No, I know I’m not.” He covered her hands with his own and turned one over to kiss the palm. “Though I don’t know how you can know that, going on past form.”
“Going on past form, you have never let me down,” she said staunchly, before adding conscientiously, “Even if that might have been your original intent.”
“Una,” he whispered. “I love you so, and I really don’t deserve you at all.”
Her chest felt like it would burst, as her eyes filled with tears. “I love you too, but I feel like I do deserve you. You are my reward and I mean to savor you for the rest of my life.”
He caught his breath at that and just gazed at her, quite open and sincere for a long moment. Una tipped her head