“I know,” she whispered, watching him with an expression he could not read as he was too far away to see the colour of her eyes.
“Why are you standing over there?” she asked absently, as if noticing for the first time he had not approached her.
“I think, right now, you need to come to me.”
Her body froze as she realised what he was asking and the importance of it. And he waited with a great deal of trepidation as she made up her mind.
“Halfway?” she suggested.
“No,” Colin stated implacably. He was who he was, he wasn’t going to change. She was who she was, he had no desire to change her. Perhaps protect her from her own good intentions, but not change her.
She nodded, turned back to the window and sighed. It was in that moment, he thought he’d lost and the very idea of it nearly drove him across the room.
But he stood his ground.
He needed her to accept him as he was.
“Do you have time for lunch?” she asked the window, still not moving toward him, her shoulders held straight and tense.
“No,” he answered honestly again.
“I didn’t think so,” she whispered.
It was then she turned and, without hesitation, she walked straight to him. She put her hands on either side of his waist when she arrived and tilted her head to his.
His relief was so great, his arms closed around her with stunning force and he pulled her to his body. Then he buried his face in her neck and smelled the same scent of lilies he’d smelled when he first admitted he wanted her that morning in Lacybourne.
“I suppose I should let you get back to work,” she murmured.
He lifted his head and she smiled, it was not a full-fledged Sibyl smile but it told him everything he needed to know.
It was then, after all their misunderstandings and distrust and across the great expanse of difference in their personalities and upbringing, that he found, finally, she was truly and completely his.
And Colin felt such an immense satisfaction that it overwhelmed him.
Hiding it from her in order not to frighten her, he brushed her mouth with a light kiss and she laid her hand on his cheek.
“At least I don’t feel so guilty about the fifty thousand anymore. Obviously, you can afford it.” Her voice was hesitantly teasing.
He was so relieved laughter erupted from him with the force of thunder.
Outside his office, his London secretary lifted and turned her head at the amazing, heretofore unknown, sound coming from her boss’s office. She had been told that should a Miss Godwin phone, she was to be put through immediately, no matter what. Apparently, after the many before her, this woman had found her way into Colin Morgan’s cold, unyielding heart.
His secretary wasn’t at all surprised, she was a beauty (of course) but she also had the sweetest smile.
* * * * *
The evening was spent in easy, but loud, camaraderie with the Godwins, Phoebe and Mike, Claire, her husband Jack and their two young children, Colin’s brother Tony and his wife, Ellen. Tony and Ellen found Sibyl and the Godwins just as enchanting as the rest of the family seemed to do.
After, Colin took Sibyl and her family back to Paddington Station to catch the last train to Yatton. Before allowing her through the ticket machines, he engaged her in a full-fledged, back-bending, passionate kiss that granted him a gleaming smile of unadulterated approval from her mother.
* * * * *
That had been Colin’s last two weeks with Sibyl.
Now, he pulled up outside her cottage and alighted from his car, seeing around him the flowers of full spring blooming everywhere. He opened the door and entered, responding to easy calls of greeting from Bertie and Scarlett who were both sitting in the living room. Scarlett had given him her full blessing somewhere along the way and her behaviour was no longer sardonic but almost cheery (or as cheery as Scarlett could get). Mallory charged him but skidded to a halt at the last moment, planted his bottom on the floor and licked Colin’s hand in welcome.
Sibyl walked in from the kitchen, holding Bran upside down in her arms, the cat’s feet dangling uselessly up in the air, his tail twitching angrily over her arm. The cat turned a baleful glare at Colin, promising later retribution at this grievous affront to his feline dignity.