She squeezed him close. “I have missed you so. I was sure you would want nothing more to do with me after the scandal. I had failed you as a duchess to be the cause of such a scene, but indeed I never meant to cause it. People are so judgmental and see things that are not there. Emrys was in pain, all I did was give him a hug as I might one of my brothers.”
“I know, I know. He explained it all to me and told me I was a blind, stupid idiot! He told me you loved me and that everyone but I could see it.” He held her tight and kissed her hair. “Lannister said the same thing.” He paused and askedthe question that was burning through his chest. “In spite of everything, do you care for him?”
She scanned his face and smiled. “Only as a friend. I know that he cares for me, though. Even so, I told him repeatedly to leave before you arrived. I was afraid if you knew he’d been here you’d find him and hit him—or worse, after what you did to Emrys.”
Robert swallowed the pain he felt listening to that.
She went on, “Can I make you understand? I had no friends in London, Robert. This is your world, not mine. When Daphne betrayed me, I lost my only confidant. Emrys was kind to me, and in his way, so was the earl. I realize I don’t know the proprieties of having friends in society, but—”
“No, I was wrong. Emrys is a good friend to us both, and I promise I will not object to him. Lannister—” He stopped. “Lannister is a man of so different a stamp to me he makes my blood boil. I can’t even pretend to like him.”
“You’re not so different, you know.”
“What?” Robert was thunderstruck.
“The earl is at bottom a gentleman of honor, as you are.”
“He is not! That is precisely my objection to him. He has no honor.”
Sarah just looked at him in silence. Then she said, “When has he broken his word, that you know of?”
Robert blinked. Opened his mouth and shut it. “All right, perhaps he does keep his word, but in every other respect he is nothing like me.”
“No, I suspect he is like your father, andthatis why he makes you so angry,” she said softly.
The image of his sire rose up in his mind’s eye. A big handsome, charming man, who constantly failed to shoulder the responsibilities of his title. His eyes stung as a lump rose in his throat. “Oh God, Sarah, you’re right!”
She wrapped her arms round him, and he clung to her as things fell into place. “I loved my father, but he let us all down, time and again. I had to step up and fill his shoes, look after the rest of them.”
“I know,” she said softly, stroking his hair. She smiled up at him her eyes misty with tears to match his own. “And you did, but it wasn’t fair. You shouldn’t have had to.”
“God, I love you, Sarah.” He hugged her close, overcome with love for her. “I wanted you from the moment I took you in my arms at Almack’s that first night. It has just taken me all this time to realize that you were the woman I’ve been waiting ten years to find.”
Her tremulous smile pierced his chest, and he raised a hand to cup her face and kiss her. A gentle, loving, tender kiss with all his heart in it.
“Sarah, are you sure you can love me, truly?”
“Yes,” she said huskily. “For I have loved you for three years. I am not going to stop now.”
Postscript
“The Earl ofLannister.”
Madeleine looked up from the lady’s magazine she was flipping through, startled. Flustered, she rose, “My lord.” His expression lacked its usual humor. Her heart quailed.
He waited until the door had closed upon her butler before he said, “I understand we have some unfinished business?” His tone was silky but not in a pleasant way. She shivered. For the first time in her adult life, she was afraid of what a man might do. Being under the duke’s protection had made her forget what that felt like.
“I—”
“Was your opinion of me so low that you thought I would shirk responsibility for my own child? Or was it sheer avarice, the duke being a bigger golden goose?”
“No!” she said, wriggling with distress and guilt. “I wanted him back. I thought—” She shook her head. “I was a fool. It was a stupid thing to do.”
“Yes, it was. And extremely selfish. You hurt two innocent people in the process.”
Her mouth fell open in surprise.
“No, not me. The duke and duchess.”
