With impeccable timing, the trellis climbing up the outsideof the wall to their left began to jump, and a man slowly began to heave himself up onto the top of the wall. Isolde and James watched in stunned silence.
“Clayton,” Isolde said, feeling that she ought to be more surprised. “What are you doing here?”
Clayton, out of breath and a little dishevelled, straddled the top of the wall, and glanced down at them. There was a twig in his hair.
“James invited me,” he answered. “I want to talk to you about what happened.”
Isolde shot her brother a glare. “I see. And any particular reason why you’re climbing over our garden wall?”
“I didn’t think I’d be allowed in the front door.”
This was a fair point. Isolde sighed. “And what if I don’t want to talk to you?”
“Well, that is your prerogative, of course. I’d leave, naturally. However, I would like you to decide whether you want to talk to me or not before I drop down, if that’s all the same to you. It’s a taller wall than I expected, and once I drop in, I’m not sure I can climb back out again.”
There was a short silence while Isolde thought this over.
“What exactly are you going to tell me, then?”
“I think I owe you a hefty apology. Several, in fact.”
Isolde swallowed hard. The sensible thing to do, she knew quite well, would be to politely thank him for his apology and tell him to go away.
But then, she hadn’t made too many sensible decisions over the past few days, so why bother starting now?
“Very well,” she replied. “You may descend. James, if you would be so kind as to remove yourself, I require a moment with Clayton. You have five minutes.”
He dropped nimbly down, and it was hard not to be impressed. She noticed that while he was wearing sturdy bootsand a sensible suit, he had paired it with a lime green and canary yellow waistcoat that was frankly hurting her eyes to look at.
James shuffled away, glancing over his shoulder at them. Isolde waited until he disappeared around a corner before she spoke.
“Do you have any idea how much you’ve humiliated me?” she said at last.
Clayton hung his head. “I have an idea. I know that a simply sorry isn’t going to fix anything. It was wrong of me to take the wager, and every day I let slip by without ending it made me into more and more of a coward, and less and less of a gentleman. I’m disgusted with myself, truly I am. I don’t deserve your forgiveness – or indeed, anything from you – but I came here because I had to tell you the truth.”
“The truth?” she echoed. “Some honesty would be nice.”
He drew in a breath. “I love you, Isolde. I never thought I’d fall in love. I thought I was above it, I think. I never knew a happy marriage when I was a child, and I suppose it just made sense to avoid it. And then, Isolde, I met you. I had that ridiculous wager in the back of my mind, but it was so apparent that you were the most fascinating woman I’ve ever met.”
“I am not the most fascinating woman in London, Clayton.”
“You are to me. You’re intelligent, beautiful, kind, and so wretchedly stubborn. I think I fell in love with you the moment you tripped into my arms.”
Isolde’s cheeks burned at the memory. “That,” she said firmly, “was an accident.”
“I’m sure it was. But so was my falling in love with you. I told this to James, and I’ll tell it to you. Of course I regret making that wager, it was vile and ungentlemanly, but at the same time, I can’t regret it. Because if I hadn’t accepted that foolish wager, I would never have met you, Isolde. I would never have fallen in love with you, and now I cannot imagine my life without you.”
She bit her lip, turning away. “You can’t mean that.”
“I do. Isolde, please, look at me.”
She glanced back, and when she did, he dropped onto one knee.
“Your breeches!” she yelped. “They’ll get wet.”
“I don’t care. I’d roll around in the mud if you requested it of me. Isolde, I love you. I have lost my heart to you and I cannot get it back. If risking my heart means winning yours, then it is a wager I am willing to take. Will you please marry me?”
He took her hand, his fingers rough but gentle against her skin, and Isolde felt goosebumps break out over her skin. He watched her face closely, anxious and hopeful, and her heart pounded against her ribcage.
