“Yes. You’ve never mentioned such things before, even when the others always do.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “That’s true. But I have always cared for you, and this is not to say anything about your ability to care for the lighthouse of course.”
“Then why? Surely not becauseof this swim?”
His blush told her yes.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, so red and still not looking at her. “It’s just the wrong kind of man, if they stumbled upon you, looking like that, totally alone—”
“And that makes me need a husband?” she laughed. “Fine. I suppose I get what you’re saying. My lack of propriety could easily give the wrong impression.”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” he countered. “I simply wish to protect you.”
“By getting me a husband?” She laughed at the ridiculousness of it. “And how would we know some random man I’ve never met who wants to live on an island alone with me would be better than some rogue? I mean, it’s not like I can court when I’m working here, and any man who wants me solely based on my looks is probably not to be trusted.”
“What if it was me?”
There was a pause before she asked, “What?”
He looked her straight in the eyes. “I said, ‘What if I was your husband?’”
CHAPTER 27
There was the longest pause before she choked out, “What?”
“No, no, please don’t take it the wrong way!” he said, throwing up his hands quickly.
“Is there more than one way to take it?”
“I don’t know,” he said, looking helplessly awkward. “I just did not think such a question would garner such a look?”
Her hand then went to her face. “What kind of look?” she asked, somehow feeling more distressed with each passing question.
“I don’t know,” he cried desperately, and the two of them fell into silence.
“Mr. Wilson,” she said finally, “if this is due to your feeling the need to take responsibility for seeing me in such a state—”
“No, no,” he cut her off. “It is nothing of the sort.”
“Then…is this something you have been considering?”
“No,” he admitted, almost looking ashamed.
“Then…am I to assume you saw my clothes hugging my body and wished to marry me?” Did she not just say that such a man was no better than a rogue?
“It is nothing like that, Miss Daria. I would never do you the disservice of such a proposition being based solely on lust.”
“Then what?”
“I do not know. I simply felt as though I needed to protect you.”
“And so you jumped to marriage?”
“Extreme, I know,” he admitted, almost reluctantly. “But once I said marriage in the context of another, my heart cried out at the thought, and now that I am considering it, I find the proposition quitepleasing indeed.”
“Even the idea of living on this island?”
He nodded.
