For the first time since his arrival, the hard look on Hugh Radley’s face eased. The lines of his frown softened. It was with an overwhelming sense of relief that James found his father’s arms suddenly wrapped around him. “Of course, you have my blessing. Your whole family will be overjoyed at hearing of your marriage. Your mother sends her love, and your sisters cannot wait to welcome Leah into the family. Now for goodness sake, go and tell that girl that you love her, and you want her for your wife,” said Hugh.
James sent a silent prayer of thanks to heaven for the long and loving marriage of his parents. His parents had taught him to believe in love. And with love came sacrifice. He was going to offer up his heart to Leah, lay all his secrets and desires open to her in the honest hope that she would accept him. He would have to trust to his faith in love that in time she might come to feel the same for him.
Hugh gave him one last friendly pat on the back before releasing him. Taking James’s face in his hands, he leaned in. “If you love her, then make her your wife. It will keep her forever out of that blackguard’s reach. And once you have done that, then you and I will sit down and have a long talk about your plans for the future. You will have a wife to support.”
James nodded. He would have that difficult discussion with his father, but it would not be until after he and Leah were wed and returned to London.
He would have a wife, and between them, they would find a way for him to keep his life’s passion alive.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Leah couldn’t remain in the house a minute longer while she waited for the men to finish their meeting. It made her blood boil to know that she had been deliberately excluded from the discussion. They were talking about her future, yet no one had thought to include her in the conversation.
“Bloody men,” she grumbled. After grabbing a woolen shawl, she wrapped it about her and stomped off down to the beach.
As soon as she stepped out of the low shrubs which dotted the dunes and onto the beach proper, she began to walk. The tide was still on its way out and the sand was waterlogged in parts, which made walking a difficult proposition at times. Keeping to the higher, slightly drier parts of the beach, she made her way toward the sea cave.
James’s father had come all the way to Cornwall, which set her nerves on edge. People didn’t make the journey from London without serious purpose, especially not the Bishop of London. Whatever Hugh Radley had to say, she was not expecting to like it.
If the surface of the beach had been firmer, she would have made better progress. But with her feet constantly sinking into the soft sand, she had barely made it a hundred yards from the cliff path before James called her name.
She stopped and waited for him. There was no point in delaying the inevitable news. Good, bad, or a mix of the two, she would have to deal with whatever her grandfather and the two Radley men had decided. Not that she was considering any of it to be afait accompli,but having already fled from her family, she knew her options were now somewhat limited.
James finally caught up with her. His face frustratingly gave her no clue as to what had happened or been decided in her grandfather’s study.
“Well?” she snapped.
He hesitated for a moment, and Leah felt a rising mix of anger and panic well up inside her. When he reached out and touched her arm, she flinched and stepped back.
“It’s not bad news,” he said.
Leah held his gaze. She had a life’s experience of being constantly told what to think and do. She hoped that James, knowing enough of her recent history, would not be so foolish as to try and attempt to persuade her to accept something which he knew she would find unpalatable. There would be no more going quietly along with plans that were against her wishes, of that she was most definitely determined.
He offered her his arm. “Let us go somewhere and talk. A windy beach is not the place for this discussion. Come back with me to the manor.”
The place James had in mind turned out to be his painting studio at the bottom of the garden. It, of course, made sense. It was away from the main house, private, and secluded. They would not be disturbed.
And no one will hear me when I get riled up and start yelling.
Leah followed him inside and closed the door behind her. James offered her a seat, but she was too tense to consider sitting down. Her preference would be to pace the floor, but in the cramped space there was not the room.
“Why is your father here?” she asked.
He met her gaze. “He has a special marriage license which he procured at great expense and trouble from the Archbishop of Canterbury. It has our names on it,” he replied.
Leah slumped down in the wicker chair near the door. She clasped her hands together. Her fingers twined and twisted around one another.
“And what did you tell your father and my grandfather?” she asked.
James knelt before Leah. He took her hands in his before untangling her fingers and rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
She looked down at his signet ring, a tear coming to her eye when she remembered having worn it when they were pretending to be married. No one was pretending any more, and it filled her with sadness.
“I told them I would talk to you,” he said.
Her head shot up. “As in, you would talk me into marrying you because you have no other option. Your father would not have come all this way if he didn’t think you would need to be convinced of what to do. That is not fair to you, James,” she said.
He shook his head. “I told them I would talk to you and seek your opinion. Leah, I have never tried to force you into doing anything, and I am not about to start now. Especially not when it comes to the serious matter of marriage.”
