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‘I didn’t want you to,’ Elise whispered, turning her warm face to the cover of darkness.
‘I know, sweetheart,’ he said tenderly. ‘That’s why I had to. You’re not some tavern wench to be taken on hay. You’re the woman I love.’ Again he raised a hand, his unsteady fingers smoothing over her cheek this time, turning her back to face him. It was the first tentative touch from him that Elise had known.
‘I know I’m not worthy of you, Elise.’
‘You are!’ Elise wound her arms about his neck. ‘Don’t say that! I love you,’ she cried. ‘You must believe me.’
His fingers speared up into her soft hair, drawing back her head so their eyes could meet. ‘This latest fiasco has been my fault, not yours, or your aunt’s or your father’s. Celia admitted going to Whittiker to find out where to come and pester me. She couldn’t accept that I no longer wanted her. I should never have got involved with such a schemer in the first place. But she wasn’t the first such character and, but for meeting you, I doubt she would have been the last,’ he added truthfully.
‘She didn’t want to let you go,’ Elise responded solemnly. ‘I don’t suppose the others did either. I can understand why...but I still want to scratch out their eyes.’
Alex chuckled ruefully at the pugnacious sparkle in her steady gaze. A moment later he’d sobered. ‘You won’t ever need to feel that sort of hurt again. I’m so sorry that I let my stupid pride make me act in that way. I was terrified I’d lost you tonight, and set out to punish you instead of myself.’ He rested his forehead against her golden crown of hair. ‘Am I forgiven?’ It was a husky plea.
‘Of course,’ Elise cried. ‘And you must forgive me for acting like a shrew...I know I did,’ she admitted, smiling bashfully. Still she could see a haunted look far back in his eyes. ‘You haven’t lost me, I promise, Alex.’ Elise shook her head, feeling amused and rather awestruck that the balance of power between them seemed to have shifted so far in her favour. ‘Oh, no, you don’t get away that easily,’ she teased. ‘You’ve got to marry me tomorrow. If you don’t, my father might get a gun and shoot you after he finds out where I’ve been this evening.’
‘I’ll tell him you’ve been with your future husband who loves you very much.’ Alex’s mouth covered hers with passionate urgency, but then was jerked back. ‘You’re not frightened of your wedding night, are you, because I’ve acted like an idiot? Forget about what just happened between us, Elise.’
‘I’m not sure I want to forget,’ Elise said with a gauche honesty that made him burst out laughing.
‘On our first wedding anniversary we’ll bed down in the barn at Blackthorne Hall, if you require a reminder.’ He drove a hand into a pocket and drew out her diamond ring and slid it on to her finger, curling the small digit to lock it there. ‘I swear to you I love you and will honour every marriage vow we make tomorrow.’
‘May I see my wedding ring?’ Elise asked with a childish excitement that made Alex smile fondly.
He drew forth from an inside pocket a tiny square box and a longer, oblong casket. He opened the smaller to show her a slender gold band. ‘It’s inscribed on the inside with our initials.’
Elise made to take it, then quickly withdrew her fingers. ‘It’s probably tempting fate to touch it yet,’ she whispered, widening her eyes on him.
Alex slipped the box back whence it came, then held out the other one. ‘I’d like you to wear this tomorrow. I was going to give it to you this evening when I came for dinner.’
Elise took the gift, lifting the lid to see a gemstone bracelet inside. She moved her hand so a silver moonbeam glanced on the glossy square stones, firing them red. She swallowed, shook her head in awe. ‘Rubies...you bought this for me today in Enfield?’
The idea that she’d hit him, shouted at him and generally behaved dreadfully, when his only fault had been to secretly go off and buy her splendid jewellery, made Elise feel bitterly ashamed.
‘Do you like it?’ he asked.
His boyish eagerness to hear she approved of his choice plucked at her heartstrings. Too emotional to speak, she took his face between her palms and kissed his lips gently, teasing him with just a slide of her silky tongue. ‘Tomorrow, Alex, I shall show you just how much I love it, and you, in any way you like.’ She ran her fingertips over his stubbly jaw. ‘But for now, we must go and see my poor papa and tell him all is well. He was dreadfully upset, you know—’ Elise’s voice broke at the memory of her father’s distress.
