His mouth slackened, and his eyes quickly darted away from her to study the breathtaking view of the ocean and the damask curtains framing the French doors. Then his stare slowly moved to the polished walnut table, and the blue and white porcelain bowl topped with apples.
For an impossibly long moment, Diana waited, holding on for dear life to all of her hopes and dreams.
Eventually, his gaze returned to hers, and in an even voice, he demanded, “Tell me.”
“Your parents spent time here. I didn’t know until we arrived, and I recognized that.” She gestured to a candlestick table bearing a silver vase filled with fresh flowers.
Ian brushed his hand over his mouth. “That’s the view from my mother’s painting.” The single piece of art that hung in his London home.
Diana nodded. “When your father was dying, he wanted to buy San Genaro for you. But he didn’t have the funds. And he couldn’t break the trust that was set up to convey the business to Jared.”
“I know.”
“Yes, of course.” She swallowed. “Your father had a small sum of money he’d put aside. Barely a third of what the owner wanted for San Genaro. He gave the money to my father and asked him to invest it for you. So that it would grow to a sum large enough for you to buy the house.”
“And neither of you thought to tell me I had an inheritance?” His voice rose in justifiable outrage.
“I threatened to when I found out.” It was the worst row she’d ever had with her father. They’d gone weeks without speaking. “Papa said that there were explicit legal instructions created to penalize you from withdrawing the sum from the investment before maturity. It could have made the money your father left you worthless.”
She’d consulted three solicitors and none of them could find a way out of it.
“After Father died, I asked Amelia for help, and she made the money grow faster. When there was finally enough for San Genaro’s owner to consider an offer, it took months to settle things. The sale only went through the day I left London.”
Ian gave a strangled laugh. “What would have happened if I had stayed in London?”
“If you hadn’t followed me on this wild chase, I left instructions to deliver the deed to you. But you did follow me. And I kept saying to myself that I’d tell you once I knew you were safe from my mother. And, well, everyone else.”
She blew out a breath. “And then, for a short while, I deliberately didn’t tell you. Because I thought if you knew, you would leave. And that was wrong of me.”
“It was,” he said softly. “I had a right to know.”
“You did,” she agreed, with as much strength in her voice as she could muster. “Of all the secrets I’ve had to keep, this was the second worst one.”
“The first being your mother.”
“No, Ian. There was another reason my father did all of those things for yours," she countered gently.
"Eight years ago, I sat by your father’s bedside. And he read me that letter my mother had sent to manipulate all of us. But the charade that my father insisted we play out for my protection, and the ploy my mother made me seize on for her own machinations…it was all made under the false presumption that everyone believed. Including you.”
She cupped his face between her hands and felt the pulse in his neck beat out a tattoo that marched in time with her own thumping heartbeat. “The promise was never about Jared. It was always about you.”
He stared at her with such heartbreaking longing, she was sure he’d misunderstood her.
“Did you hear me?” Her voice escalated in mild panic as she searched his face. “The pledge I made was to marryyou, Ian. I made that vow willingly. Not because you needed looking after, although you do. Your father wanted me to make that promise because he saw that we were besotted with each other before either of us could admit it. He thought that together, we would be unstoppable.”
Ian’s eyes glistened. “He was right.”
Relief and warmth and a joy unequal to anything Diana had ever known radiated through her. “You believe me?”
“God, yes.”
His mouth descended on hers, and her body folded into his, like a key fitting into a lock.
"Together, weareunstoppable," he echoed.
Chapter Thirty
TheEnglishChannel,January1878
