“She… has given her blessing?” Evelyn croaked, the glint of tears shining in her eyes.
Hugo nodded. “She wants you to be happy. Apparently, she only decided to entertain things with me, in the end, because she had come to realize that you were right about some gentleman or other.” He squeezed her hands. “But now, she is most eager for you to be a duchess, if that is whatyoumight want.”
“She has ended things with Sir Anthony?” Evelyn almost sounded more excited about that than the proposal Hugo had just made.
“I believe so.”
A wide smile broke across her face, her eyes alight. “Thank goodness for that! Oh, thank goodness.” She gulped in great, frantic breaths. “And you are certain she has given her blessing?”
“I would not begin our life with a lie, my love,” he promised, getting a little anxious now.
“Then there is nothing to hold me back,” she whispered, leaning closer to him. “Oh, Hugo, I would love nothing more than to be your wife. I have not been able to take your necklace off, for I thought it was the last piece I would ever have of you. I… I love you. My goodness, I love you!”
He had wished for this, imagined this, hoped for this, and yet it still shocked him when her confession came. It was like getting everything he had ever wanted, all at once. Something he would not usually have trusted, but he trusted every word of what she said.
Swept up in the overwhelming joy of hearing her say that she loved him too, he leaned in, freeing one of his hands so he might cradle the side of her face, feeling the warmth of her cheek, and kissed her.
The first graze of his mouth against hers was a thing of magic and wildfire, his veins coursing with an inferno of absolute devotion. He heard her soft, muffled gasp and smiled against her mouth, kissing her again, showing her how. He had not thought about the fact that she had likely never kissed anyone before; he had only thought of being the one to kiss her, sealing their confession of love.
She moved further into the protection of his body, almost tipping off the edge of the bench, and as her arms looped around his neck, she kissed him back. A tentative, curious kissthat made him smile all the more ashisarm locked around her waist, holding her flush against him while his thumb brushed her cheek and his lips caught hers once more.
There in the shadow of the hawthorn, she grew in confidence, matching the slow, sensual pace of his kiss, settling into a passionate ebb and flow. A quick study, but then what else had he expected from someone who had educated herself in all things, all by herself? Indeed, this was nothing compared to learning how to ride a horse or shoot well.
Their kiss deepened, his arm holding her even tighter, his breath ragged as her fingertips slid into his hair, her touch tingling against the nape of his neck. This was farmorethan he could have hoped for, a kiss so wondrous, so magical that it made him all the more certain that they had always been destined for one another.
I could kiss you forever… and I shall, now that you have said yes.
He pulled back, meaning to tell her that, but the moment he broke the kiss, it was like a spell coming undone.
All at once, the soaring joy that had existed upon Evelyn’s face just a moment ago, contorted into an expression of sheer panic. Her hands no longer gently caressed his neck, but gripped his shoulders, her fingernails digging into his skin.
“But what am I to do about the baron?” she rasped, naming her obvious fear. “What am I to do about my father? He will befurious. He will never allow it. Oh goodness, he will refuse just to spite me; I know he will!”
Hugo kept his arm around her and held her gaze, his thumb continuing to stroke the apple of her cheek. “I will contend with all of it, my love,” he promised. “You do not need to worry about anything. I mean to marry you, my love, and weshallbe married.”
“What if you cannot convince him? What if…”
He pulled her into his embrace, his hand cradling the back of her head as he murmured soothing sounds against her hair, kissing those soft, silky locks. “All will be well, love,” he promised. “All will be well. You never have to think of the baron again, and when we are married, you need never think of your father again.”
She relaxed in his arms, burying her face in his neck as she clung to his lapels, tucking herself in tight against him, safe within his embrace. A short while later, her breathing eased, and he could almost feel the panic leaving her body.
Alas, it was not destined to last long, as the echo of footsteps suddenly shattered the stillness of the darkened garden corner, and a grim voice hissed, “What is the meaning of this?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Evelyn could not bring herself to look up from the safety of Hugo’s shoulder as that voice shivered through her.
Her father’s voice.
“Answer me at once!” he barked, Evelyn’s body trembling involuntarily within the protective sphere of Hugo’s arms.
She felt him hug her tighter, and wished she could stay in his embrace forever, hiding from her father’s wrath, but the longer they stayed in that compromising situation, the worse it would be. Indeed, any hope she had had of her engagement to the baron being dealt with peaceably had just gone up in smoke.
“I shall deal with this,” Hugo whispered, slowly releasing her from his grasp.
She longed to pull him back down and hold onto him a while longer as he rose to his feet and turned to face the irate figure ofher father. How could it be that, a few minutes ago, she had been the happiest she had ever been in her entire life, and now she was bristling from head to toe with icy dread?
“Step away from my daughter!” Evelyn’s father snarled. “What do you think you are doing out here, alone with her? I realize you are a duke, but that does not give you the right to flout the rules of decency!”
