“Be quiet!” Josiah snapped, as he narrowed his eyes at Evelyn, brow furrowed in intense concentration.
She smiled back at him. “Please, Father.”
“I will take care of her, Lord Townshend,” Hugo said, turning. “I ask for no dowry, just her. And I would rather wed her withoutanimosity among her family, though I mean to marry her all the same.”
Evelyn’s heart swelled with hope, praying that her father would be kind, just this once. Miles would not marry her anymore. For that reason alone, her fatherhadto see sense.
The old man suddenly sagged at the shoulders, removing his hat to sweep a hand through his graying hair. In that moment, she wondered what she had been afraid of for so many years; he was just a weathered gentleman, hunched and small, twisted up by memories of a wife he had never been able to forget.
“Very well,” he said, heaving out a sigh. “Very well, I give my blessing. If you wish to marry her, Your Grace, you may marry her. I am tired of this entire debacle.”
Her father still did not care, that was obvious, but none of that mattered now. He did not have to care, not when Evelyn had Hugo: a man who loved her, whosawher, who would never allow her to feel small or invisible ever again.
And what was more, she would be a duchess. There was some satisfaction in knowing that she would rank higher than her entire family.
“Let us discuss the details like civilized gentlemen tomorrow,” her father added. “Come to tea at the house, Your Grace. Two o’clock. Evelyn, you are to come with us.”
Evelyn did not wish to be parted from Hugo for even a moment, but if a brief separation meant she got to spend the rest of her life with him, she would manage somehow.
Her father and brothers began to walk away, through the passage between the bushes. Miles followed along after them, tipping his hat to Evelyn and Hugo as he passed. Evidently,hewas relieved for the ordeal to be done with too.
“I believe I may owe at least one of your brothers an apology,” Hugo said in a soft voice, now that they had a moment alone.
Evelyn smiled up at him, her teeth chattering. “Luke has been transformed. I do not know why, but I am glad of it.” She paused. “You will come to tea, will you not?”
“Nothing could stop me,” he replied, lifting a hand to her face. “That being said, I will be stationing one of my footmen outside your house, in case this is some final ruse of your father’s.”
She chuckled. “I do not think it is, but I shall be all the more reassured if I know you have someone outside.”
“I still think you are extremely foolish for coming out here in the rain,” he said, brushing a lock of wet hair out of her face. “You shall catch your death, and then what shall I do?”
She shook her head. “I am entirely warm, now that I am in your arms again.”
“Your shivering would suggest otherwise,” he teased, smiling. “I love you, Evelyn.”
“As I love you,” she replied, her heart so full, so happy that she could hardly believe this was all real.
He brushed his thumb over the apple of her cheek. “As soon as I have been to tea at your house, I shall go directly to the archbishop for a special license.” He leaned in. “Now that there is nothing standing in our way, I do not plan to wait to be married to you. Will a week be enough time for you to make all due bridal preparations?”
“More than enough,” she replied, laughing. “Too much time, perhaps.”
He grinned. “If I could, I would marry you tomorrow.”
“As would I,” she told him, her eyes closing in a sort of joyful delirium as he closed the gap between them and kissed her.
It was everything she had dreamed of, a story far greater than anything she had read in Joan’s library or her own. Here she was, in the pouring rain, held close in the arms of the man she loved; a man who had been willing to risk his life for her, who had challenged her father for her, who had not been afraid to let everyone know that he loved her.
Looping her arms around his neck, not caring if her father or her brothers came back through the passage to fetch her, she roseup on tiptoe and kissed Hugo harder. She kissed him as if they would be apart for weeks instead of a matter of days. She kissed him as a promise, that this was to be the beginning of the rest of their lives.
Indeed, she doubted she would ever tire of being able to kiss this wondrous man.
“You know,” she said with a smile, pulling back, “I think you might be the most fortuitous investment I have ever made.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, my love?”
“The auction.” She chuckled as she thought of it. “Iwas the one who bid on you. For Selina, yes, but I was the true bidder.”
“You were?”
