Page 107 of The Winter Companion

He made a sound low in his throat. Rather like a growl.

She smiled against his mouth. “If we haven’t yet caused a scandal, I suspect we’re about to.”

He nuzzled her cheek. “No one can see us.”

“That we know of.” She slowly drew back from him. “It’s a wonder Mrs. Atkyns hasn’t asked what I’m doing here.”

“If she does, we can t-tell her we’re engaged.” He took her left hand in his. “I must buy you a…a ring. Something bright and beautiful, just as you are.”

She blushed rosily. “A plain wedding band will suffice.”

“You deserve the best.”

“It’s lovely of you to say so, but truly, I don’t require anything expensive.” She twined her fingers through his. “You shall see, I can live as cheaply as you do, and will be quite content to do so, in the rooms above the stable, or wherever you choose for us to settle. I’m accustomed to being frugal.”

His brows lowered. He searched her face. “What about here?”

She gave him a questioning look.

He turned her attention to the paddock. The ponies were still standing, grazing in the mist. In the distance, the clouds had parted, and a faint rainbow shimmered in the sky.

Clara inhaled a breath of wonder. “Do you know, with all the rain in Devon, I’d have expected to have seen one sooner.”

“Haven’t you?”

She shook her head. “This is the first. And it’s fitting, isn’t it? To see such a thing in this magical place, and on such a day as this.”

“You find the farm magical?”

“With the moors, and the mist, it seems an enchanted landscape. I do believe it could be the setting for an epic romance.”

“Perhaps it will be.”

She turned to look at him, her pulse quickening.

He looked steadily back at her. “But only if you want it. Only if…if you approve.”

“Of course I approve. It’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. But…” She could think of no delicate way to put it. “The expense is too great. We couldn’t possibly afford it.”

“No,” he said. “Not to buy. But to lease, yes. Easily.”

Easily?

“But how?” she asked.

Amusement flickered in his gaze. “Do you think I’ve b-been a slave to Justin? Or a slave to the sisters at…at the c-convent? They paid me, Clara. And Justin has invested it all for me.”

Her mouth went dry. All at once, she recalled the elegant dinner clothes he’d worn at the Abbey, cut to his figure as if by an expert tailor. The first-class railway tickets he’d purchased for their journey from Cambridge. And his fine horse, Adventurer. A gentleman’s horse, to be sure, and an expensive one, at that.

She moistened her lips. “You have investments.”

“In the railway, m-mainly. Enough to lease this place, if…if it’s what you want.”

“Oh.” Tears started in her eyes. She had a vague thought that she was rapidly becoming a watering pot. Indeed, she’d wept more in these three days than she had in the past three years combined. “I’m sorry.”

Neville’s expression darkened with concern. “We d-don’t have to live here. We can—”

“It’s not that. It’s just all too much. Your coming to Cambridge, and your proposal. And the very idea that we could live here together. You and I, and the ponies, and Bertie.” She gazed up at him, her heart full to bursting. “I never dared dream in all my life that I would get a happy ending of my very own.”