Page 76 of Married to the Duke By Midnight

“This way,” Jo instructed him and led the way into a parlor on her right.

Robert stopped on the threshold to the room. It was not particularly large: It spanned the width of the cottage and had a window toward the sea and one toward the garden. There was a desk by the window toward the garden, a chair by the fireplace in the middle with a basket of some kind of handiwork in it and built-in shelves on the wall next to the window with a view of the sea. A high-backed chair was standing in front of it and a small sofa was pressed into the space between the wall and the fireplace. Both had upholstery in a pine green color.

The room was so Jo it made his heart clench: The blue tapestry on the wall. The arrangement of stones on the mantlepiece just like in her room in London. The same slight disarray as well, with a book placed on the seat of the high-backed chair, a shawl thrown over the back of the lounge chair, and a pair of gloves on the desk.

There were paintings on the walls: a bouquet of flowers and two children playing in a meadow on one wall. Above the sofa was a painting of a young couple with a small blonde girl between them in a white dress. Both parents were looking at the girl, while she was looking directly at the viewer with her blue-grey eyes that spoke of a curious mind. A young Jo and her parents. Below it was a smaller painting of an older man. The resemblance to Mr. Hawkins was striking and Robert instantly knew it was Jo’s uncle. It looked like the canvas had been bent at one corner at some point.

The room was like stepping into her mind. All of the most important things in her life were here.

And him too, Robert hoped.

“Why don’t you take the chair?” Jo said, gesturing to the high-backed chair, then hurriedly walked around him to retrieve the book.

Had she been reading while she waited for him? His stomach dropped at the thought. If she was calm enough to read, this meeting could not be as important for her as it was for him.

Robert squared his shoulders as he walked toward the chair. He was not one to give up without a fight. Jo would have to listen to him. He would make certain that she did.

Suddenly he understood exactly why Jo had been so agitated when they were fighting. Just the thought that he might not be able to reason with her felt infuriating. Blast it, he had been a fool for trying to keep his emotions in check. He should have given in to his desire for a heated argument, then perhaps she would not have ended up leaving.

Jo settled on the small sofa opposite him, as Robert stood in front of the high-backed chair and waited for her to sit.

“Tea?” she asked, already holding the pot above a cup.

Robert nodded appreciatively as he sat down. He watched in silence as Jo poured a cup for them both, adding a squeeze of lemon and a little sugar to his and a splash of milk in her own.

They sipped the tea in silence and Robert fought with how to begin. Nerves prickled under his skin. He was so close to having all that he wanted, yet he wanted so much more with Jo than a stilted conversation across a tea table. There was nothing to do, though, but to throw himself right into it.

“I would like to apologize again, Jo,” he told her earnestly. He tried to gain eye contact with her, but when she only briefly looked at him before looking away again, he decided it was better to say what he had come to say. “First, I want to apologize for calling you ridiculous. Or rather, your plan to come here ridiculous. I was scared because you were leaving and what it would do to us. But I know – and knew at the time as well – that it was the wrong choice of words. And I know you, Jo. When you said you needed time alone to think, I should have allowed it without hesitation.”

“Thank you,” Jo told him quietly. She looked up as she spoke and her eyes remained on him. Her gaze was still tentative, but Robert took it as a huge win that she was not breaking eye contact with him.

“Secondly, I would like to apologize for speaking to the solicitor in the first place. I did it to spare you. My explanation that I was afraid it might raise gossip was what I told myself at the time. The underlying reason was that I hate that you have to deal with your cousin, and I will do anything so that you don’t have to…”

He could tell that Jo was about to interrupt him and made an urgent motion with his hand, hoping to silence her without seeming too demanding.

“If you would allow me to finish?”

She nodded mutely, and Robert went on:

“I know you want to deal with him, though. If it is regarding your money. Probably also in other instances as well… and I should not have tried to interfere. I want you to know that I only did so out of concern for you. Because I care about you, Jo. Deeply.” Robert gulped at the words. He was not ready to launch himself into a declaration. Not if she did not accept his apology.

“I care about you too,” Jo told him quietly. “I am glad that you realize you should not have interfered.”

She paused as she regarded him.

“Ambrose was here a couple of days ago.”

Robert felt his blood boil at the words.

“He wanted a few possessions he thought I had stolen from him,” Jo continued. “I sent him away. Told him to never enter my home again. To never come near me.”

Heavens, he wished he had seen it. His brave, beautiful Jo standing up to her cousin.

“I learned all of this by interacting with my cousin,” Jo told him a bit smugly as she leaned against the back of the sofa. “It was not pleasant and I would rather that you had been there, but it had to be done, and I sense that you understand that now.”

Robert nodded and looked down at his hands. He had been thoroughly chastised, he sensed.

“I do understand,” he said and looked at her briefly, then out the window.