Page 44

The snow continued to fall, the flakes fat and soft. Her eyes drifted closed. “I cannot think⁠—”

“Let us take shelter.” Wesley took her hand, pulling her away from the bridge and the stream toward the stone building set in the center of the lawn. It was circular, boasting tall, thick columns around the outside that were wider than the pair of them standing together. A door was situated at the top of the steps, and Wesley tried the handle, grateful when it gave way.

They could see Bellthorne Hall from the mausoleum, but it was difficult to see the garden clearly. He had not been doing his duty by his sister, but he imagined Nell had likely retreated indoors. The snow did not appear as though it meant to slow anytime soon.

Their footsteps echoed beneath the room’s high, domed ceiling. It was built entirely of stone and was as cold inside as it was out of doors.

But it was dry.

Wesley needed to speak before he lost his bravery. “I will not pretend my feelings have been long kept a secret from you, Millie, for they have evaded me as well.”

Her dark, sleek eyebrows lifted.

“That does not make them less genuine. I have struggled to watch you accept the advances of men who do not deserve you.”

“According to you.”

“Yes,” he said with feeling. “I have known you for the entirety of your life. Who is better than me to determine what you deserve?”

“Myself.”

Wesley stood in front of her, helpless. “Yes, but it can sometimes be difficult to see ourselves as clearly as we see others.”

“How do you see me, Wesley?”

“Eager for love, for someone to cherish you the way you ought to be cherished.”

Millie grew still. “That is all?”

Of course not, but he was struggling to put words to the way his heart pleaded for her to see him. “I did not realize how I cared for you. Not until we arrived and I was forced to watch you with other men.”

Millie closed her eyes. When she looked at him again, she seemed pained. “What is to stop your feelings from waning once we return to Lancashire?”

He was momentarily lost for words. Removing his hat, he pinched the brim in his fingers and looked at her. “I have never considered myself a fickle man.”

She remained in front of him, waiting, her deep brown eyes imploring him.

Her pink lips were slightly parted, waiting for more, but he had nothing to give her. And he would not take without her permission.

“You are offering the very thing I have wanted for years, Wesley. But it is not sustainable. I cannot be expected to ignore real suitors in favor of your sudden whims.”

That was where she was wrong. “You do not consider me a real suitor?”

Millie scoffed, putting her hands out to the side in exasperation. Her eyes sparked. “Wesley, you are no suitor at all. You are my dearest friend’s brother. You have not looked at me in a romantic way in my entire life. How am I to understand your feelings have changed when your behavior has not?”

“My behavior? That is the only thing I have to recommend me. You truly cannot see that I have spent time with you and no other for the duration of this house party thus far?”

“Merely because you have been given the task of watching over Nell.”

“Where is she now?”

Millie dropped her hands to her sides. “I do not wish to argue with you.”

“Then try to understand me.”

“That is impossible.”

Wesley took a step toward her, fairly bursting with the injustice of not being fully understood. He reached for her jaw, lightly running his gloved fingers over her soft skin and wishing there was no barrier. It was symbolic of how things stood between them, a thin wall keeping them apart.