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* * *
A half-hour later, cleaned and changed, Dom had a fresh horse brought round and rode off towards the school. It would be better to meet her in private to apologise, so he might gauge her mood, he thought as he urged his gelding to a canter, but he was too impatient to wait until she returned and they could have some guarantee of privacy.
Then, with a leap in his heart, he heard the clip-clop of approaching hoofbeats. As he looked over the next rise, he saw the familiar bay mare in the distance. Thrilled beyond measure that it was Theo, he pulled up, waiting for her to meet him.
‘Dom!’ she cried, making his heart exult at the unmistakable joy on her face. ‘I’m so glad to see you! Was your Newmarket trip successful? If you’d let me know you were coming back today, I would have been at Bildenhall to meet you!’
‘When we finished early, I came at once; I didn’t want to wait long enough to send a note. It was bad enough that I had to ride off without seeing you after my hasty and ill-advised speech by the brook!’
Her face flushed. ‘I thought I’d made you angry, and I was heartsick, for the quarrel was just as much my fault as yours.’
‘No, I pushed too hard, Theo. I love you, will always love you, and I’m willing to take whatever you can give me. Having you as my wife is the most important thing to me.’
With a huff of frustration, she said, ‘How dare you declare all that to me on horseback, where there is nothing I can do about it! We’re not far from the stream. Shall we ride there and let the horses drink while we finish this conversation?’
‘Lead on.’ He gestured.
Continuing without further speech, they soon reached the old oak. Dom dismounted and hurried over to catch Theo as she slid from the saddle. He pulled her to him, their kiss of greeting long, slow and sweet.
Dom held her against him, savouring her violet scent, her warmth and nearness, the reassuring thud of her heartbeat against his chest. ‘How I missed you, Theo. I’m so sorry we parted after angry words. Will you forgive me?’
‘Of course. I missed you too, oh, so much! Your absence showed me how vital you’ve become to me, for I felt I’d lost a piece of myself with you gone. I suppose it crept upon me so slowly, I didn’t notice—until you weren’t there beside me. The man who makes me laugh and understands how important my orphans and my son are to me and stimulates my mind and eases my anxieties and has supported me through every obstacle I’ve faced since we met. Who gives me the most exquisite pleasure I’ve ever known or dreamed of. What an empty shell my life would be without you!’
After that stirring speech, he just had to kiss her again. ‘My darling Theo, how could I exist without you? The girl who challenged me in the lane to be more than I thought I could be, who sat on my wall in the rain until I was forced to deal with her, who believed I could accomplish whatever I chose to do, even as I now am—and is making me believe it, too. I thank God every night that my father built a stone barn in the south pasture.’
Then her mouth was on his, demanding, her hands at his chest, untying his neckcloth, seeking skin beneath, her torso rubbing against his erection. She broke the kiss to ease him out of his jacket, free the buttons of his trouser flap, and moved his hand to tug at the jacket of her riding habit.
He stopped her fingers and broke the kiss. ‘Are you sure, Theo? I don’t want to force you into anything you don’t want.’
‘I want this now.’ She breathed against his lips. ‘This land belongs to you. I belong to you. I know you won’t let either of us come to harm.’
* * *
She could do it, Theo told herself. The episode beside the dry creek in Portugal had led to shame, and the threat of losing her good name and being cast out of polite society that had hung over her for years. But like one of those storms that blew up over those dusty plains, sudden, furious and violent, it had spent itself and moved on. It was over now, over for ever. She could dare believe in a future—with the ardent man beside her.
Fingers hot, shaky, he helped strip off her habit, stays and chemise, laughing as his hand tangled with hers trying to wrest him out of his garments. He laid her down on their jackets, and she pulled him down over her, his skin warming hers, a sense of peace and coming home sweeping through her as he slid into her. After being apart for days, their lovemaking was fast, urgent, and just a short time later, she found bliss in his embrace.
Afterwards, they lay panting, listening to the rush and gurgle of the stream, the breeze ruffling the oak leaves above them. Through layers of contentment, Theo felt a subtle shift as the wind picked up, then a sprinkle of droplets.
‘I think it’s beginning to rain,’ she said, eying the clouds.
Dom rolled to her side and drew her to him. ‘I believe you’re right.’
As the wind increased in speed and volume, the sprinkle turned into a shower. Laughing, Dom sprang up, then grabbed her hand to pull her to her feet.
‘Dance with me!’ he cried, his face joyous. ‘We’ll waltz in the rain.’
‘Here?’ she asked, half-amused, half-incredulous.
He gestured around them. ‘We have a strip of mossy ground as a ballroom floor, the swaying candelabra of oak branches above us, the music of the wind through the trees, and a heart full of melody because you’re back in my embrace again. How can I not want to dance, and shout my happiness to the world?’
‘Madman!’ she laughed. ‘Someone might see.’
‘They shouldn’t look. Come, let’s dance.’
He stood gazing down at her, such unrestrained joy on his face, she couldn’t help smiling back. He was so uninhibited, so comfortable in himself. She wanted that assurance, that sense of liberation. She wanted him.
An answering joy bubbling up, she threw her arms around him and let him waltz her around the bank, while the wind whistled and the stream burbled a melody. The precipitation increased, and she threw her head back, letting warm summer rain course down her face, washing away the dust of the ride.
As she danced with him, drawing on his unconditional support and boundless optimism, Theo felt the burden she’d carried within for so many years rinsing away like that dust before the rain, until she felt so light, buoyed by his love, she thought she might float right up into the clouds.
Dom had given her this, the gift of seeing herself through his eyes: without shame, without guilt, no longer waiting for a reckoning that was surely coming to punish her someday. Freeing her from fear of loss, bringing her to believe in a future.
Marshall would always be dear to her, but the man who’d helped her do all that deserved her love, given unreservedly, just as she’d given him her body.
Finally, laughing again, he halted, mopping his wet hair off his forehead. ‘I suppose we need to stop and dress.’ He bowed. ‘Thank you for the dance, my lady.’
‘Thank you for the dance, though it’s only just begun, my lord. My life. My love.’
Bent halfway over, retrieving his jacket, he halted abruptly and looked back over his shoulder at her. ‘What did you say?’
‘I love you, Dom. I’ve known it a long time, but been too frightened to admit it. Until you freed me of that fear, as our marriage has freed me from the past. I only wish I’d struggled out of it sooner.’
Dropping the jacket, he came to her and drew her close. Trailing his fingers down her cheek in a caress, his gaze tender, he said, ‘It’s all right, beloved. We have the rest of our lives. Which, I promise you, will be a long, long time.’
He placed a kiss on her forehead. ‘Now, we’d better get my bride dressed and home before we both contract an inflammation of the lungs. Besides, I brought you a gift which, by now, should be waiting at Bildenstone for you.’
‘A gift? You shouldn’t have! What is it?’
‘You’ll see soon enough. Now, help me with these wet ties.’
She assisted him into his soggy garments and he helped her. Finished haphazardly dressing each other, she stood back to examine him and burst out laughing.
‘I can’t imagine what Wilton will think when we get back! We look like we’ve been kidnapped by gypsies, rolled through a hay meadow and then dunked in a stream.’
‘Or making love in the rain on a mossy bank?’
She would be brave, as he was. ‘Or making love in the rain on your mossy bank beside your stream. My fearless lord.’
* * *
Almost giddy with happiness, Dom rode beside Theo back to Bildenstone, where they turned their horses over at the entrance and walked hand in hand up the stairs.
Wilton opened the door to usher them inside. ‘The, ah...item you sent from Newmarket has arrived, sir, and has for the time being been installed—under much protest—in the small blue bedchamber.’
‘Very good. And don’t worry, Wilton. It won’t be there long.’
‘That is my present?’ she asked as they mounted stairs.
‘Yes. Let me show it to you before we wash and change. Ordinarily, for a lovely lady, I’d think of gems. But my Theo is hardly ordinary, and if the prospect of wearing the Ransleigh rubies didn’t tempt you, I knew no paltry diamonds would. But this—this I thought you might truly appreciate.’
