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“My carriage is this way,” Blake said gruffly. “Come on.”
“No.” Sapphire stopped on the street that abutted the dock. There were men everywhere—sailors, merchants, venders selling and buying wares. She ignored the confusion that swirled around them, focusing on Blake’s face.
“No? What do you mean, no?” he demanded. “What the hell did you think you were doing on that ship?”
“I was going home!” she shouted at him.
“Home? Home is with me.”
“No, home is not with you, Blake. When will you get it through your thick American head that I will not be your mistress? I am the daughter of Lord Edward Wessex and I will be no man’s mistress! No man’s, not even yours.”
“Let’s get into the carriage.” He glanced around, not appearing to have heard a word she said. “People are beginning to stare.”
When he tried to rest his hand on her shoulder to move her along, she flung it off. “I will not get in your carriage and I don’t care if people stare. I’m going back to England, away from this place. Away from you!”
His face, which had been lined with anger a moment before, changed expression. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m serious!” She flung herself at him, beating him with her fists. “Bastard. I wouldn’t stay here with you, not if you—”
“Not even if I would marry you?”
“What?” She drew back, looking up at him. “What did you say?” she whispered. She could have sworn she saw moisture in his dark, stormy eyes.
“I said,” he told her so softly she could barely hear him, “would you stay if I married you?”
“You would marry me?” Her head was spinning again. Suddenly her life was full of possibilities. “But why? Why would you marry me? What about Mrs. Sheraton? I know what went on that night so there’s no sense in you denying it.”
“I won’t deny it because I won’t lie to you. But that was a mistake with Grace, Sapphire. It was wrong. I don’t know what I was thinking. I cared so much about you, I…I was afraid.”
She shook her head, trying to understand, needing to understand. This was a part of Blake she had never seen before. He was actually admitting he had been wrong. “You were afraid? Afraid of what?”
“Sapphire, sometimes you are a woman far beyond your years and other times, you—” He pulled off her hat and smoothed her hair with his hand. “I was afraid, my dear, my beloved, because I loved you and I have never loved anyone in my life—” His voice cracked. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how—”
“You love me?” she breathed, not allowing him to finish. “You love me and that’s why you kidnapped me? That’s why you forced me to be a maid in your house, because you loved me?”
He gave a wry grin. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking in quite that manner, but yes. I suppose that is why I did those things. You were just being so obstinate about being Wessex’s daughter and—”
Sapphire’s stomach suddenly tumbled. “Wait,” she said, feeling so light-headed that she could barely think. “Are you saying you still don’t believe me when I say I am Edward Thixton’s daughter?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.” He caught her hand and drew it to his heart.
If Blake thought people on the docks and on the street were staring at him a moment ago, they were really staring now. A gentleman in a top coat, holding a young boy’s hand to his heart? They would be lucky if they weren’t rushed by an angry mob for indecency.
“Then what are you saying, Blake?” she repeated desperately.
“You left Boston. You lived as a boy—”
“Yes, to earn money for my passage back to England.”
“Exactly. And then when I foiled that, you apparently decided to sell yourself into some sort of child labor to get back.”
“To prove to you.” She lowered her lashes as she rested both hands on his chest. “No. To prove to myself.”
“Which is exactly what I guess I’m trying to say.” He held her hand, kissing her palm. “I cannot be honest with you, Sapphire, and tell you that I believe you were Edward’s daughter, but I can say that I believe you believe it and…”
“And what?” she whispered, praying he understood that everything rested on his next words.
“And so, I’m willing to return to London with you and find out if Edward did indeed marry your mother.” He looked into her eyes, lowering his head over hers. “If you will marry me in exchange.”
