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Her eyes fell but not before he saw the hurt blaze in them. ‘You don’t have to say that. I don’t want you to lie to make me feel better.’
‘The only person I’ve been lying to was myself.’ Seb took her chin and tilted it, trying to make her see the sincerity in his eyes.
‘Love, it’s complicated. It’s messy and emotional and difficult. I wasn’t ready for it. But then you came sauntering in with your hats and that mouth—’ his eyes dropped to her mouth, lush and full even without its usual coating of slick red ‘—your camera and your absolute belief in love. Your belief in me and in Hawksley and you turned my world upside down. And not just because of the baby.’
Her eyes blazed blue with hope. ‘Really?’
‘I hadn’t been able to stop thinking of you since that first night,’ he told her frankly. It was all or nothing time. ‘I asked the groom who you were the next morning and he sent me a link to your website. I must have clicked onto the contact me button a dozen times. But I was afraid. Nobody had ever got under my skin like that before. And then you came back...’
She laughed softly. ‘You looked like you’d seen a ghost.’
Seb smiled back down at her, the warmth creeping back into her voice giving him a jolt of hope. ‘I couldn’t believe my luck. But I was terrified too. Of how you made me feel. How much I wanted you. There was nothing sensible about that. And the more I got to know you, Daisy, the more terrified I was.’
‘I’m that scary?’ A light had begun to shine in her eyes, the full mouth quivering.
‘You are quite frankly the most terrifying woman I have ever met—and I am including your mother in that. And if you ever begin to believe in yourself, Daisy Huntingdon-Cross, then I don’t think there is anything you won’t achieve. Because—’ he moved in slightly closer, emboldened by the curve of her smile ‘—you are definitely the smartest out of the two of us. It took you leaving for me to acknowledge how I felt about you. But now that I have I want to tell you every day. Every hour of every day. I love you, Daisy, and I really, really hope that you will marry me in two days.’
With those words the load he had been carrying for so long, the fear, the shame, finally broke free. Whatever her answer he would always be grateful to her for that—even if he had to spend the rest of his life proving the truth of his words to her.
‘You love me? You think I’m smart?’ Her voice broke and he dropped her chin to encircle her waist, pulling her in close. He inhaled the soft floral scent of her hair. It was like coming home.
‘Ridiculously so.’ Reluctantly he let her go, backing into the half-open door and pushing it open, taking her hand and pulling her inside.
‘You’re not the only one to see that the house needs changing, needs making into a home. I can’t begin to match what you’ve achieved but I’m trying to make a start.’
Daisy stood stock-still, staring at the wall. Gone was the line of stern portraits; no more bewigged gentleman with terrifying eyebrows or stern Victorians with bristling moustaches. Even Seb’s grandfather had been removed to a more fitting place in the long gallery.
Instead two huge canvas prints hung on the wall, surrounded by smaller black-and-white prints of Hawksley: the castle, the woods, the gardens. Her photos.
She looked up at the photos, eyes widening as she took in the photo of Seb. It was the one she’d taken of him in Oxford, the light behind him. It felt hubristic having such a large picture of himself on his own wall.
But it wasn’t just his wall now.
Flanking him was another black-and-white photo, this time of Daisy—also at work. The trees framed her as she held the camera up to her face, her profile intent, her focus absolute.
‘Where...?’ She gaped up at the picture. ‘Where on earth did you get that?’
‘I took it.’ Seb tried and failed to keep the pride out of his voice. ‘I had a moment in between those photobooth shots and I turned around—and there you were. Lost in the moment. So I snapped it. I saved it onto my computer, thought you might want it for your website or something.’
‘It’s actually pretty good, nice composition.’
‘Total and utter fluke,’ he admitted. ‘Daisy—’ he took her hands in his ‘—I want the castle, every room, every decision we make to be about us. About you, me and the baby. I want to help you turn Hawksley into a family home. Into a house full of love and laughter. I asked you to marry me three weeks ago for all sorts of sensible reasons. I told you marriage was a business. I was a fool.
