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‘Nell, it is history now.’ He put an arm around her shoulders and held her tight.
‘It is not. How can it be? Salterton, or whoever he was, said that he was the agent of an old foretelling. He called me Helena. I asked him what he meant and he said, You will find out. All of you. The children will pay for the sins of their fathers. It has been seen and it has been said. And he knows you—did you hear him say you have not changed?’
‘I don’t know him, it is more of his tricks. He has gone, Nell, and the threat with him.’
She knew every tone of his voice, the feel of his body, and something did not ring true. ‘You don’t believe that, do you? You do not truly believe he is dead.’
‘He should be. I
hit him square in the shoulder, the water was deep and fast and bitter cold.’ Marcus paused, then said, ‘I’ll not lie to you, Nell. I will not be sure until I see his dead body.’
‘Then we must take precautions,’ she said, trying to sound matter-of-fact. ‘I will need a large footman-bodyguard at my new shop.’
Marcus got up abruptly and began to light candles until the room was ablaze with light.
‘Marcus?’
‘I want to see your face, Nell. Look.’ He held out the thing he had been holding by the window, a cut and frayed length of silken cord. ‘I took this off your wrists. I faced what it would have felt like to lose you and I cannot bear that again. I love you, Nell, you know that. Marry me.’
‘Your parents,’ she said hopelessly. ‘The scandal.’
‘My father adores you, my mother enquired tartly when I was going to make an honest woman of you, commenting that I did not deserve you.’
‘Oh.’ Unable to look at him, Nell picked at the frayed ends of the cord. It had dried and the intertwining colours showed vividly: deep rose-red, periwinkle-blue, golden yellow. ‘But—’
‘The scandal. I would say to hell with it and what anyone says, but I’ll not have anyone hurt you, Nell. We will go away for a long honeymoon, visit Longrigg, the Carlow estate in Northumberland. It will be a nine-day wonder, for those who recall who Helena Wardale is. When we come back there will be other scandals, you will see, and what there is we will face down together.’
‘Truly?’ she questioned. ‘Marcus, the past—’
‘The past is gone into history. We must build a new life, new memories.’
Something very like hope stirred. We, he had said. We. ‘Marcus, do you truly want to marry me?’
‘I love you, Nell.’ He stood by the bed looking down at her, smiling ruefully. ‘I will love you always, whether you’ll have me or not. But say yes. You like me a little, I have it on good authority that you love my frown. You seem to enjoy my lovemaking. Could you learn to love me just a little too, Nell?’
‘Learn?’ Her voice was all over the place. She very much feared she was going to cry. ‘I love you already, you idiot man. I’ve loved you for weeks. But I thought it would be wrong, I thought it would hurt you, Marcus. Marc, darling—don’t look like that…’ The smile had faded as she spoke, his eyes had darkened, he looked as though he was in shock.
‘Don’t I look like a man who has just been given his heart’s desire?’ he asked after a moment that seemed to stretch for ever. ‘Like a man who is realising that he has found his soulmate and that, by some miracle, she feels the same way? I’m not sure quite how to contain so much happiness, what to do with it, Nell.’
‘We could make love,’ she suggested, realising that tears were trickling down her face and that she did not care, she was so happy. ‘Would that make it better?’
‘That would make the end of the world better, Nell,’ he said, smiling at her.
‘And you won’t need to be careful?’ she suggested as he bent to unbutton the long row of bone buttons on the chaste nightgown.
‘No, I won’t need to be careful,’ he agreed, his voice husky. ‘You know, Nell, that night after Salterton broke in here, when I saw your robe with its careful darns, I swore I was going to buy you something pretty and frivolous from Bond Street. Just think what fun we can have shopping,’ he murmured, bowing his head to take her right nipple into his mouth, his teeth and his tongue together making her gasp as it hardened and peaked.
‘We would come back, laden with bandboxes.’ He released it and leant over to tease the other one. ‘And you would try everything on for me.’ His tongue trailed lower as his hands pushed the nightgown apart.
‘And then I would take it all off again?’ Nell managed to gasp as his tongue circled lazily in her navel.
‘Oh, yes. Very, very, slowly. Of course, you’ve got these nightgowns already and it would be extravagant to replace them while there’s wear in them.’ Marcus gripped the sides and tore. ‘Damn, look at that. Quite unwearable.’
‘I do love you,’ Nell said, a laugh escaping her despite the utter havoc Marcus was causing to her internal equilibrium. He was managing to simultaneously shed his dressing gown and kiss his way along her hipbones. ‘But, Marc, please, I don’t think I can bear this. I want you, now, this moment.’
‘You’ve got me,’ he said, his eyes bright in the candlelight.
‘Inside me,’ she said, and felt herself blushing.
