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'Abigail.'
No.
It can't be.
'Did he just use your name? The rider?' Winnie whispered in Abigail's ear. 'Do you know him?'
'The horse's name is Blossom, Abigail.' Marcus' voice split the quiet evening air like lightning. 'Blossom.'
Abigail's chest unknotted all at once. A dizzying release of tension that made her tremble, suddenly breathless. Clutching her chest, trying in vain to tell her heart to stop beating quite so fast, she opened her eyes.
Of course the horse's name was Blossom. Now that Marcus had told her, she couldn't imagine the spirited grey mare being called anything else. Because it was Marcus, sitting astride Blossom, dressed in the same black clothes of a highwayman that he had worn the first night Abigail had seen him.
Marcus, breathing hard, as if he had ridden the length and breadth of England to find her.
'Abigail, do you know this person?' Winnie had opened her eyes, and was now staring at Marcus with a look of abject terror on her face. 'This--this bandit?'
'Yes, I do. And he's no bandit.' Abigail paused. 'Well--he's a sort of bandit. But also a duke.'
'Pardon?'
'A duke.'
'is he--'
'Yes.'
'Oh, Abigail!'
'Winnie, do you mind holding your hands over your ears for a moment? I fear the conversation that's about to happen won't be for everyone to listen to.'
‘Absolutely not. This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me in a good long while. Possibly ever.’ The fear had drained out of Winnie’s expression, leaving pure excitement. ‘I’m going to listen to every word.’
‘Then could you at least turn your back?’
‘I don’t want to, but I will.’ Winnie smiled. ‘I’ll go and look at the old nest I saw in the hedge a few paces away.’
That was probably about as much discretion from Winnie as she was going to get. Abigail shook her head softly, smiling as Winnie pulled her into an embrace.
'If you need me to run home and summon someone, I'll do it.'
'I don't want you running anywhere for anything. And there's no need to.' Now that the shock had receded, Abigail felt the first stirrings of joy. Joy overlaid with caution, but still shining. 'Truly.'
Pacified, Winnie nodded. With a last look at Abigail and a stare at Marcus, she moved seven feet or so to the left and began to look with some interest at the section of the hedge where the nest presumably lay.
Even if Winnie was listening, it was as if she had stopped existing. Abigail took a deep, shuddering breath; now it was only her and Marcus, the sky beginning to darken, the air suddenly full of the wild, thrilling energy of that first night.
'Abigail.' Marcus dismounted in a single movement. Blossom stood still, apparently content with her silent role in the proceedings. 'I'm sorry. More sorry than you can imagine.'
'There's--there's no need.' Abigail began clambering down the muddy bank. The bottom of her gown was ruined by now, soaked through with mud and with stray grass strands clinging to it, but she didn't care. Nothing mattered but the fact that Marcus was here, right here, his face drawn with worry and what looked like sleepless nights. At least she didn't need to worry that her face showed too much of the emotion she'd suffered; his showed the same excess. 'No need at all.'
'I should have told you from the very beginning who I was. Been completely honest, just as you were with me.' Marcus took a step forward as Abigail reached the border of the lane. 'Because--'
'Because?'
'Because it was clear to me from the very beginning that you were singular. The most unique and splendid person that I have ever met. From that first night--that first moment.' Marcus paused for a brief, intense moment. 'And rather than attempt to conceal the facts of my life, believing that you would enjoy being kept in the dark... well, I should have been truthful from the first. I should have tried to deserve you, Abigail. I should have tried with all my heart.'
Suddenly it didn't matter to Abigail that her skirts were weighed down with mud. Every part of her was as light as air, floating with irrepressible happiness above the earth. She flew over the dusty path, throwing herself into Marcus' waiting arms.
