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‘Clare!’
She turned and ran, stumbling over the rough ground.
Straight towards the cliff edge.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Rawcliffe pounded over the close-cropped turf, steadily gaining on her. His legs were far longer and she was hampered by her skirts. Her bonnet tumbled from her head so that her hair streamed out behind her like flames from a rocket.
He caught up to her in the sheltered hollow, where they’d spent the afternoon before, in such bliss.
‘Clare,’ he said again, hauling her into his arms and crushing her to his chest. ‘Don’t, don’t, don’t…’
‘Don’t what?’ She lifted her tear-stained face to look at him in confusion. ‘Cry? I cannot help it. I am…’ She waved her arms in agitation. ‘You have…’
‘I know, I know, but truly, Clare, I didn’t mean what I said.’
‘Didn’t you?’
‘No!’ He looked into her eyes and then, fearing lest Cottam should still be lurking, and might overhear what he had to say next, he simply took her face between his hands and kissed her. Kissed her until, with a half-smothered little cry, she put her arms round his waist and kissed him back.
‘I know, what I said was a betrayal of what we’ve shared this last few days,’ he breathed into her ear, since it was the only way he could be sure that only she heard his words. ‘But when he admitted he was the one behind your father’s decision to keep us apart, back then, and threatened to tear us apart again, I thought that if I could make him believe that I’d grown into a cynical, harsh bastard who would treat you like a whore, he might give up. I was desperate, Clare. I couldn’t go back to the way I’d been for so many years. When everything felt like dust and ashes when I thought you meant all those horrible things you said when you turned down my proposal.’
‘But I didn’t say any of them.’
‘Yes, yes,’ he said, raining kisses on her face. ‘I know that now. But that doesn’t alter the fact that I was miserable for years. And so lonely.’
‘Lonely! But you had so many other women—’
‘But none of them were you. So how could any of them heal the hurt you dealt by rebuffing me, in such terms—’
‘But I didn’t.’
‘I didn’t know that, though, did I? I thought you despised me. And it changed everything. Before that day at the duck pond, I made the most of what women wanted to share with me. It was all just…like a game. But the game turned deadly when I started to believe I could never have you. And every encounter after that just felt empty and sordid. And I raged at you for ruining it for me—’
To his shock, this time she was the one to stop his mouth with a kiss. Which was no mean feat since she was so much shorter than him.
‘I raged at you, too,’ she said. ‘Because you flaunted your women under my nose. And made me feel small and unattractive, and unfeminine…’
‘Ah, darling, I’m sorry. It was a terrible way to show you how much I loved you, wasn’t it? And even now we’re married, I’ve treated you abominably.’
‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘Yes, I know. You believe that no wife should complain about the way her husband behaves, even if he beats her,’ he reflected bitterly. ‘That you must be loyal to me because of the vows you made in church.’
She reached up, grabbed him by the ears and kissed him again.
‘It’s because I love you, you idiot,’ she said. ‘Not because of the vows. Not altogether. And anyway, do you really think a woman who didn’t love her husband would put up with being taken on a bride trip that was arranged purely for the purpose of investigating a crime?’
‘You knew?’ He felt as if someone had just punched him in the gut. ‘How did you know? How long have you known?’
‘I only worked it out today, really. Just now, as I was walking along the cliff tops. I started putting two and two together.’
‘I will drop the investigation, Clare.’
‘What? Why would you do any such thing?’
‘Because he is your brother. He was right. You would not be able to live with the man who’d been responsible for sending your brother to the gallows.’
