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“For the time being,” he said, sitting down heavily in the seat beside her. “Mr. Harding said he may need my testimony again later, but for now, the ordeal is over.”
Her smile grew at that. “What a blessing.”
“Indeed.” Henry grew pensive, his fingers strumming against his knee. “I did as you suggested. I told David about our mother’s passing.”
He had? “How did he take it?”
“He was surprised. But...I think grateful to have the knowledge, all the same.”
She nudged his shoulder with her own. “This is the part where you tell me I was right all along,” she whispered.
Henry chuckled. “Very well. You were right. Happy now?”
She answered more sincerely. “Only if you are.”
Henry smiled at her and then nodded. “I think I’m finally coming to terms with what she did.” They sat in silence for a minute, and then Henry turned in his seat and faced her more fully, clearly ready to change the topic. “Did my uncle ever mention to you what happened on that beach?”
Dinah rested an elbow on the bit of bench back that snaked between them. “He told me an outlandish tale about him leaping off a cliff.”
Henry’s lips pulled to the side—an act she found incredibly distracting. “He told me the same tale. So I asked both Mr. Harding and your father about it. They confirmed his facts.”
“No.” Dinah sat up straight. “You don’t mean heactuallydid all that?”
Henry chuckled softly. “Makes one wonder which of his other outlandish tales are actually factual.”
Dinah’s mind swam with the idea. “Good heavens,” she muttered.
“It’s enough to give one pause.”
“Most assuredly.”
Henry placed a hand against the back of her seat. With the way their seats curved one into another, Dinah felt cocooned into him.
“Youare enough to give one pause,” he said in a low, husky voice.
“Is that so?” Her gaze jumped to his lips once again.
“I have a confession.”
She leaned in. “Do tell.”
“I was wrong when I said I’d never fall in love with you.”
Dinah’s heart leapt within her, and for a moment, she believed she knew how it had felt for Uncle when he’d jumped off the cliff, sailing down through gunfire.
“You were?” she whispered.
“Most certainly. For, you see,” he dropped his head, his lips trailing whispered kissed across her jaw, “I have most decidedly fallen in love with you.”
Dinah’s eyes fluttered shut. “I always knew you would.”
Henry laughed, his breath heating her neck. “You are a remarkable woman, Dinah.” He pulled back just enough for their eyes to meet. “I love your spirit and persistence. I love the fearless fire coursing through you.” His voice slowed. “I love that you never gave up on me.”
Dinah cupped his face in both her hands. “And I never will, no matter what.”
They kissed again, only the thin railing of the courting bench keeping them apart. This kiss left Dinah completely breathless. She felt it through her whole body: the tingles, the heat, the coursing desire. She’d not known a kiss could affect one so wholly.
“You know,” Dinah said when they’d finally pulled apart, “I just realized there is one more veryconvenientaspect to our marriage.”
