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As soon as he reached her and put a hand on the low of her back, his reassuring touch broke the dam on her composure.
She burst out, “I left all my sketches back at the church—!”
Unfortunately, it was at the same moment he said, “—We should go to Gretna Green.”
Diane stared back at Liam, comprehension slowly dawning on her.
Gretna Green.
Just across the Scottish border.
To the anvil.
Diane swallowed, wondering if she should ask him to clarify that he meant to visit Gretna Green to elope, and not for perhaps, a fun day trip to see some sights.
One look at his face clarified the matter for her.
She regarded his expression, serious as ever, watching her, waiting for her answer.
Marry. Liam.
Marry Liam Graves.
Marry beautiful, handsome Liam, who had indulged her silly whims today, who kissed her in the garden, who had stolen a carriage with her without a second thought.
If someone had suggested the idea of Liam proposing a day or two ago, she would have needed a fainting couch to swoon into. If it had been Liam she’d been standing across the altar from, would she have even run from the church? Or would she have been too busy admiring his chiseled jaw?
She’d spent the whole morning wishing she liked even one thing about her husband. There were plenty of things she liked about Liam.
And somehow, it wasn’t enough.
Why wasn’t it the answer she had been waiting for? Why did it feel like putting a patch over a much larger problem?
The memory of his reaction this morning, when he’d discovered her scandalous hobby still hung over her mind like a black cloud on the horizon. What if saying yes to him meant going back to everything she’d just run away from?
She had taken too long to answer already, just wondering all of it over.
Liam’s expression dropped, understanding dawning in his eyes. “You don’t want to.”
“It’s a bit of a big question,” she sputtered, defending her hesitation. “I mean, I just jilted a man. And an hour ago I was ‘not the woman you thought I was’! What if in an hour you reveal to me something that demonstrates I don’t really know you either?”
Liam took a few paces from her, rounding the side of the cart to take up the reins from the stand. He scrubbed a hand across his face. “You know me as well as you know Martin, and you were ready to marry him.”
“Clearly I wasn’t,” Diane scoffed. “If I had been, I wouldn’t be here!”
“How long do you want to decide? A year? A few months?” Liam asked, looking incredulous. Or really, as incredulous as his terminally stoic face would allow. He sighed and took a step closer, schooling his voice into something softer. “We have little more than a day before someone catches up with us, if that. They likely think we’ve gone to Scotland to elope.”
“So we should just do whatever best suits what they’re thinking of us?” Diane replied scathingly. She already knew what he was telling her, but she hadn’t wanted to face it just yet. They didn’t have long to figure out a plan, even if she wasn’t ready to make plans.
“I’m saying you should do what’s best for yourself—” Liam cut himself off with a grumble, scrubbing a hand over his face in frustration, then sighing, “No. I’m not going to debate you into marrying me. I made my offer: take my hand, or don’t.”
A deeply romantic proposal, Diane wanted to retort, but she bit the inside of her cheek down on the reply.
As upset as she was, Liam had offered something he hadn’t needed to. He had opened up a part of himself to her, for her own sake, and here she was, rebuking him for it.
The anger and annoyance faded with an ache in her heart.
Liam deserved better than to be the person to clean up the messes of others. Whenever during her courtship Martin had blundered in conversation, Liam was always quick to put in a comment to course-correct him. He had run away with her in the carriage trying to fix her vows to Martin even as she had been snapping them over her knee. And here he was now, trying to do the honorable thing and fix this mess she had put them in.
