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A grunt of a laugh lifted through his throat. “Whatever I have to pay, it’ll be worth it.” His eyes squinted at her. “So, you haggle with vendors?”
“I do. And I’m rather good at it.”
“I could use you in my business.”
“Your business?” Her voice caught, her forehead dropping and hiding her eyes from him. “What exactly is your current business? Did your father’s letter…”
He captured her cheeks between his hands and tilted her face up to him. “Was what I needed. It was the proof I needed, and it’s now backed up by a witness testimony from the man that married my parents in Scotland—an apothecary of all things—and within another month, witness testimonials from the midwife that was at my birth and the clergyman in Belize will arrive. The solicitor in London verified everything in the letter. There is so much proof it will be impossible to deny me—I have already been assured of it by the House of Lords.”
Her head shook. “Strider…I cannot even imagine. All I have taken from you. If I had known, if I had been stronger, if I hadn’t been so scared, if I—”
His lips cut off her words, kissing her to silence. He broke the kiss, his eyes opening to her. “You are here now. I am here now. From this moment on, we are only forward. I never want to hear you flog yourself on this score again. My own sins are so many—far more than yours—I could spend years flogging myself for everything I’ve done. But I don’t want that. We can live in the past or we can live in the now. I want you. I want us. I want little girls that look exactly like you running about my legs. I want to drag you up to Scotland so we can have the same apothecary marry us that married my parents.”
Her eyes went wide. “You want to elope to Scotland?”
“I do. We can leave as soon as possible. I want to have you in my bed with all the propriety that you deserve—something my mother would much more approve of than what just happened under this tree.” His finger lifted, pointing at the branches shielding them from the world.
“Oh, no.” Both of her hands flew in front of her face. “Spirits don’t see everything, do they?”
He laughed. “I hope not. But truly, she would enjoy this—not the current nakedness we find ourselves in—but to know that we found each other again. That the bond of our family was battered but never broken. She would be happy with this.”
Pen nodded. “She would.”
“So you’ll abscond to Scotland with me?”
She smiled, nothing but the purest love shining in her eyes. “I will. Anywhere with you, I will go.”
{ Chapter 26 }
A string of beautiful, glistening horses walked in front of her and Pen looked down, smoothing the front of the pale green dress that Juliet had found for her from the wardrobes at the Willows. She still wasn’t accustomed to the color—of any color, truly, on her body.
To see her arm in peach or green or blue was disconcerting, so much so that she always assumed it wasn’t her own arm she was seeing. And she couldn’t quite believe the finery on her body and how it was on display for all the world to see.
Specifically, the world of lords and ladies and gentlemen that had gathered on these green fields. Instead of being safely ensconced in Strider’s naked arms in his bed, she was here. Here in a world she knew nothing about, other than the limited tutorial that Daphne had guided her through a week ago at Vauxhall Gardens.
What had Daphne said to her? She had to pretend no one was looking at her, had to think of all of these ladies and gentlemen naked before they got dressed.
When everyone was naked, everyone was equal.
Those were the words she needed to quell the little voice inside her head that screamed that she was a fraud. That she didn’t belong amongst these people. That every one of them was watching her, judging her.
The warm heat of Strider suddenly blanketed her from behind, shielding her from the crisp of the day, and she looked over her shoulder to him. He was in the finest clothes she’d ever seen him in—impeccably tailored tailcoat and trousers in the blackest black, a waistcoat that had the thinnest stripes of copper lending it a dash of color, and a masterfully tied cravat. Not to mention the crisp top hat on his head. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him in a hat. Even when they were young, Mama June would always hand him a cap in Belize that he would always drop outside the front door.
A cutting figure, he made in this crowd.
Fighting down her rising apprehension at the people about them and how out of place she was, she smiled at him. “Tell me again why we are here.”
“I thought you might enjoy the races today. They’re held so close to the Willows that I thought it would be a fun escape.” He moved to her side, pressing a glass of pink-hued punch into her white-gloved hand. “Plus, it is giving Juliet a day to gather up a proper wardrobe for you for our journey to the Scottish border. She said last night she needed more than a few hours to do so and I want you in only the finest. In addition, I hate it when I cross her. She can be a bear.”
Pen chuckled. She was liking Juliet more and more. “You must know I don’t care what I’m wearing, Strider.”
“But I care. I want you never to have to think of dull, black, scratchy clothes again. Give me this?”
The right side of her face quirked into a smile even as she shook her head at him. “Another day won’t hurt a thing.”
“We leave tomorrow with the sunrise.”
She nodded and then pointed to the horses parading in front of them. “But why horse racing instead of lying about in your bed for the day?”
