AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“That you love me?” Annie asked breathlessly.
“Completely true.” Luke held tighter to her hands. “I love you, more than I had thought it possible for me to love. I wish to marry you, Annie. If I could rewrite what happened, then I would have done all of this very differently. I would have approached your mother from the outset to ask for a courtship, but I fear she would have said no regardless.”
“She certainly would have done.”
“As Jemima told me last night, I cannot undo what has been done. I can only move forward from here.” Luke smiled a little, aware that Annie still hadn’t said she loved him too, nor that she wished to marry him. The thought of Mr Knight leaving minutes before made him tremble with a little fear.
“I love you,” he said again, surprised at how light he felt when he uttered the words. “I will strive every day of our lives to make you happy if…you will have me. Would you marry me, Annie?” He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“I love you too,” she whispered softly. “But....”
“But.” He repeated the word, feeling a weight had dropped in his stomach. He had gone from elation at her declaration to utter misery at that single word. He lifted her hands to his lips again, needing that touch. He held one of her hands close to his lips, kissing it with a desperate need.
“But Mr Knight has proposed too.”
Luke could have shouted at the mere thought of it. He would have happily ranted and raged, but he did none of it. He stayed exactly where he was and held onto her, needing that closeness.
“I wish to marry you, Luke. Truly, I do.” Her words filled him with hope again. “But I do not know what my mother will make me do. She may make me marry Mr Knight yet.”
“If you had the freedom of choice, Annie. If your mother lets you decide with your own heart, would you marry me?” Luke asked, trying to keep the need out of his voice. “I vow to be a better husband than I have been a suitor. I’d be as kind as I possibly might be every day to you—”
“I do not doubt it,” she said with a small giggle. At last, those tears escaped her eyes. One trickled down her cheek. Luke lifted his hand and cradled her cheek, drying that tear with a brush of his thumb. “I wish to say yes,” she whispered, resting her face in the crook of his hand. “Truly, I do.”
“Then we must wait for your mother’s answer.”
Luke glanced toward the maid. Once he was certain she was too busy looking at the crockery to take notice, he stepped forward and kissed Annie on the forehead, needing that touch. She sighed in his hold, but their moment was quickly broken. Voices were growing nearer through the corridor.
Luke stepped back from Annie, though he still held onto her hand, not wishing to release her now. She did the same, clinging to him, just as the door opened. Lady Maybury stepped in first, looking rather lost and confused, before being followed in by the Earl, who had a smile as he leaned on the doorframe.
“Well, Lord Yeatman, your father can certainly sing your praises.” Lady Maybury offered a smile with her words, even though it didn’t last long. “I half wonder if what I have read of you all these years in the scandal sheets is entirely true.”
“It is not,” the Earl answered before Luke could. “They know only a little of his life, my lady. They cannot know him as well as his father does.”
Lady Maybury nodded before turning her focus on her daughter.
“Well, what a choice you now have, Annie.”
“A choice?” Annie said, her voice spluttering in surprise.
“Yes. You may make a choice.” Lady Maybury held her daughter’s gaze as she spoke. “You have two proposals before you, Mr Knight’s and Lord Yeatman’s. The choice is entirely yours, and I will respect that choice.”
Luke felt his heart thud harder in his chest as he, too, turned his eyes on Annie. When she gave her answer, he couldn’t help gripping her hand tightly in his own.
“I choose Lord Yeatman. Yes, my lord, I will marry you.”
