Jacquie D'Alessandro - [Regency Historical 04]
Page 32
“A stroll would be lovely.”
Something that looked like relief flashed in his eyes. He helped her alight, very properly, his hand not lingering on hers even a fraction of a second too long, a fact which unreasonably and ridiculously disappointed her. Then, with a courtly gesture, he extended his arm. After she tucked her hand around the crook of his elbow, they entered the pleasure garden.
Hundreds of globe lanterns twinkled in the tall trees, illuminating the moonlit darkness, lending the landscape a fairylike glow. People strolled the paths in couples, families, and groups, laughing, chatting, many heading toward the private booths where the ham was notoriously thin sliced and the wines notoriously splendid.
They walked in silence down the beautiful Grand Walk, lined on both sides by soaring, globe-dotted trees, and Alex’s mind drifted back to all the nights she’d spent here, studying the wealthy patrons, deciding which ones would make the easiest marks. So lost in her thoughts was she, she didn’t realize they’d turned onto a lesser traveled path until Colin said softly, “This has always been my favorite part of the gardens.”
Jerked back to the present, she looked around, and an odd tingle ran through her. This was the exact spot where she’d first seen him.
“Mine as well,” she said before she could stop herself.
He stopped, then turned to face her. “If only this very spot was always warm and safe and filled with golden sunshine and green meadows blooming with colorful flowers, it could be your perfect place.”
Warm surprise and pleasure suffused her. “You remembered what I said.”
He lightly clasped her hands and heated tingles raced up her arms. “My sweet Alexandra, I recall the very first words you said to me. And the last words as well. And all the words in between.”
“What were the first words?”
His eyes searched hers. “Don’t you remember?”
It’s you. “My memory is not as good as yours,” she hedged.
“Then you probably don’t recall my first words to you.”
I’m very fond of that watch. “Do you?”
“Yes.” He released her hands, and she immediately missed their warmth. Instead of resuming their walk, however, he slipped his watch from his waistcoat pocket. Even here, on this more dimly lit path, the fine gold gleamed against his palm. “I’m very fond of that watch,’” he said softly.
Her gaze jerked up to his. And realization slammed into her. Her knees suddenly trembled, and she actually felt the blood drain from her face. “You know,” she said, her shaking voice no more than a whisper. “You know. You’ve known all along.”
“Yes. Since the moment I saw you at Lady Malloran’s.” His gaze bored into hers. “Clearly you’ve known all along as well.”
Hot humiliation washed over her, turning her cheeks to fire. She nodded mutely, then a humorless laugh escaped her. “I cannot believe you remembered me. That you recognized me.”
“I never forgot you,” he said, his tone and eyes serious. “Your eyes. Your face. Your words. The way you looked at me. I spent hours searching for you that night. And every night I was in London after that. Even on this visit, I spent my first two nights in Town here at Vauxhall, roaming the paths, looking for you—a woman whose name I didn’t even know.”
She stared at him, stunned. “Why? Why would you do that?”
Reaching out, he brushed a single fingertip over her cheek. “Did you ever come back here and look for me?”
There was no point in not admitting the truth. “More times than I can count.”
“Then you know why I looked for you. For the same reasons you looked for me. I wanted to see you again. Wanted to know what happened to you. But most of all, I wanted to give you this.” Taking her hand, he pressed his watch into her palm.
She gaped at the exquisite gold timepiece, then raised her gaze to his and shook her head. “I cannot accept this.”
“You can.” He curled her fingers over the gold, which still bore the warmth from his palm. “I want you to have it. The moment I took it from you, I regretted doing so.”
A huff of stunned laughter rose in her throat. “I took it from you.”
“And I should have let you have it. You needed it far more than I. Please accept it now—as a token of my highest esteem and admiration.”
A humorless sound escaped her. “Esteem? Admiration? For a thief?”
“Esteem and admiration for the fights you’ve fought and won to no longer be a thief. You are…amazing.”
“I’m nothing of the sort.”
“The fact that we are standing here, four years later, and you have risen so far from where you were then, proves you are.” He touched his fingers under her chin. “Don’t belittle your accomplishments, Alexandra, or the strength and fortitude it required to achieve them. You’ve done so much, for yourself and the children you’re helping. I’m humbled by all you’ve done. And I’m proud to know you.”
Warm, giddy pleasure washed through her at his words. But what he was offering her…“Colin, this watch…it’s too much. I can’t—”
“Alexandra, accept my gift.” His gaze held hers. “Please.”
“I…I don’t know what to say.”
“Thank you?” he suggested with a half smile.
“Thank you. I’ll treasure it always.”
“I’m glad. Now, will you satisfy my curiosity about something?”
“If I can.”
“That night, you looked at me as if you knew me. And your words, ‘it’s you.’ What did you mean?”
Clutching his watch in her palm, she said, “For years, a handsome, dark-haired, green-eyed man has figured prominently in my card readings. When I saw you that night, I somehow knew you were the man.”
“Figured prominently in your card readings in what way?”
“That he would play an important role in my future.” She offered him a weak smile. “It appears the cards were once again correct.”
“I certainly hope so.”
She shook her head. “As those readings occurred in the past, our future has already happened. They’ve already proven correct.”
“Oh.” He drew a deep breath, then frowned. “There’s something I must tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve decided upon a wife.”
At his softly spoken words, all the color leaked from the evening, from the emotional intimacies they’d shared, leaving only drab shades of gray behind. She’d known this day would come, had thought she was prepared, but nothing had readied her for this knee-weakening blow. Pain and desolation, greater than any she’d ever experienced on London’s unforgiving streets, gripped her in a vise. “I…see.”
His gaze searched hers, then he shook his head. “No, I don’t think you do.” He reached out and folded her hands between his. “I knew I cared about you, but it wasn’t until after you ended our affair that I realized how much. And this morning, when I awoke after having spent a long, miserable night without you, wanting you every minute I lay there alone, I realized that I’m going to want you every night. That even if I could spend every minute with you, it still wouldn’t be enough. But I want to try.”
Everything inside her stilled. Her breath. Her heart. Her blood. “What are you saying?”
“That I’ve spent the last four years thinking about you. Wondering about you. I don’t want to wonder anymore. I want to know. Firsthand. Every day. I am insanely, ridiculously in love with you.” To her utter astonishment, he dropped to one knee before her. “Alexandra, will you marry me?”
Colin looked up at her, his heart hammering as if he’d sprinted across England, Vauxhall gravel digging into his knee and waited. Bloody hell, she was staring at him as if he’d sprouted another eyeball. Was that good? It didn’t seem particularly promising, but what did he know? He’d never proposed before.
Finally, she cleared her throat. “Have you been drinking?”
Definitely not the response he’d hoped for. “Not a
drop.”
She slipped the watch into her pocket, then gently tugged on his hands. “Please get up.”
After he rose, she squeezed his hands, and he detected the sheen of tears in her eyes. “I am touched and stunned by your offer, but you cannot possibly consider marrying a woman like me.”
“A woman like you?”
She made an exasperated sound. “Why are you being deliberately obtuse? You know what I was.”
“Yes. And I know what you are. Kind. Caring. Compassionate. Warm, witty, and intelligent. Everything I’ve ever wanted.”
She shook her head. “You could have any woman you want.”
“So I always thought. Yet it appears that the one I want doesn’t want me.”
“This isn’t about what I want. This is about what I cannot have.”
“Yet I offer myself to you. Me and my title and all my worldly goods.”
Her face paled. “I don’t want your title or your worldly goods,” she said, sounding utterly appalled.
“That is a sentence I’d wager no other woman in England would ever say to me without benefit of a gun pointed at her head. The fact you did, and that I know you mean it, only makes me love you more.”
“B…but what of your responsibility to your title?”
“It is to marry and produce an heir, an obligation I take very seriously. And one I intend to honor. With you.”
“Colin, you are meant for another. For a highborn woman who comes from the same social background as you.”
“There was a time when I would have agreed, but no longer. You may believe yourself below those women, but I don’t. Your riches are simply of another sort—things that money cannot buy. Character. Integrity. Loyalty. Bravery. I was meant for you, Alexandra. My destiny is you.”
She was silent for several seconds, then said, “Colin, I lived selfishly for years, taking things that didn’t belong to me—”
“In order to survive.”
“While that’s true, it doesn’t change the selfishness of the act. I can’t go back to that—to thinking only of me. Your life is in Cornwall. Mine is here. I have responsibilities here. To Emma, Robbie, and the other children. I’ve made a commitment to them. To myself. I can’t just abandon those things.”
He raised their entwined hands and rested them against his chest. “I’ve thought about that, and I believe I have a solution. I was thinking we could spend half the year in Cornwall, then half here. We could use Willow Pond as a training ground of sorts for the children you wish to help—get them away from London and teach them practical skills. How to work in the stables, how to cook, that sort of thing. Prepare them to lead productive lives. Robbie certainly seemed to enjoy his visit there. Perhaps during the months we’re in Cornwall, where you’d enjoy the sea, Emma could see to things at Willow Pond.”
She appeared stunned. “You would do that?”
“I would do anything for you.” He leaned forward and touched his forehead to hers. “For years I’ve felt useless and unnecessary. You, your cause, make me feel needed. I have the resources to help you. I want to help you. Let me.”
She leaned back, her eyes filled with hope and confusion and trepidation. “But what about your family? Your father? Surely he’d be appalled at your not choosing a peer’s daughter to marry.”
“Nathan and Victoria have already given me their blessing, and Victoria has promised to help ease your way into Society. As for my father, I’m certain he’ll come to love you, but even if he doesn’t, it makes no difference. I’ll marry you or no one. I’ve had no more nightmares, and I no longer feel the danger that drove me to seek out a wife at this time. But I want one just the same. You. Only you.”
His gaze searched hers. “Do you remember when we spoke about our ‘perfect person’?”
“Yes.”
“You are my perfect person. Is there any hope I could be yours?”
Her bottom lip trembled. “You always have been,” she whispered.
He eased his hands from hers and framed her face between his palms—that intriguing face that had captivated him from the first instant he saw it. “Do you love me, Alexandra?”
Huge tears pooled in her eyes. “I am insanely, ridiculously in love with you.”
He briefly squeezed his eyes shut. “Thank God.” He opened his eyes and a smile pulled up one corner of his mouth. “So you’re ‘ridiculanely’ in love with me?”
She laughed. “I am.”
“And you’ll marry me?”
“Yes,” she said in breathless voice, then laughed again. “Yes!”
Having finally heard the only word he’d wanted to hear for the past half hour, he held her tight against him and kissed her, a long, slow, deep kiss filled with all the wild love and passion careening through him. When he lifted his head, he looked down into beautiful chocolate brown eyes sparkling with love and happiness.
“Tell me,” he whispered against her lips. “What does Madame Larchmont predict for our future?”
“Love. Happiness. Children. Marzipan. And lots of frosting.”
“Fabulous. Frosting is my favorite. Anything about the billiards room?”
Her laughter warmed his lips. “As a matter of fact…yes. Actually, frosting in the billiards room.”
“That is very good news, indeed.”
“In fact, I’d call it ‘increderful’—incredible and wonderful.”
Laughing, he hugged her against him and twirled her off her feet. “My sweet Alexandra, I couldn’t have said it better myself.”
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people for their invaluable help and support:
My editor, Erika Tsang, and all the wonderful people at Avon/HarperCollins for their kindness, cheerleading and for helping make my dreams come true.
My agent, Damaris Rowland, for her faith and wisdom.
Jenni Grizzle and Wendy Etherington for keeping me going and always being up for champagne and cheesecake.
Thanks also to Sue Grimshaw, Kathy Baker, Kay and Jim Johnson, Kathy and Dick Guse, Lea and Art D’Alessandro, and Michelle, Steve, and Lindsey Grossman.
A cyber hug to my Looney Loopies Connie Brockway, Marsha Canham, Virginia Henley, Jill Gregory, Sandy Hingston, Julia London, Kathleen Givens, Sherri Browning, and Julie Ortolon, and also to the Temptresses.
A very special thank-you to the members of Georgia Romance Writers.
And finally, thank you to all the wonderful readers who have taken the time to write or e-mail me. I love hearing from you!
About the Author
JACQUIE D’ALESSANDRO Growing up on Long Island, New York, I fell in love with romance at an early age. I dreamed of being swept away by a dashing rogue riding a spirited stallion. When my hero finally showed up, he was dressed in jeans and drove a Volkswagen, but I recognized him anyway. We married after both graduating from Hofstra University and are now living our happily-ever-afters in Atlanta, Georgia, along with our very bright and active son, who is a dashing rogue in the making. I love to hear from readers! You can contact me through my website at www.JacquieD.com.
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By Jacquie D’Alessandro
NEVER A LADY
NOT QUITE A GENTLEMAN
LOVE AND THE SINGLE HEIRESS
WHO WILL TAKE THIS MAN?
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
NEVER A LADY. Copyright © 2006 by Jacquie D’Alessandro. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineer
ed, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Adobe Digital Edition October 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-199114-1
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