by Mary Nichols
She simply stared at him with her mouth open.
‘Go on,’ he urged. ‘Say it. Say, “Duncan Blair, I do not love you. I will never love you.”’
She dropped the petticoat on the floor and silently stared at him.
‘Are you going to speak?’
She shook her head.
He took her face into his hands, tipping it up so that he could look into her eyes. Tears glistened on her lashes and he hated himself for causing her unhappiness. ‘I am sorry for the Turkish treatment, my love. I wanted you to change your mind about marrying me. I wanted you to see that we belong together and instead of that I nearly drove you away. Will you forgive me?’
She found her voice at last, but it was so weak he had to listen hard to hear it. ‘If you had decided against Lady Macgowan, why didn’t you ask me again after Mr Benstead had been instead of letting me think you would let me go?’
He smiled. ‘And risk another put-down? I do not think, even then, you were ready to admit the truth.’
‘And what is that?’
‘That we love each other, that it is of no consequence at all who we are, princess or lady’s maid, common soldier or aristocrat, it makes no difference.’
‘And Papa? The manner of his death…’
‘Good heavens, you did not think I considered that, did you?’
She nodded.
‘I think your father was wiser than you have given him credit for,’ he said slowly. ‘He made my father your guardian because he knew that if you came to Scotland you would be sure to meet me and he hoped we would make a match of it. It was his last gamble.’
She knew he was only saying that to make her feel better about her father and she loved him all the more for it.
‘It was mine too,’ he said. ‘I gambled on making you accept the truth and it nearly finished me.’
She laughed. ‘It was no greater than the risk I took, especially as I did not know I was taking it. But are you sure…?’
His answer was to lower his mouth to hers in a kiss which went on for a very long time and drove all their doubts away.
‘Helen.’ It was Margaret’s soft voice which made them draw apart.
‘In here,’ Duncan said, raising his head reluctantly, then, as his sister-in-law appeared beside the broken door, ‘I have breached the defences. Miss Sanghurst has capitulated. You may congratulate me.’
‘Oh, indeed I do.’ She hurried to embrace them both. ‘I never thought to see you wed, Duncan, you have taken a prodigious time coming to it.’
‘But I had to wait to meet my match, didn’t I?’ he said, smiling at Helen. Then, turning to his sister-in-law, ‘And I intend to have words with you later…’
‘Why, what have I done?’
‘Duncan, please,’ Helen said. ‘Margaret did not know, did not understand. There is no need..’
He smiled. ‘You are right, my darling. No recriminations. I am too happy. Let us go down and tell the others. We must celebrate.’
Which they did, to everyone’s satisfaction.
ISBN: 978-1-474-03567-5
THE LAST GAMBLE
© 1996 Mary Nichols
Published in Great Britain 2015
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, 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 publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ®are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk
