Chapter Twenty-Two #2
“Oh, Athena.” He shook his head, a smile inching its way across his face. “You had every right to be curt with me—angry, even. I should have been more honest with you. You had a right to know why I introduced you to the gentlemen I did.”
Athena looked away from him, a tear slipping from her eyes as she did. Harry knew in an instant she’d imagined some horrid motivation behind what he’d done.
“Athena, darling,” he whispered, pulling her into his arms, hoping to give as much comfort as he knew he would receive from the embrace.
Harry wasn’t entirely sure his heart could speed up any more than it did in that moment without bringing on his rather premature demise.
“I am sorry. I shouldn’t have been so duplicitous, but I simply couldn’t bear the idea of finding you a husband. ”
“Why not?” she asked, her head resting against his chest.
It was confession time. If Persephone had been mistaken and Athena was not, in fact, in love with him, Harry’s next words might very well signal the end of all his hopes.
He could not, however, deny the fact that she had not uttered a single objection as he’d touched her hair, caressed her face, or held her to him.
“Because I wanted you myself,” Harry admitted on a whisper. “I have loved you almost from the first time I met you, Athena. And if I did not have a chance to win you, I at least wanted you to recognize the sort of gentlemen who could never make you happy.”
“You wanted me to be happy?” she looked up at him, and Harry was certain he saw hope in her eyes.
“That is all I have ever wanted.”
“Then why did you not court me yourself?”
“Adam expressly forbade any fortune hunters from soliciting your hand,” Harry answered.
Athena cut him off before he could continue. “But you are not a fortune hunter. Mr. Rigby was a fortune hunter. You could never be so cruel and unfeeling and inherently dishonest.”
Harry felt his smile spread wider. “Adam told me essentially the same thing.” Harry locked his hands together behind Athena, relishing the warmth of her so close to him. “Although he used words I would not dare repeat in front of a lady.”
“Then Adam approves?” She smiled, though the dimple was not yet evident.
“I think Adam would condone and assist a kidnapping and elopement if he thought I would go along with the idea.”
The slightest hint of a blush suddenly appeared on Athena’s face, her expression instantly almost bashful. Harry was beyond intrigued. “I wouldn’t object to a kidnapping,” she said quietly. She smiled as she spoke, and that one enchanting dimple made its long-awaited appearance.
“I have wanted to do this for ages,” Harry whispered, more to himself than to Athena.
“Do what?” she asked, the last word cutting off mid-syllable as Harry took hold of her face and leaned closer to her.
Heart racing and pounding again, he bent toward her and slowly, gently kissed the dimple just at the corner of her mouth. He heard and felt her sigh and knew it was a lost cause. He had intended only to talk with her. He’d get back to the talking eventually.
The slightest shift was all that was necessary for his lips to touch hers.
He wanted to run his fingers through her hair, but that tiny part of his mind that was still functioning rationally knew that such obvious damage to her appearance would not easily be put to rights.
He would not subject her to the gossip that would create.
Harry contented himself with touching her face, her neck, wrapping his arms around her and simply holding her to him.
Athena’s arms hooked around his neck as she returned his kisses with obvious enthusiasm. Being romantically courted may have been Athena’s dream, but being kissed like that by Athena had long been Harry’s.
He smiled as he pulled away. Harry kept his hands on her shoulders, his arms a little stiff, in order to maintain the necessary distance.
Closed doors and heartfelt confession were, it seemed, a dangerous combination.
He would need to take extra precautions to avoid such things until everything was official and such liberties were permitted.
“Oh, Harry,” Athena said, her voice a little breathless, her face flushed still.
Harry smiled, happiness permeating every inch of him. She moved toward him, and he stiffened his arms, preventing her from approaching. “You need to stay over there.” He laughed lightly. “Your lips are temptation enough without the smell of violets undermining my self-control.”
“Then you won’t be kidnapping me after all?” Athena asked, her eyes twinkling and alive again. The weight he’d seen there only that afternoon as he’d observed her in the drawing room had vanished, and Harry’s heart sang with relief.
“No. But I would very much like to marry you,” he said. “I have loved you without hope for so long. And now . . . Adam and Persephone approve. All I need to know is if you love me—if you love me enough to marry a man who has absolutely nothing to offer you.”
“You have yourself to offer, Harry,” Athena corrected. “That is what I want.”
“Will you marry me, my love?”
Athena smiled as brightly as Harry ever remembered seeing and nodded.
In an instant she was in his arms, holding tightly to him and laughing joyously. It was music.
“Are you two almost done in there?” Adam’s voice penetrated the cocoon of privacy Harry had felt surrounding them in the same instant the door opened. “You could have gotten married and raised half your family in the amount of time you’ve taken.”
Harry kept Athena in his arms as he chuckled and faced his friend. “We’ve only been in here ten minutes, Adam.”
“Long enough for me to insist you marry her,” Adam pointed out. “I’ll get you a special license. You can be married tonight. We’ll wrap this up, and we can all go home.”
“No, Adam,” Harry said. “Post the banns, we’ll marry at Falstone Chapel. At Christmas.”
“Christmas!” Adam stepped closer to them, his stance defiant. “That is a full month away, you sniveling worm.”
“It will be a very busy month, I assure you.” Harry tightened his hold on Athena, even kissing the top of her head.
Adam’s expression shifted into the seething, bubbling calm that always indicated he was moments from slicing some unsuspecting person’s throat. “Busy in what way?” he asked, his eyes pointedly moving to Harry’s arms wrapped very snuggly around Athena.
“Nothing untoward, I assure you. I simply think Athena ought to be courted like any young lady would wish to be.” Adam raised an eyebrow. “Under the watchful eye of her guardian, of course,” Harry added.
“You mean I have to watch this sentimental muck?” Adam looked absolutely repulsed. “For an entire month!”
“I am certain Persephone would take turns with you.” Harry could feel Athena laughing as he spoke.
“I will not have Falstone Castle turned into a monument to romantic nonsense,” Adam declared, spinning back toward the door. “Persephone!”
She slipped in from around the corner, grinning in amusement. “Yes?”
“He wants a month.” Adam pointed at Harry. “A month of that.”
“They are courting, dear,” Persephone laughed. “That is to be expected.”
“Yes, well, being thrown in the dungeon or hanged in the gibbet is also to be expected,” Adam threatened. “Worthless heap of rubbish,” he ended on a mutter.
“I am certain you can find ample distractions, Adam,” Persephone said.
“I should have thrown him out decades ago.”
“Yes, you probably should have,” Persephone replied. “But now you are stuck with him. It is best you endure until he takes his bride home.”
“And I will not wait around until that pile of rotting timbers on his estate is livable, you hear me?” Adam gave Harry a very pointed look.
“Pick any Kielder holding—except the Castle—and take yourselves off as soon as the register is signed. Live there as long as it takes. I will not endure the sight of newlyweds.”
It was an offer of a place to live until Harry’s estate was put to rights.
Harry recognized that, as well as the need Adam felt to justify the generosity by cloaking it in a mask of irritation.
Life had not been kind to Adam, but Harry was realizing that he, himself, was fortunate indeed.
He would never have thought while he was being pummeled by a gang of bullies his first year at Harrow that the beating would prove to be one of the best things that had ever happened to him.
Adam had come to the rescue then, and the friendship that followed had changed Harry’s life for the better.
“In the interest of our continued existence, I’ll do just that,” Harry assured Adam, smiling his gratitude, knowing Adam would not appreciate having it spoken out loud.
Adam nodded, precisely the way he always did when acknowledging what Harry had left unspoken.
“I believe if we put our minds to it, we could leave for Falstone Castle in the morning,” Persephone said. “If we pack the essentials and have the staff send up the rest afterward, we could manage it.”
“Perfect,” Adam declared. “First light, Harry.”
Harry nodded. Adam had always taken him to Falstone to save Harry the cost of taking a public conveyance. The trip would be even more appreciated than before with Athena there for company.
“And you can get on with the business of courting your future wife.” Persephone smiled.
“Gladly,” Harry answered.
Persephone and Adam stepped from the room first. Harry lifted Athena’s hand to his lips. With the door open, kissing her as he truly wished to was no longer an option.
“Oh, Harry,” Athena said. “All those years I prayed that I would find a wonderful, loving gentleman. I watched and waited and worried. And all along, the answer was you.”
Harry smiled at her. He rather enjoyed being the answer to a prayer. “Sometimes, I think heaven has to hit us over the head to get our attention. Adam regularly takes on that duty himself.”
“I love you, Harry,” Athena said, touching his face with the hand he was not holding.
“And I love you,” he answered, squeezing her fingers before pulling her arm through his and walking quite properly with her on his arm.
“Are you really going to court me?” Athena asked, smiling at him.
“Quite extensively,” Harry confirmed. “I only hope I meet the requirements on that rather long list of yours.”
“You should,” she answered. “You’re the one who wrote it for me, after all.”
“So I did,” Harry chuckled. “And I believe we ought to work on a few more specific items for that list.”
Athena’s cheeks pinked once more, something Harry thoroughly enjoyed seeing. “Will I like these specifics?”
“You will love these specifics.”
Athena leaned against his arm. “I think we are going to be very happy, Harry.”
“Yes. And we are going to make Adam absolutely miserable for the next few weeks.”
“I think that sounds delightful.”
Harry stopped in the midst of the hallway, checking quickly to see that they were alone. Courting, after all, invariably involved a few stolen kisses. “It will be entirely delightful,” he said and kissed her quite thoroughly.
Life, at times, could be very nearly perfect.