Chapter 48
Daniel leaned against the doorjamb, watching Agnes as she bent over the bed to kiss the two small heads that rested on the bolster. The only light in the room came from a single candle and the warm, reassuring glow of the fire.
‘Are they asleep?’ he asked in a low voice.
She looked up and started as she saw him. ‘How long have you been there?’
‘Long enough,’ he said.
He crossed to the narrow cot shared by the two children and looked at them, all care and trouble now banished from their soft, round faces.
Something stirred within him. They were not his children, but as he had held Henry’s small, trembling body in his arms, he knew he would have killed Tobias Ashby and even Leah Turner without a second thought if it meant keeping the children safe.
Sarah Truscott came into the room, carrying a tray. She set it down on the table. ‘Some broth, mistress. You’ve not eaten all day.’
Agnes nodded and carried the bowl across to the fire. She sat on the stool as Sarah busied herself tidying up scattered clothing before excusing herself and leaving them alone together.
Daniel crouched down beside Agnes, poking the fire into life. It gave him something to do, something to keep his hands busy.
‘Kit and Jonathan?’ Agnes asked.
‘Kit’s asleep. The doctor gave him some sort of draught that knocked him out in minutes. Jonathan’s reading a book.’
‘I keep thinking, if Turner hadn’t turned on Ashby we would all be dead,’ Agnes said. ‘Why did he do it?’
‘For completely base reasons. Jonathan bribed him.’
‘When?’
‘Jonathan let himself be captured and demanded an interview with Turner. He put a business proposition to Turner and the man agreed. From what Jonathan tells me, I think Turner could see that there was no future tied to a man like Ashby, or he would not have acquiesced quite so readily.’
‘I’m almost sorry he’s dead,’ Agnes said.
Daniel shrugged. ‘We’re here and we’re safe. We have the gold, and you have the children. Turner’s death was the price we had to pay.’
She set the wooden bowl down. ‘You’re right, Daniel. We’re here. What now?’
Daniel straightened and leaned his hands on the mantle.
Aboard the Archangel, his plans had been quite simple.
Return to England, find his brother, seek out Tobias Ashby, kill him, return to Eveleigh, and pick up the threads of his life.
The reality had proved more complex. Yes, he had found Kit, but the price Kit had paid for his freedom was more than he could ever repay.
Yes, he had found Tobias Ashby, but killing the man in cold blood would have reduced him to Ashby’s level.
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know, Agnes.’
He turned to look at her. The firelight bathed her in gold and shadows.
She had not slept in over twenty-four hours and her eyes seemed lost in dark circles of absolute exhaustion.
A meeting of mutual convenience had become so much more.
He couldn’t imagine his life without her, but the children had always come first with Agnes, and, rightly, always would.
He wondered if there was still a small part of Agnes that had room for someone else.
‘What are you thinking?’ she asked.
‘I am thinking that is a foolish question that women always ask. A man’s thoughts are very simple.’
Her mouth quirked into a smile. ‘Food, and … ’ she lowered her eyes, ‘How to get the next woman they meet into bed?’
He shook his head. ‘No, that’s not what I was thinking. There is only one woman I want to share my bed with.’
She looked up sharply. ‘What do you mean?’
He had fought a battle, survived imprisonment, torture, and death, and sailed the seas as a French privateer. And yet a fear such as he had never experienced before clutched his heart. He did not want to lose this woman. He just had to find the courage to say a few simple words.
He cleared his throat. ‘That night at Seven Ways when you came to me … was it because you just felt sorry for me?’
Agnes shook her head. ‘No. I said that because … ’ she bit her lip, ‘maybe I wanted to push you away. You had found Kit and I thought you wouldn’t need me anymore.
It was easier to hurt than be hurt.’ She took a breath.
‘I love you, Daniel. I probably have from the moment you rescued me on that street in London, however base your motives were.’
Daniel sucked in his breath and looked away. ‘I have to admit, my motives were less than pure, but there has been precious little time for love or tenderness or even affection in my life in the last years. I don’t deserve your love.’
She rose to her feet to face him. ‘I do understand … I come with two children and a tarnished reputation, and … ’
She didn’t finish. He seized her and wrapped her in his arms, silencing her with a kiss.
She responded in kind, joined in a desperate passion that took his breath away.
As they broke apart they leaned into each other, forehead to forehead, nose to nose, her very breath his breath.
He found her hands, twining his fingers with hers.
‘Marry me, Agnes,’ he said.
Her fingers tightened on his. ‘Daniel … I … ”
‘I understand that the children are a part of you and, God willing, there will be more children.’ A thought welled inside him and he allowed it to spill over in a deep-throated laugh of pure joy.
‘I want to grow old with you by my side, surrounded by our children and our children’s children, Agnes.
We can rebuild Eveleigh … ’ He stopped and straightened. ‘You haven’t given me an answer.’
‘You haven’t told me why you want to marry me, Daniel.’
He had to think about that one for a long moment. When it dawned on him, he smiled and gathered her hands in his own, pressing them to his heart. ‘I love you, Agnes Fletcher.’
‘And I love you and I very much want to marry you, Daniel Lovell.’
He wrapped his arms around her and held her close.
‘As soon as this matter is settled,’ he said. ‘For now, you are dead on your feet, Agnes.’
He swept her up in his arms and carried her over to the bed, laying her between the covers.
‘Will you stay?’ she murmured.
He shook his head as he bent to kiss her. ‘Not tonight. Like you, I need my bed and a good night’s rest.’