Chapter Seventeen #3
Vesper studied his handsome face, so wrought with distress, and she smiled. “Then if you go, you do not go alone,” she whispered. “Let me stand with you. It will be the proudest thing I have ever done.”
Val stared at her a moment, her words pounding into him like a battering ram.
It will be the proudest thing I have ever done.
Was it really true that she understood the depths of the situation and what it might entail?
He didn’t think she did. But he could not refute such sweet devotion. He lifted a hand, cupping her face.
“I do not know what I have done in life to warrant a reward such as you,” he said softly. “Although I know I should deny you, in my heart I cannot. You will be the very source I draw my strength from in the dark days to come.”
Vesper’s smile broadened. “I hope so,” she said. “I will not leave you, not ever.”
Val forced a smile. He felt so guilty for permitting her to be with him during this time but he couldn’t help it.
He needed her. He felt better simply knowing she was here, with him, supporting him.
Leaning forward, he kissed her sweetly on the cheek before his lips moved to her mouth, slanting over them gently.
The moment he tasted her, however, his kisses grew hungry and he pulled her off of the stool and into his arms, feasting on her with a fervor that was borne from his very soul.
Something about the woman fed him as nothing else ever had.
Although he’d never been in love before, he suspected that was exactly what he was feeling.
This strong, beautiful, and brave woman belonged to him.
He loved her.
“Marry me,” he whispered between heated kisses. “If Henry sends me to the executioner, at least I will know you will be well taken care of as my widow. You will inherit everything, including Selborne.”
Vesper, who had been consumed by his kisses, suddenly pulled away and looked at him, startled. “Nay,” she said. “That is not why I would marry you. I do not care about your money, Val. All I care about his you.”
Val could see that he’d insulted her. “I did not mean to offend you,” he said. “I simply meant that it would give me comfort to have you by my side, as my wife, and to know that if anything happened, you could live out your days in comfort. It would mean a great deal to me.”
Vesper understood his position, sort of, but she was still incensed.
“I was never interested in you for your wealth,” she said, brow furrowed.
“In fact, if I marry you, I do not want your money. Donate it to the church for all I care. I do not marry you for the security you can give me. I marry you because I love you.”
He eyes widened. “You… you love me?”
Vesper hadn’t really thought about what she was saying before she’d said it because she was trying to prove a point.
Realizing she told the man that she loved him, she looked at him rather hesitantly because of his reaction.
Was he shocked? Was he pleased? Seeing his astonished expression, something told her he felt the same way she did.
“Of course I do,” she said after a brief pause. “Why else would I have ridden all the way from Eynsford on a borrowed horse to see you? Either I am foolish or I am in love. And I do not believe I am foolish.”
Val stared at her a moment longer before pulling her against him, his big arms around her slender body as he hugged her fiercely.
“As I love you,” he whispered. “I know it seems foolish that we should find love after hardly knowing one another, but I cannot help how I feel. Something brought us together, Vesper. I do not believe in coincidences. I believe that I was in Whitehill chasing that fugitive on the very day you were there because we were meant to meet. We were meant to be together, you and I.”
Vesper had her arms wrapped around his neck, her face buried in his hair.
“It was a violent day,” she giggled softly.
“Do you recall? There was an enormous fight going on with you in the middle of it. I will admit that you impressed me that day. I’d never really seen a fight before and you took to it so easily. ”
He grinned, pulling back to look at her but not releasing her from his arms. “I have been doing it for many years,” he said.
“A battle draws me like water draws a duck. But trouble does not usually follow me as it has as of late. It seems that you and I have had our share of misfortune in the short time we’ve known one another. ”
“That would be a fair statement.”
“In speaking of misfortune, why is your father here?”
The conversation shifted focus and Vesper thought on her father, of the conversation over the past couple of days that she had shared with him.
“He came to Eynsford a few days ago and begged for my forgiveness,” she said.
“He says that he realizes the error of his ways and that, with my brother gone, I am all that he has left.”
Val wasn’t so willing to believe McCloud after what he’d been through with the man. “How do you feel about his change of heart?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I cannot say that I am willing to trust him just yet, but it seems as if he is sincere. He was with me when the soldiers from Canterbury came bearing news of the archbishop’s murder and he came with me to Selborne because he would not let me travel alone.
” She sat up so she could look him in the face.
“You have known my father for many years and he was a good friend to you. There is no doubt that you know him far better than I do. Do you believe me means what he says? That he is truly sorry for his behavior?”
Val didn’t want to completely discount McCloud but he wasn’t going to let the man fool him twice.
“I do not know,” he said honestly. “The man I knew in France was a different man than the one you see today. The man I knew then was truthful to a fault and would risk his life for his comrades. He was not subversive in any way. But your father has changed a great deal since then, as I have come to see. My mother saw it first but I refused to believe her and now I feel foolish because of it. Is your father sincere? I suppose only time will tell. But I will say this – I will be very careful before trusting him again completely.”
Vesper considered his advice carefully. “As will I,” she said. “I do not want to be associated with the man he has become but I cannot completely walk away from him. Isn’t everyone worthy of forgiveness once?”
Val nodded faintly. “Once, aye,” he said. “But I am under the opinion that men who have tasted darkness never really do change, so if you decide to forgive him, I will support you. But my relationship with him will be different.”
Vesper nodded. “I know. I realize what he has done to make you leery of him and I do not blame you.”
Val put a hand on her head, an affectionate gesture, and ended up toying with her silken dark hair. “Then let us speak of him no more. I would rather speak of us. A man asked you to marry him only a few moments ago and he has not received an answer yet.”
Vesper’s grin was back and she averted her gazes, shyly. “I thought it was assumed that I had agreed. I did not tell you I loved you as a jest, you know.”
He snorted, leaning forward to kiss her on the temple. “I do not wish to assume. Give me your answer so that I may hold it against my heart.”
Vesper gazed at him, into that handsome face that she was coming to love so well. “I will marry you, Valor de Nerra,” she whispered. “The question is whether or not your mother will let me.”
Val laughed softly. His heart was light with her acceptance, delight filling his soul that he’d never experienced before. Now, officially, she belonged to him and nothing would ever separate them save death. He felt as if he could walk on air.
“She will be thrilled that I have finally chosen a bride. But you should know that she will demand grandchildren right away,” he said.
“Only this evening did I hear her lamenting her lack of grandchildren to an old friend of mine. She will spout off at anyone who listens that she has no grandchildren and that I am to blame.”
Vesper eyed him with feigned suspicion. “Is that why you have asked me to marry you? To appease your mother?”
He grinned, shaking his head. “I have asked you to marry me because it would be the greatest honor of my life to call you my wife and for no other reason than that.”
It was such a sweet thing to say and Vesper’s heart was leaping for joy within her chest. “I shall endeavor to be worthy of you, my lord.”
He grasped her by both arms, pulling her against him. “Not ‘my lord’. Say my name. Say it and mean it.”
His mouth was hovering above hers, his heated breath on her face. It was enough to melt Vesper completely. “Val,” she whispered. “My darling Val.”
His mouth slanted over hers again, sucking the breath right out of her.
Vesper collapsed against him, feeling so small and insignificant against the power of his arms. The more he held her, the more she liked it, and soon her arms went around his neck again, holding him tightly against her as their lips melded.
It was a kiss that turned her body to liquid fire, coursing through her, building into something that made her heart race like mad.
All she knew was that Val’s lips were stoking a fire in her that she’d never known before, something that begged to be quenched in a way she’d not yet experienced.
But Val knew how to sate it. He was experiencing the same fire.
As the noise of the hall went on down below, Val and Vesper engaged in a heated kiss, hidden by the clutter that had built up in the loft. No one could see them where they were; Val knew that. He also knew that his feelings for Vesper were stronger than he could control.