Chapter 26
Chapter twenty-six
Ella
There was a pit in Ella’s stomach as she accepted Percival’s hand and allowed him to spin her into the remainder of the waltz.
“Why did you do that?” she asked.
He lifted one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug.
“It seemed as if he was overly familiar with you,” he said, “and I thought that perhaps you didn’t want that.
I know you have not had long to adjust to being a lady, and I thought perhaps you didn’t know how to tell him to back away.
I apologize if I misread the situation.”
Ella sighed. “I’m afraid you did,” she said quietly. “I am very sorry, Percival, but I think I must break our betrothal, for my heart belongs to another.”
His eyes widened, and he let go of her for a moment, covering his mistake by twirling her around and pulling her back into his arms.
“I hope this will not upset you,” she said quietly. “I had hoped to tell you before the ball, but my father insisted that this was best.”
“I am glad to hear that you have found someone who makes you happy,” Percival said. “And I shall continue my quest to find a lady whose heart can be mine and not someone who is already taken.” The words were stiff, but he offered her a smile.
It was difficult to tell if he was upset or not…but she wasn’t inclined to probe.
The dance came to an end, and Ella sank into a deep curtsy to show her respect for him. He bowed just as low, and she smiled up at him as he offered his arm to escort her off the dance floor to her father.
“May we speak for a moment?” Percival said, and her father quickly ushered them from the room.
As they stood in the hallway, Percival looked down at her with a brief smile.
“My lord, your daughter and I have agreed to break our betrothal,” he said.
“I hope this is agreeable to you, as we have not known each other the way it was intended. I’m hopeful that we will continue to enjoy a friendship with you and your family despite the lack of a marriage.
I wish you both every happiness,” Percival said, before releasing Ella’s arm and returning to the ball.
Ella looked up at her father, who had a slight smile on his lips.
“Did you know this would happen?” Ella asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“I’m not surprised,” he admitted as he offered his arm and she took it, clinging to him for a moment of stability.
After all the questioning of the past few days, was dissolving her betrothal going to be so simple as this?
It seemed unlikely, but she was grateful for the fact that it had not been more difficult.
“And now I suppose you’ll want to go find someone in the ballroom?” her father asked, a teasing glint in his eyes.
She widened her eyes at him, and he laughed.
“If you think I haven’t noticed that your heart is taken by someone else, then I’m not sure how you think I’ve managed to be a good duke for this long,” he said.
“You have my blessing to be with the one you love. If there is anyone who knows what it is like to lose someone you love, it is me, and I am so very thankful that you will have the opportunity to be with the one your heart desires. Shall we go find him?”
Ella smiled widely as they reentered the ballroom, her heart feeling lighter than it had in weeks.
This was everything she had hoped for.
But as she entered the ballroom, her gaze scanning the crowd for a dark green coat, she couldn’t find it anywhere.
There were plenty of blues and different shades of green, but none that matched the one she wished for.
Where had he gone?
But she didn’t have to think long.
She knew where he was. “I’ll be back,” she told her father quietly before turning and slipping back out the door.
He was in the stables, he had to be.
He would be uncomfortable in the ballroom and would leave as soon as he could. She ran through the hallways, holding her skirts up out of her way, and ran across the courtyard to the stables. The stable hands looked up as she burst through the doors.
“Where’s Dietrich?” she asked, and as one, they pointed toward his office, eyes wide.
She hurried down the aisle and opened the door to find him sitting in a chair, his elbows propped up on his knees as he carved something with his knife.
“It’s not going to work,” he was telling the black cat sitting at his feet.
“Who told you that?” Ella demanded.
Dietrich jerked to his feet, dropping his knife and a block of wood as he bowed.
“What are you doing?” Ella said, glaring at him. “Have I ever asked you to bow to me?”
“You don’t have to ask,” he said. “You are the duke’s daughter, and as such, you are deserving of respect.”
“But not from you. I don’t want it from you. I don’t want you to bow, or call me Lady Eliana, or anything like that.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said woodenly. “You don’t get to make that choice. I am your father’s servant, and therefore I should show respect.”
“I don’t care who you are to my father,” Ella said, taking a step closer to him. “I care that you’re the man I love.”
Dietrich’s eyes widened, but he made no motion to move toward her, so she took another step closer.
“I’m going to assume you heard I was betrothed,” she said, taking tiny steps.
“And you thought that meant you couldn’t be with me, so you ran.
But that’s not how it works. I was betrothed, yes.
Apparently, I’ve been betrothed since I was a child, and when I disappeared, they never bothered to break the betrothal agreement.
But I do not love him, and my father would never force me to marry someone I do not love. ”
She took a deep breath, staring into his eyes. “I love you, Dietrich, and I ended my betrothal. And if you don’t love me, then I suppose I shall have to find someone else to love. But it’s not going to be Percival, and it’s not going to be someone I’ve never met, so I would much rather it be you.”
She swallowed hard, hoping he would say something, but he only stared back at her as if he were trying to memorize every inch of her face, so she continued.
“You are the only person who has ever made me feel truly seen and made me feel like I mattered for more than who I was born as, or for what I could do for them. And if you think that I’m going to let you leave me because you think you’re not worthy of me, you are wrong.
Because you have proved, over and over again, no matter what, that you want what’s best for me, even if you have some misguided notion that it’s leaving me. ”
Still nothing. She was so close, and he wouldn’t say anything. “If someone is going to cut in on my dances, it had better be you, because I don’t want to dance with anyone else. I want to dance with you for the rest of my life.”
She took the final step between them and stopped, looking up at him expectantly.
He hadn’t said anything, and his face hadn’t changed.
In fact, he looked remarkably as if she hadn’t said anything at all, which was concerning.
But his fists were clenching, and he was breathing harder than before, so he must have heard her.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” she asked, her heart stuck in her throat.
Instead of saying something, Dietrich leaned down and brushed a stray hair away from her eyes.
“I love you too,” he said quietly before his hand cupped her cheek and he leaned down to kiss her.
Ella wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back.
She could hardly think of a moment when she had been happier than standing there in the stable, kissing the man she loved.
Scattered applause began from beyond the door and Ella turned red as she broke off the kiss and rested her head against Dietrich’s shoulder.
“Go away!” Dietrich hollered, and the men standing beyond the door laughed before the door closed with a thud.
“That was an impressive speech, my lady,” Dietrich said, turning her face up to his with a gentle finger under her chin. “I did not realize you had trained in speech making.”
“I had no training,” Ella said. “I find the words come easily when you think the man you love is going to leave you instead of fighting for you.”
“I wasn’t leaving,” Dietrich protested.
“You were, and you know it,” Ella said, “but I forgive you. I suppose it’s intimidating when one falls in love with a duke’s daughter.”
“And your father knows?” Dietrich asked.
Ella smiled. “He knows, and he has given his blessing,” she said.
“I think you may have won him over when you found me again.” She wound her arms around his neck again.
“That, or he really likes the way you take care of his horses and thinks that means you’ll be able to take care of his daughter too. ”
Dietrich rolled his eyes. “If only you were as easy to take care of as twenty horses.”
Ella gasped in mock outrage. “I’ll have you know, I’m quite easy to take care of!”
“Says the girl who disappeared for...well, for most of her life.”
“True,” Ella said, “but I certainly never expected that I would find the love of my life when I found you.”
“I thought I was the one who found you,” Dietrich said, his thumb running across her cheek.
“Do we need to argue about it?” she asked, her lips curling into a smirk.
“I can argue with you, or I could just kiss you.”
“I would not mind that,” she said, her fingers curling into his hair. “I do have a question, though.”
He raised his eyebrows and waited.
“Is the position of your best friend still open?”
His lips turned up into a smirk of his own. “It is. Perhaps you’d be willing to fill it, and then I can kiss you for the rest of our lives?”
“Is that a promise?” Ella asked.
“It’s a promise,” Dietrich smiled as he leaned down to kiss her once more.
And as their lips touched again, Ella knew she would quite happily spend the rest of her life making sure that he never forgot his promise.