Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Isabelle stared out at the water as she scratched Rose’s head. Her heart was a lead weight in her chest as she waved the gentle rocking of the waves against the dock.
Soon, she would be home with her family where she belonged. She would leave the duchy and Windham behind. It hurt more than she ever thought it would.
Leaving was supposed to be the easy part. Easier than leaving Lord Milton the ring he had sent to her that morning, and the note she returned with the delivery boy, telling Lord Milton that she couldn’t marry him.
Returning home would be harder. There was a sense of failure that surrounded her. She knew that her mother and father would be disappointed, but she hoped she could persuade her father to hold up his end of the deal.
Windham and his family deserved to be paid for all their efforts in finding her a husband, even if they had been fruitless. She would get back home and she would plead their case for them.
It was the only thing left she could do.
Isabelle sighed and leaned against the railing, looking up at the fat white clouds drifting over the duchy as it grew smaller and smaller.
There was no turning back now. She had made her decision—though she was starting to feel as if it was the wrong one—there was nothing she could do about it.
Perhaps this was what she needed to let Windham go.
A clean break. Doctors always said that those healed the best.
“Why is my angry old goose taking flight?”
Isabelle spun around, half certain that she was hallucinating.
And yet, there was Windham standing in front of her, his hair windswept, his cheeks rosy, and his chest heaving.
Tears sprung to her eyes. “This isn’t real. You’re at home. I left.”
Windham swallowed hard, stepping closer to her. “I’m here, and this is real.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Did you think I was going to let you leave?” he asked, his voice gruff as he reached up to her hair, pulling loose the pins that kept it pinned back.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t look like you.” He tucked the pins into his pocket as her hair tumbled loose around her. “When I tell you that I’m desperately in love with you and can’t bear to lose you, I want you to look like yourself.”
Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up at him. “You love me?”
“I’ve loved you since that night in the cottage. I knew from that moment on that I wasn’t going to be able to live my life without you and I should’ve told you that before you ever thought about falling for Lord Milton.”
Isabelle’s cheeks hurt from the slow smile that spread across her face. “I didn’t love him. Not the way that I love you.”
Windham laughed as Rose jumped up on him, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth. He scratched her cheeks for a moment before his attention was back on Isabelle.
She took a wavering breath and stepped closer to him, raising one hand to cup his cheek. “The boat is leaving the dock. You’re going to be stuck here if you don’t get off now.”
“There is nowhere else I would rather be,” he saif, his voice husky as he leaned into her touch.
“But the boat is leaving!” Isabelle looked between him and the dock which was now little more than a dot on the horizon. “Windham—”
“Felix.”
“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes though her heart felt like it was exploding. “Felix, you can’t run a duchy from a ship headed for America. You have matters at home to settle and there are things I must speak with my father about.”
“And?”
“And the boat is leaving!” She threw her hands up in the air, her frustration starting to bubble over.
“Yes, it is.”
“And you are on it when you should be at home.” Isabelle pulled her wrist from his grasp and stared at Felix with alarm.
“I should not be.” Felix took her by her hands and pulled her closer. “I am never allowing you to leave me again. If that means that I follow you to America whenever you wish to go home, then that is what I will do each and every time.”
Isabelle’s cheeks turned a dark red. “Oh.”
He stepped forward and took her face in his hands.
“I told you, I love you. I have loved you since the moment you stepped off the boat and insulted my duchy. I have loved you more with every single challenge that you have put before me, and I know that I will love you until my dying breath and I will follow you to the ends of the earth, wherever those may be.”
Her eyes glistened with tears as she looked up at him. “I love you too. And I do want you here with me.”
“Good. It would be strange to meet my new in-laws if you did not love me. I would think that it would make things rather awkward.”
Isabelle looked up at Felix and smiled. “You have met my father.”
“Not as your husband.” He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers in a slow, gentle kiss that deepened as the sun set around them and the ship headed out to sea.
When Isabelle pulled away, she blinked back tears. “Does that mean you wish to marry me despite your contract with my father?”
“I was a selfish man who could not admit that all of the riches in my life would begin and end with you in it, not in some soulless agreement with your father. I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
She threw her arms around him, holding him close. “Then I suppose it is a good thing that you no longer need a reason.”