Chapter 24 #3
A silence followed --- not the tense, suffocating silence that had filled the room during David's exposure, but something softer, almost fragile.
Josiah glanced at Clara and saw her watching her brother and Miss Jennings with tears on her cheeks but the faintest beginning of a smile at the corners of her mouth.
She caught Josiah's eye and gave the slightest nod towards the window, and he understood at once.
Taking Clara's arm, he drew her gently aside.
Lady Tyrone, who had been watching the exchange with an expression Josiah could not read, rose quietly from her chair and moved to where Alice and Lord Worthington sat, her hand finding Alice's.
It was not true privacy --- they were all still in the same room, with barely ten feet of space between them --- but it was enough. It was as much as propriety would allow and, Josiah suspected, as much as either of them needed.
Lord Thomas turned back to Miss Jennings. He did not kneel, not yet. He stood before her with his hands at his sides, offering nothing but himself.
"I should have told you who I was," he said, his voice low enough that Josiah had to strain to hear it.
"I should have come to you when my brother sent you away, should have found you, should have said --- I am not him.
I am Lord Thomas Frankton and I am not the man who hurt you.
" His voice faltered. "But I was afraid.
I was afraid that you would look at my face and see only his, and that the sight of me would bring you nothing but pain. "
Miss Jennings's chin trembled. "I might have," she admitted, in a voice so quiet it was nearly lost. "Before today, I might have."
"And now?"
She did not answer immediately. She studied his face with an attention that seemed to cost her something --- as though she were deliberately separating the features she had associated with cruelty from the man who stood before her. When she spoke again, her voice was steadier.
"Now I see the gentleman who quoted Cowper to me over a teacup and meant nothing by it except kindness." She paused. "I think I should like to know that gentleman better, if he would permit it."
Something broke open in Lord Thomas's expression --- not grief this time but a startled, uncertain joy, the kind that comes when a thing hoped for beyond reason suddenly becomes possible.
He lowered himself to one knee, not with the dramatic flourish of a suitor performing for an audience but with the careful, deliberate movement of a man who wanted her to see that this was real.
"Then let me be plain," he said, and his voice was rough with feeling.
"I have thought of you every day since I was sent from that house.
Not out of guilt alone, though God knows the guilt has been constant.
I have thought of you because in the few moments of your company that were truly mine --- those morning calls, that conversation about Cowper, the way you smiled when you brought me tea --- I saw a woman of such quiet courage and goodness that I have measured every other against you since, and all have fallen short.
" He reached for her hand and held it gently, as though it were something precious and breakable.
"Marry me, Miss Jennings. Not to make amends for what my brother did --- nothing can do that --- but because I would spend every day hereafter proving to you that not every promise made by a Frankton is a lie. "
Josiah's surprise matched the gasp of astonishment that came from Clara, although the smile that spread across her face spoke of joy and relief.
Miss Jennings was very still, her eyes fixed on Lord Thomas's face, and for a moment Josiah feared she would refuse.
But then her hand rose, tentatively, and settled against his cheek, and the gesture was so tender and so careful that it seemed to hold within it all the months of loneliness and confusion and bitter grief, and the fragile, startling hope that perhaps something good might yet be salvaged from the wreckage of it all.
"You were kind to me," she said, softly, as if that simple fact were the most extraordinary thing in the world. "When no-one was watching and there was nothing to be gained by it, you were kind to me."
"I will be kind to you always," he answered, his hand coming up to cover hers. "If you will let me."
Her yes, when it came, was quiet and broken and certain all at once, and Clara let out a sound that was half laugh and half sob. Josiah, taking the opportunity, came around to her and, taking her hand, led her to a quieter corner of the room.
"Oh, Rutland." She leaned into him, the weight of the afternoon sinking into her as she rested her head on his shoulder. "It is over."
"It is." Putting his arms around her, Josiah held her gently, his chin resting lightly on the top of her head as his heart filled with both relief and sorrow for all she had heard and endured. "I am sorry, Clara."
Her head lifted and she looked up at him, her eyes still bright with tears but something settled in her expression now, something that looked like peace beginning to take root.
"You need not be sorry, my love," she answered, turning her head so she could look up into his eyes.
"We wanted to learn the truth and thus, it has been revealed.
We are no longer separated, are we? There are no more threats that Tyrone can throw at either ourselves or at Thomas.
" Her expression clouded. "Miss Jennings has suffered a great deal. "
"Your brother Thomas is more than honourable," Josiah replied, as she smiled sadly. "I think that he will suit her very well."
"As do I," came the reply. "I am only sad that she has been alone in her sorrow for so long."
"But no longer," he responded, lifting her chin gently as he lowered his head, caring nothing for whoever else might see them. "I think sorrow will soon be far behind us all, my love. There is nothing for us now but happiness."
It took Clara a few moments to respond, but when she did, it was with a long, contented sigh and a smile that spread slowly across her face. Her eyes fluttered closed and she tilted her chin up just a little more, her hands reaching to find his shoulders and then skimming along around his neck.
Josiah did not hesitate, lowering his head to kiss her, soft and sweet. He did not let himself linger as much as his heart and body desired it, allowing himself only a brief moment of his lips upon hers.
It was more than enough --- a taste of all the happiness that was soon to be theirs.