Chapter 34 #2
Fuck. They knew. They knew something was going on between her and Dominic.
Except her heart battered not in concern, but with jittery nerves.
Gosh, she hoped Dominic liked it, because she’d broken so many POTeM rules for him trying to find it.
Again.
Dominic
Rayna was nervous.
Dominic had never witnessed her so. It was odd and endearing.
He was curious to find out what this so-called gift was that was making her blush whenever he caught her gaze.
After a few more hours of discovering the secrets Lord Ian and Mr Farringdon had been hiding within their missives, he finally left the research room with Rayna to find out.
She led him into the museum library, a private space split into two big areas connected by a short corridor, full of dark shelves and bound books placed between newer ones. Attached to the second area was a small, closed room with a hefty table and chairs.
Rayna collected a book from the old, grey-haired man who’d been tidying one of the shelves before they disturbed him. Then Dominic followed her into the last room and closed the door behind them. The yellow lights automatically switched on above them.
Without a word, she pulled out one of the eight wooden chairs to make space for them to stand at the edge of the square table and placed the book down. Then she glared up at him with rosy cheeks and a stubborn mouth as if he’d made her do something she didn’t want to do.
An adoring smile quirked his lips. “Why are we here, my love?” he said, keeping his voice quiet even though they were alone. It was unlikely the old man would hear them.
She sighed and straightened. “Do you remember when we first started the case study report, you asked if I knew about your history, and I said only what I’d been told, but even then, I wasn’t allowed to tell you anything?”
“Yes. You also said there was nothing you could do to stop me if I chose to do so by myself.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
She blinked in surprise. “Wait, you didn’t?” He shook his head. “Why not?”
Oh, Dominic had been curious for sure after he’d been taught the full capabilities of the internet. But by that point, he’d already been half in love with Rayna. He hadn’t seen the point of reading about a life where her name wasn’t written next to his.
Unsure if she was ready to hear those words, he shrugged his head to the side. “There are some things even I am too uncomfortable with discovering. It did not feel right to find out.”
She leaned back into herself and eyed him for a moment, then gave him a small smile. “Well, I’m not sure you’re gonna like this now—”
“I will,” he said as quickly and as firmly as her doubt had punctured his heart.
She rolled her eyes, looking more like her confident self. “You don’t know what it is yet.”
“It matters not what it is. I will like it.”
She swallowed, a glaze drifting over her stare. Then she looked away and opened the leather-bound book titled Fabrics of the Times.
“You once said your sister, Patricia, had two dreams—to design fabrics and ribbons, and to marry your manservant, Candreas Hamilton.”
“That is correct.”
Hired after Dominic caught his previous hand selling gossip about him to the columns, Candreas was more than Dominic’s manservant.
He considered Candreas to be a very dear friend, despite being five years younger.
And much to Candreas’s shock and disapproval, bubbly, outspoken, silk-obsessed Patricia was in love with him; a match Dominic wasn’t opposed to.
“Well, Candreas’s name is kind of unique, and it sounded a little too familiar, so I did something I shouldn’t have and decided to look him up.” A grin broke out on Rayna’s delightful face. “And I can confirm both of your sister’s dreams do come true.”
A single, surprised laugh burst from him before he bent over to look at the page she tapped. And bloody woods, there was his sister’s name along with Candreas’s.
It read, “For example, while Hamilton’s first fabric factory was opened in Touma in 645 PR by husband and wife, Candreas and Lady Patricia Hanna Hamilton, the Hamilton stamp of design can be found on silks that dressed the Khaasan and Jahandari monarchies several years before this.
Lady Patricia’s prior success was even noted in the following article written to celebrate the opening of the factory… ”
A solid lump of pride and aching happiness blocked Dominic’s throat, making the back of his nose sting.
She did it…you really did it, Patricia.
Oblivious to his overwhelmed state, Rayna added, “Hamilton fabrics are still famous all around the world. And in the recent decade, one of the Hamilton children took it a step further.”
She pulled out the white paper sticking out from the top of the book and unfolded it. It was a black and white printing of a newer article with a young, elegant man who had the sharp nose and jaw of Candreas.
“This is Lord Candy Hamilton, a well-loved women’s fashion designer. He’s your sister’s great-grandchild five or six times removed, and your great-nephew. And to top it all off, the first collection of clothes he designed was inspired by Patricia’s work.”
Dominic’s heart thudded so painfully hard as he traced shaky fingers over his nephew’s face. He looked a little haughty. Confident, stubborn, and troublesome, just like Patricia.
“Does he look like them?” Rayna asked.
He nodded, unable to get words past the thick emotion in his mouth.
He was reluctant to look away but eventually turned his attention to her. A sob nearly heaved out of him at how precious she looked with her eyes, cheeks, and smile glittering brighter than all the stars in the universe.
“Thank you,” he croaked, not that the words did any justice in explaining how grateful he was.
She gave a small shake of her head. “It was nothing.” Her husky voice cracked at the end.
Rayna fell still, clearly just as surprised by the liquid in her voice as he was.
And he broke.
Dominic burned, hot and numb as his heart split open. Shook, weak and buzzing as all the love he’d buried inside it came gushing out, drowning his person.
He couldn’t contain it. Couldn’t stop himself anymore.
He hauled her to him, tunnelling his hand in her hair, and kissed her.
Like his life depended on it. Like it was the last time he’d ever hold her.
He kissed her like he was trying to bury himself inside her. Like he never had to part from her.
He scrunched her hair and tasted her mouth deeper with the fear that she was nothing but a dream. A figment of his imagination he could never truly have.
But gosh, did she prove she was real. She locked her limbs around him and chased after his tongue. Met his choked sounds with her own.
She held him as if she wanted to meld their hearts together, and he—
“I love you,” he whispered through a strangled breath.
Maybe he realised that she froze, but he couldn’t hold the words back any longer.
“I love you, Rayna. I have done from the very moment I met you, even before I knew your name. Even before I realised time did not wish for me to have you. But I do not care what history has written. You belong in my heart. It is yours. Every part of me is. I love you. I do not wish to leave you, even if you do not love me yet. Only allow me to love you anyway. Allow me to be your husband. Let me cherish you and spend every moment with you for the rest of my life.”
He brushed his nose across hers. “That is all I ask for, sweetheart. It matters not to me whether in the past or the future, all I want is to be with you.”