Chapter 22 #4
“I would never do that again,” Nathaniel promised, his hands sliding up to cup her face once more.
“I cannot afford the heartbreak I went through these last few weeks again. I am going to try, Euphemia. I am going to work with these feelings. I am so deeply sorry for the pain I caused you. For the confusion. Let this be the last time I ever have to apologize to you for pushing you away, because I plan to be better. I want to foster the feelings I have for you. Just give me this chance. I have finally seen the light, and I refuse to go back into the darkness. I cannot bear the thought of you not looking at me ever again.”
Euphemia felt a warmth bloom in her chest that entirely chased away the chill of the garden. The sincerity in his voice was undeniable. She let out a long breath and offered him a soft nod.
“All right,” she whispered.
A smile broke across Nathaniel’s face again. He drew her closer, but then paused. “I have one more thing to confess to you,” he murmured.
Euphemia blinked, looking up at him curiously. “What is that?”
“I do remember our first kiss,” he admitted softly.
“I only said that I had forgotten about it because I was terrified of the hold you already had over me, and I desperately wanted to maintain the distance between us. But it was entirely vivid. In fact, that was the exact turning point for me. That was the very first time I realized I had true feelings for you.”
Euphemia’s jaw dropped slightly in surprise. Then, a scowl crossed her features, and she raised her hand to give him a light tap on his shoulder. “So you lied to me!”
Nathaniel caught her hand, chuckling softly as he pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Technically, I did not lie. I simply did not tell you the full truth.”
“That is exactly what a lie is, Nathaniel!” she argued back, a giggle escaping her lips.
Nathaniel laughed too. He pulled her tightly back into his arms, wrapping his arms around her completely to shield her from the evening breeze.
“I am so sorry,” he whispered into her hair, rocking her from side to side. “I will never, ever do anything to hurt you again.”
Euphemia smiled and shut her eyes, wrapping her arms securely around him as she hugged him back, finally whole, and feeling completely safe.
“Nathaniel,” she murmured softly, breaking the comfortable quiet that had settled. “I would like to take you to meet Lady Byron.”
Nathaniel looked down at her, his brow arching in mild surprise. “Your guardian?”
“Yes,” Euphemia replied with a tender smile.
“Although she was not a conventional mother, my sisters and I still owe her a great deal. In truth, we owe her our lives. When we lost our bearings after my father passed, she was the one who took us in. We are forever grateful to her for that shelter. But she is quite sick now, and I have been thinking very deeply about visiting her. I want to take the girls with us so they can finally meet her, and I can introduce her to them properly.”
She paused, looking up at him. “I have been thinking about it for a long while, but I was hesitant to bring it up before now.”
Nathaniel smoothed a hand over her shoulder, his expression softening completely as he looked down at her.
“I think that is a wonderful idea, Euphemia. We shall all make the journey together to visit her as soon as possible. I would very much like to properly introduce myself to Lady Byron as your husband.”
Euphemia smiled up at him, the burden she had carried finally lifting from her shoulders. She shifted slightly in his embrace, resting her hands against his chest. “Could we... perhaps stay here for just a moment longer before we must return to the ballroom?”
Nathaniel chuckled. He tightened his arms around her, pulling her back against his warmth.
“If it were entirely up to me, we would not return to that ballroom at all. We would get straight into the carriage this very instant, and I would hold you in my arms until we reach the estate, so we could spend the entire night together.”
A blush rushed to Euphemia’s cheeks, her eyes shining in the moonlight. “I must admit, I prefer your idea to mine. Let us go now. Let us just get to the carriage and leave.”
She paused, though, a thought making her rethink. “But what of the marquess? Won’t our host be terribly upset that you left without a word of farewell?”
Nathaniel didn’t even look back. He simply cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing softly over her skin, his eyes locked entirely onto her.
“I cannot bring myself to care about the marquess, or anyone else in that ballroom right now, Euphemia. I want nothing more than to go home with my wife. Who knew saying the words ‘I love you’ out loud could make me feel this... free?”
“All right,” she whispered, her heart overflowing with a happiness she hadn’t thought possible. “Let us go home.”
As they turned to walk, leaving the lights and the music behind them, Euphemia slipped her hand through his arm, holding onto his frame tightly.
She pressed herself close to his side, silently praying that this was not a beautiful dream, and that she wasn’t merely imagining the warmth of his gaze.
She smiled into the darkness, a profound sense of triumph settling deep in her soul as she realized she had finally, truly broken through the rigid, icy wall that was Nathaniel, the Duke of Greymoor.