Only then did Lavender pull away. Austin did as well, albeit reluctantly. She put a foot of distance between them but she stared up at him as if she was looking at a ghost.
“I don’t like staying in one place for too long,” he explained. “I woke up and no one was there. I wanted to see who it was that nursed me back to health.” He looked back at her, unable to stop himself from brushing her cheek with the back of his hand.
Tears were rapidly filling her eyes. “I can’t believe that you…that you truly…” She bit her quivering lip as the tears spilled over.
In the corner of his eye, he saw Miss Alice take Vincent’s arm. “Perhaps we should give them privacy,” she whispered to him.
“You want me to leave her alone with him?” Vincent whispered back, sounding incredulous.
“Yes,” Miss Alice said simply. And he supposed that was that. Vincent protested no longer and allowed her to lead him out of the room.
Once again he was alone with Lavender. Last time, he’d had so many things to say and could not find the strength to say them. Now none of those words came to his mind, even though he felt them deep within his heart.
“I’m so glad,” she said at last, “that you are all right. I was afraid that…that you would never wake up.”
“How long was I asleep for?”
“Two weeks.”
She said it softly, those two words were all he needed to hear to know that she had been suffering this entire time.
“When you fell unconscious I thought that you might have—” She broke off, swallowing, clearly unable to say the words aloud. “But then the physician informed us that you had simply suffered from a concussion. He said that you would be in a deep sleep and that, if we were lucky, you would awake on your own. And if you weren’t…”
“There’s no need to think about that anymore.” He couldn’t hold back. He pulled her back into his arms and was relieved when she did not protest, slipping her arms around his waist. She laid herhead against his chest and he wondered if she could hear the rapid pound of his heart.
“Thank you for waking up, Austin. I did not want to assume the worst but with every day that went by, I…”
“I understand. Thank you for nursing me back to health. You were the only reason I was able to.” She looked up at him in confusion and he smiled a little. “You didn’t know this but I did become conscious a few times. The first time I only heard your voice, the second time you were sleeping next to my bed, and the third time you were standing by the window with Miss Alice. There were others as well but they went by so quickly that I hardly remembered them.”
“How hadn’t I noticed?” she gasped.
“Let’s just be happy that we’re here now.” He gently rested her head back against his chest. He could stay like this forever he knew.
“Austin.” Lavender pulled away again. “I want to apologise. For Colin and all the problems he caused you. He told me what happened and had it not been for the way that he provoked you perhaps none of this would have happened.”
Austin sighed. “I hate to come to the defence of that man but the fault does not rest solely with him. I pushed him as well. And I was the one who insisted that we fight rather than walk away. I deserve what came to me.”
“No, you don’t,” she insisted in a firm tone. “It’s my fault, truly. You felt the need to defend my honour and for that, I am truly sorry. I…” She stepped away from him, holding her head down. “I understand if you want to step away from this. I will convince my brother to compensate you for all that you’ve done for me so far and I will make sure that your renovations are complete. And you don’t have to worry about helping me with—”
“Oh my! Lavender.” Austin didn’t like the distance she’d put between them. He wanted her close, her skin against his, at all times. “Surely you must know by now that I do not care about such things.”
Lavender frowned at him. “But isn’t that why you decided to marry me in the first place?”
“Yes, before I knew you. Before I fell in love with you.”
“But you—” She broke off, blinking. “You what?”
The dumbfounded look on her face made him smile. Austin reached out and brushed her hair behind her ears, cupping her face in both hands. “I am hopelessly in love with you. I am the one who is sorry that I did not tell you sooner.”
“Oh.”
That seemed like all she could muster. For the first time, Austin felt a sliver of uncertainty. He hadn’t at all considered the thought that she might not feel the same way. But everything everyone had ever said about him came rushing back over all those years into this single moment. The uncouth, brutish bastard might not be the kind of man she could love. He might not be the kind of man she would truly want to marry.
He wiped away the twinkle of fear from his face even as it began to set root in his chest. “Would you like to marry me, Lavender?” he asked softly. “Considering the person that I am, someone who will spend every day trying to be a man you can be proud to call yours, do you still want to share my name?”
Lavender blinked at him. And then, to his utter relief, he saw the familiar shade of humor in her eyes. “Is that all you have, my lord?” she asked in a teasing voice.
“Well…” Austin pretended to think. “I must also mention that I have a title, which others might consider to be a selling point.”
