“I knew it.” She stared at him with her lovely eyes wide. “You are under a spell.”
“I am not, I assure you.”
“Then tell me, why are you convinced I am the right woman for you?”
“You have a nurturing heart.”
“And?”
“What more need I say?”
“I don’t know. Should there not be something more?”
“Not for me.” He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Everyone believes I have led a charmedlife, but my early years were brutal and filled with beatings. My father was not a kind man, and my mother was at best indifferent. Lady Audley is my father’s sister and cut from the same abusive cloth. Is it any wonder she treats you as she does? I am only glad she has not beaten you.”
“I think I would have hit her back if she tried,” she said. “That would have been a step too far even for a wretched companion such as myself. But how could your parents do this to you? To hurt a child? Their own child? It is beyond cruel.”
“For whatever insane reason, my father believed he was beating strength into me. I made myself a vow never to permit anyone to raise a hand to my children. I promised myself that they would be loved as I never was. I do not need my wife to be a dazzling showpiece who has no compassion or understanding of another’s suffering. I want someone who is kind to the core, whose instincts are to help and nurture. Who cannot bring herself to be cruel. I saw those traits in you immediately.”
She shook her head and gave a shaky laugh. “You are describing the attributes of an excellent nanny.”
“I never desired a single one of my nannies.” He cast her a wry smile. “They were all hideous. But you are lovely.”
“It does not feel like enough reason to marry me.”
“Because you think I can get away with less? Is this all you want? To be my mistress.”
“No!”
“Then why are you trying to talk me out of marrying you?”
“I’m not. I am merely trying to make sense of my good fortune. Oh, I hear the vicar returning.”
Ruarke understood her hesitancy.
She needed to hear that he loved her, not a vague promise to love her in the future. But his scars cut deep, and he could not yet admit his feelings. It was enough for now. Let her believe he was marrying her out of whatever reasons satisfied her.
She would soon understand how deeply he cared for her.
Theirs would be a love match, just as a match between James and Bella would have been had circumstances not prevented it. In this regard, he was much like his granduncle, a man who loved deeply and faithfully. James had never married. Ruarke now understood the reason why.
He had only ever loved Bella.
Upon James’s death, the dukedom had passed down through the younger brother’s line, Ruarke’s grandfather first coming into the title, then his father, and finally himself.
Ruarke acceded to Heather’s request and agreed to the banns being read for three Sundays in a row. He knew she was insisting on it for his sake, to give him time to back out if something awful turned up in her family history.
Having completed the marriage arrangements, Ruarke now began asking questions about the ghost.
The vicar blanched. “You’ve seen her, Miss Alwyn?”
“Yes, on the beach. She was coming out of the Singing Caves. What can you tell us about her?”
“Me?” He mopped his brow. “I am fairly new to the area, assigned here only fifteen years ago. But my curate was born and raised not far from here in the village of St. Austell. Let me find him.”
He scurried off again.
“He looked ready to pass out when we mentioned the ghost,” Heather remarked.
