“There is more, though,” Felicity said. “My father was the one who provided information to enable the ship to be intercepted by pirates. He did it for his own ends, just like he does everything. And that is why he wanted me to marry you, Sebastian.” She turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. “He thought that if you were married to me and absorbed into our family, then you would not find out the truth. That was what it was all about. It was never to do with my happiness, of course. Only his greed.”
George turned to Victor, a look of horror on his face. “Is it true what she is saying?” he demanded.
Victor looked around at everyone gathered together on the field and let out a sigh. “I see that there is no use in denying it. You have your proof at last, Sebastian.” He turned to George.
“It was always so easy for you, though, and for men of your ilk. You had your grand title and all that money. I have had to fight tooth and nail for everything. All I was doing was trying to provide for my family. Men have done much worse things, I am sure.”
George shook his head. “For all these years, I have felt so much guilt that I did not do enough to save Julian. And all this time, you were behind it all.” He turned to Sebastian. “I am sorry, my boy. I tried to find a way to clear his name, really I did, but I could not discover what had happened. I never really believed that he was guilty.”
Sebastian let out a sigh. “I cannot believe it is all over.”
There was silence amongst the group for a while before Thomas spoke. “Well, I declare that this duel will not go ahead. Victor, you will return to the house with us, and stay there until we decide what will be done with you. It cannot be that you think you will escape justice now when we have evidence of your wrongdoings.”
Victor hung his head, defeated, and allowed himself to be led back to the house by Thomas and George.
Adrian glanced at Sebastian, then at Isabella. “I shall leave you to walk back to the house together when you are ready,” he said.
Isabella nodded and turned to Sebastian. Her heart was full of confusion and doubt. “You only came here to find out the truth?” she said softly. “Was that all it was for? Was that the reason why you wanted to spend time with me?” She could not believe that they had come this far and were so close now to being able to be together, but his motivations were still not clear to her.
Sebastian moved closer to her, but she shrank back. How could she trust him now when he had kept so much from her?
“Isabella, I wanted to tell you,” he said slowly. “I was going to tell you on the terrace last night. I wanted to confess it all to you, the real reason why I had come here. But I never got the chance because of everything else that happened that night.”
She nodded. “I knew you wanted to tell me something.” She stopped, her voice catching in her throat. She had thought he was going to propose, but she could not bring herself to say it out loud. “I wanted to tell you, too, that my engagement to the duke would be announced that evening. I wanted to tell you that I didn’t want to marry him, that I – ” She broke off again. It was too hard to confess it all now, to let her feelings out when she was still not sure of his.
Sebastian nodded. “None of that matters now, Isabella, does it?” He stared at her, looking into her eyes.
She felt something inside her shift. It was so hard to resist him when he looked at her like that. But she must hold firm until she was sure of his feelings.
“Did it all mean nothing to you, though?” she said in a small voice. She could hardly believe that it was true when she remembered how things had been between them when they were together in the library. And it was not just about the pure bliss of their bodies intertwining.
It was about every long conversation they had had about their shared interests, every moment when she had looked at him and thought that he was the first person in the world who could see who she really was. She could hardly bear the thought that it had all been an act. “If you suspected my father,” she added, “was that the real reason you wanted to spend time with me?”
Sebastian paused and looked at her. He seemed to be fighting some deep internal battle. Eventually, he replied, “I will admit, Isabella, that when the invitation to come to the Evermere estate arrived, my first thought was that being in the heart of the Langley family could help me to discover some truths about the past, to reveal the long-buried secrets of what happened to my father. But it was not long before I was distracted from my mission.”
He stepped forward and took her hand. His fingers were cold, but the pleasure of his touch was as intense as ever.
“I wanted vengeance, and I wanted to find out the truth, but the more I got to know you, Isabella, the harder it became to concentrate on my initial goal.”
She stared into his eyes. Could she move beyond this, she wondered, and believe in him again?
“I fell in love with you almost as soon as I first saw you, Isabella,” he whispered. “I know that we went too far and risked everything, but I do not regret a single second of it, and I hope you do not either.”
She shook her head. “I regret nothing.”
“And I intended to ask you to marry me on the terrace last night,” Sebastian said, with a note of finality in his voice. “I intended to ask you to forgive me for my duplicity and then to request the honour of your hand in marriage if you would have me, and if your father would permit it. But I fear now that I have left it too late.”
Isabella’s heart soared. “It is not too late,” she said, moving towards him. “I understand why you did the things you did. And that is all behind us now.”
Sebastian smiled. “Does that mean that you return my feelings?” There was a tiny hint of anxiety in his eyes as he spoke.
Isabella returned his smile and drew closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. “How can you doubt it, Sebastian? I, too, have loved you almost from the first moment we met. And I can think of nothing I want more than to be your wife.”
She pressed her mouth against his and kissed him fervently, all the pent-up passion of the last few hours finally spilling over. He pulled her closer to him, and she felt the pressure of his body against hers. All the pleasures of their time together came flooding back to her.
He pulled away at last and stared into her eyes. “I cannot believe it,” he whispered. “All our troubles are over.”
She shook her head slowly. “Not all of them, I am afraid. We need to convince my father to allow us to marry.”
