Mary Balogh: A Chance Encounter

"Robert," she said at last, "you cannot take me to your home like this, with no warning, with no one knowing who I am. Your staff will all think me some kind of doxy."

He chuckled. "A very strange kind of doxy dressed like that," he said. "You do look a perfect fright, you know, Elizabeth. Did you hope to hold Chatsworth off with such a costume? You would not have succeeded. Your charms show through quite shockingly." He reached out a hand and flicked a chestnut curl on her neck.

Elizabeth turned to him with pleading eyes. "I cannot go to Hetherington Manor with you, Robert," she said, "indeed I cannot. I am not ready. Please take me back."

He smiled into her eyes, and the hand that had touched her hair moved to cup her chin. "We are not going home yet, love," he said. "We are going to Devon."

"To Devon?" she echoed.

"My grandmother's house passed to me on her death," he said, "though I have not been there since then. But now is the right time. We have a honeymoon to complete."

"No," she said breathlessly. "No, don't take me there, Robert."

He still held her chin. "Do you remember the salt smell of the air, love?" he asked, holding her eyes with his. "Do you remember that wide golden beach, the sand, the waves, the cliff path, the gulls, the view from our window? We were standing there when our honeymoon was interrupted, although at the time we did not know how long that interruption would be. I had just finished unbuttoning your dress, I believe?"

As he spoke, Hetherington had untied the ribbons of her bonnet and tossed it onto the seat opposite. Her pelisse had been unbuttoned and thrown back from her shoulders. His hands held her shoulders now. He gazed tenderly into the white face that looked back at him.

"I can't," she whispered. "I am so afraid, Robert. I am afraid to love again."

"I know," he said, "but I am afraid not to. Look ahead, Elizabeth. Ten years. Twenty years. Thirty. Can you bear to think of the emptiness? I cannot. I need you and I believe you need me just as much. Come back to me, love. Please."

Elizabeth felt the tears springing to her eyes. She moved forward to hide her face against his coat, and his arms came around her to hold her to him.

"Will it be the same?" she asked. "Will the magic be gone, Robert? I am afraid to go back."

He laughed. "Have you grown so fearful, love?" he asked. "I remember the time when you defied the world to run away with me, although I was a penniless nobody at the time. Do you remember the ocean, love? Have you ever seen it before or since? And did you notice any difference? Some things always remain the same. We are not the same people we were six years ago. We will have to get to know each other again. But our love has survived, has it not? Can we not give it a chance again, Elizabeth? You do love me, do you not?"

"Yes," she admitted hesitantly against his coat, "I always have."

"Well," he said, chuckling against her hair, "you have sealed your doom now, love. You cannot expect me ever to let you go after you have admitted that, you know."

"Would you have let me go had I not said so?" she asked, her voice muffled by his coat.

"No," he admitted.

"You see?" she said, raising her head, her eyes flashing, her cheeks flushed. "You do not play fair, Robert Denning."

"No," he said, "I don't, do I? And are you not glad of it?"

She glared at him, until her face dimpled suddenly. "I promise you, you will not win all our arguments so easily, my lord," she assured him severely.

"Have I won this one?" he asked meekly.

"Oh, Robert, please kiss me," she begged suddenly. "Make me forget all my fears. John and Louise are very much in love with each other and they are perfectly happy. There is not any reason why we should not be, is there? If we really try…"

"Elizabeth," he said, pulling her close against his chest again, "you asked me to do something. Now would you have the kindness to allow me to do it?"

"Oh," she said, "is it advisable to kiss on an open highway, Robert?"

He clucked his tongue in mock annoyance and turned to pull the cord that held the curtains back from the window. He leaned across Elizabeth to do the same at her window. The interior of the carriage immediately became intimately dark.

"The answer to your question is yes," he said, grinning down into her upturned face, "but I am having the forethought to realize that I may want to do a great deal more than kiss you once we get started."

"Oh," she said. "Should we not wait, Robert? The servants mmmm-"

"Thank goodness I have a wife who knows when to stop prattling," the Marquess of Hetherington said with a self-satisfied smile several minutes later. "Now, if I could just train you not to wear these gowns that have a few score of buttons down the back, love!"

"Robert!" she protested, horrified, as she felt his fingers working the buttons free of the loops. "We are on a public mmmm-"