“Enough to know that His Grace cares about you, obviously enough to protect you,” Arabella assured her. “The duke has never spoken of you as his half-sister to me. Only as his sister.”
Hermione erupted in fresh tears at this as the butler entered the room.
“His Grace is asking for you, Miss St. George,” the man said. “Then he wishes to see Lady Hermione.”
Relief flooded through Arabella as she squeezed Hermione’s hand and followed the butler out of the parlor and up the long stairs to the ducal suite of rooms.
Sebastian was sitting up in his bed, pillows propped around him. As Hermione had said, his color was poor, but his eyes focused on Arabella with a reassuring sizzle.
“Out,” he said, his voice a rasping shadow of its former booming timbre. Bella didn’t care. He was alive. That was all that mattered. “Everyone but Miss St. George.”
After the door latch clicked behind the doctor, Lord Granger, and the rest of the people who’d crowded the space, Arabella didn’t wait for an invitation. She ran to the bed and climbed in beside him. Sebastian kissed her, on the mouth this time, a blessed rain after her heart’s long drought.
“Oh, Sebastian.” Bella pressed a string of feather-light kisses on the angry red ligature mark on his neck. “I love you so. If you still want me to sign your contract, I will.”
“Actually,” he said, “I’ve changed my thoughts about that. I have in mind a contract of a different sort. Marry me, Bella.”
The dizzying leap from commoner to duchess stole her breath, but the chasm from lover to wife seemed even farther. “The world will not understand. Are you sure?”
“The world can go chase itself. I didn’t give a damn what Society thought when I took four mistresses a year. I care even less what it thinks of my choice for a wife.” His fingertips traced the curve of her cheekbone. “Oh, Bella, I thought I had things figured out. My life was laid out in neat quarters, the whole lot ordered just so. But then you came along and upended everything.”
“Sound as if I’m not very good for you, then.” She kissed him, suckling his lower lip for a moment. “I’ve stolen your former life from you, Sebastian. Do you wish me to say I’m sorry?”
“Say whatever you like. Just don’t try to give my old life back to me. I love you.” He tugged her close and she felt his heart beating against her chest. “And I won’t be content until you’re mine.”
Tears of joy pressed against her eyes and threatened to spill over her lids. “Then my answer is yes. I am yours and you are mine, today, tomorrow . . . and for all seasons.”
THE END