Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

Daniel felt his heart stop at the sight of her, standing so magnificently amidst the blooming flowers. Even the tears that streaked down her cheeks were like diamonds that fell from eyes the color of a stormy blue sky.

My Duchess—how could I have hurt her so?

Pain seized his chest, and he nearly staggered towards her. Never again away from her. Even if he had to crawl on his hands and knees, he would always find his way back to her.

“Your… painting is magnificent.”

She raised an eyebrow at that and smirked. “The first painting you compliment and it is of your likeness.”

Daniel wanted to kick himself for that inane comment. He had meant to compliment her skills—not his likeness.

She turned around and wiped her hands on a rag before tossing it back on the table. “I never thanked you for sending Mr. Turner to me, by the way, so… thank you.”

Her voice was cold and so aloof that if he had not seen the tears streaming down her cheeks, he would have thought that her heart had truly turned to ice.

“I hope you liked my gift,” he murmured. “The student seems to have surpassed the master so quickly.”

She shrugged and started putting her brushes aside. “Regarding your gift, I like it well enough. I may not be as talented as Mr. Turner, but it is a good way to pass time after—” She stopped, her eyes softening. “After everything that happened.”

You mean after I spoke of breaking our marriage a mere day after our wedding.

“Have you come about the annulment?” she asked him in a broken voice.

He shook his head and reached for her. “No. Never that.”

She laughed scornfully. “Is that not what you wanted?”

“I thought I was doing what was best,” he replied hoarsely, his hand reaching for her. “Please, Evie.”

She stepped back, out of his reach, shaking her head as she stared at his hand, the resentment clear in her eyes.

“How like you!” she cried bitterly. “You marry me, claiming that it is for the best. Then, you cast me aside, claiming that it is for the best. How can I trust you when you keep changing your mind?”

At that point, Daniel knew that all the pretty words in the world would not matter for Evie, whose heart he had so callously broken. All his manipulation and coercion would fall short because she would not so easily believe whatever he had to say to her now.

His hand dropped to his side. “You are right. I have made a mockery of everything,” he told her softly. “I thought I knew what I wanted, but all along, what I wanted the most, what I wanted more than even my next breath… it has always been you, Evie.”

They stood there, facing each other in the afternoon sunlight. In spite of her tears, Evie stood with her chin held up defiantly.

This time, he would be the one to lower his head. Before her, he could only acknowledge his mistakes and what it had cost them both.

For the first time, he must confide to another person what was truly in his heart. He had to lay himself bare before her if only to win the smallest chance that she might believe in him again after everything he had done to her.

“Before you, I was shackled to my prejudices,” he admitted hoarsely. “My mother abandoned me in an orphanage because she was unable to care for me, and my father only acknowledged my existence when it became convenient for him to have a son, even one out of wedlock.”

He looked up and found her staring stonily at him, so he continued. “I made a vow that even if I assumed the title of the Duke of Ashton, I would never give him the satisfaction of continuing his line. I was determined to end it with me.”

“So, it has been your decision all along to remain childless,” she ground out. “It had nothing to do with any limitations on your part.”

He smiled sadly at her. “You should know better than anyone that there are no such limitations on that aspect.”

She bristled at his words. “Even now, you can afford to make such scandalous jokes.”

“That is because you have freed me, Evie,” he implored her. “Because of you, I am no longer tethered to the past and my bitterness. I want to become a man worthy of standing by your side for the rest of our days, to become the husband you truly deserve.”

She shook her head and angrily rolled up the case containing her paintbrushes. “You do not understand what you are saying,” she bit out. “And if you do, then you probably do not mean it, anyway.”

But he did mean it. All of it and so much more.

He wanted nothing more than to lay the world at her feet. To be the one who made her laugh and moan with pleasure. To be able to watch her belly swell with the lives they would create together. To be with her all the days of their lives together.

“I do mean it,” he said softly. “All of it, my darling. I want you and the life we will build together. When I think of you and the children we might have, I no longer think of heirs or my desire for vengeance on a miserable man long since buried—I only think of you. Of us.”

She turned away from him, but this time, Daniel had learned his lesson and learned it well. This time, he was not going to let her go.

This time, he reached out to clasp her hand in his, determined that even if she should push him away, he would never give up on her.

This time, he would be her Daniel, the husband she needed and deserved.

He was never going to leave her again.

Hope was truly the most astounding thing.

When all seemed lost, it was all she could hold on to. Now that she had grasped it, she could not put her faith and whole heart into it.

She looked at Daniel, seeing the regret and hurt in his vivid green eyes, and her hands clenched into fists.

Not for himself, but for me, she realized with startling clarity. He is hurting for me.

“Why?” she demanded softly. “Why do you come to me with your pretty words and promises? Is it guilt that brings you to my door? I had not thought you capable of it.”

The moment the bitter words left her mouth, she knew she could not take them back. Daniel was a proud man, unbent after all that he had gone through in his childhood.

She did not expect to see him standing there, unwavering before her.

“Because I love you,” he said simply. “I love you through all your hurt and sadness, your anger and resentment, just as I love you through all your joys and laughter. I love you through all the bad and the good, all your fortunes and misfortune. There has never been anyone before you, nor will there be anyone after. I will love you solely, wholly, and truly beyond even my dying breath.”

Her breath hitched in her throat. Tears stung her eyes at his softly worded declaration.

But it is too late for us. I am so far gone in my sadness and despair that I cannot even begin to see hope for us.

“But what if I am no longer all of those things you claim to love?” she asked him. “What if I have become so irrevocably changed that I cannot possibly be all these things?”

He smiled at her, drawing her into his arms. “You think my love such an inconstant and fickle thing? You could change by the hour and I will love you still. Tenacity—” He chuckled. “Tenacity is something I learned very early on.”

His hand stroked her back most soothingly as he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. “You will not be so easily rid of me, Evelyn Fitzroy-Stanton. I am yours whether you care for me or not. There are no such conditions for my affections.”

She breathed in his familiar scent, her fingers unconsciously digging into his chest as her hand curled over his heart. The steady beat beneath her palm was exactly as he had professed—constant and unwavering.

“But what about your revenge?” she asked him.

He laughed softly. “I have you and the life we will live together before us. What do I care for a miserable old man who has long since been buried?”

Her heart soared crazily at his words as she looked up and regarded him with a smile. “What makes you think that I will agree to this pretty picture you have painted for me?”

“It is you who paints the pictures, my love.” He grinned at her. “I have no talent beyond my great admiration for all that you are.”

She laughed and poked at his chest. “Who are you and what have you done with my husband, the Duke of Ash?”

He clasped the hand she had laid over his heart. “I am yours, and I always have been. I do not see how I could be anything else.”

“Rogue!” she softly admonished him, lightly slapping his chest.

He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Come back with me to Ashton Hall, and I will show you just how much of a rogue I can be.”

Her eyes widened at the dark promise in his voice. The way his breath caressed the sensitive shell of her ear had her shivering even under the warm afternoon sun.

And through all that, she could feel his hardness pressing into her belly—the clearest evidence of his desire for her.

She looked up at him and smiled jauntily at him. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I most certainly hope that your brother can learn to tolerate my presence in his residence. Although,” he added with a thoughtful look, “I daresay he might kick both of us out after he hears how loudly I can make you⁠—”

“Hush!” she reprimanded him, heat rising to her cheeks. “Have you no shame at all?”

“Not when it comes to you, apparently.”

He truly was a rogue and an unrepentant one at that. However, that mattered very little to Evie, for he was her rogue and no one else’s. He could be as naughty as he wanted to be, and she would only love him all the more for it.

“Come back to Ashton Hall, my Duchess,” he coaxed her, his voice low and soft as he whispered in her ear. “Come back with me, and I shall make you the happiest of women, for that is the only way I can find happiness for myself. All my days shall belong to you, as all your nights shall belong to me…”

And she wanted it. Dear God in heaven, she wanted it all!

She looked up at him, at the desire that swirled in his eyes. Evie leaned into him as his mouth slanted hungrily over hers in a kiss that robbed her of reason and any remaining resistance.

She kissed him back with all the pent-up yearning she had endured in the days of her loneliness.

There would be no more of that now.

“For the love of God, please do not stand there defiling my gardens!” an incensed voice pierced through the air. “If you must, then take your display of affections back to your own residence, you scoundrel!”

Evie jumped at the sound of her brother’s voice, but Daniel only tightened his arms around her, shielding her from her brother’s censure.

“Does this mean that you have no objection to my taking my wife back to our conjugal home?” Daniel asked him with a raised eyebrow and an impenitent smirk.

Evie frowned up at him and murmured, “Darling, I do not think we should provoke him further.”

His eyes absolutely lit up when she called him that, his smile growing wider and more unabashed.

But Colin merely waved his hand dismissively at the both of them. “Of course, I have not forgiven you, but we have the rest of our lives for me to torment you for marrying my beloved sister behind my back. Rest assured that the moment you mess up again, I shall take her back posthaste, and you will never see her again.”

“That will never happen,” Daniel told him solemnly. “I would rather take my own life before I allow Evie to suffer even the slightest grievance.”

“Oh, for the love of God, go!” Colin groaned. “Before you make me sick!”

Daniel laughed and smiled at Evie. “It appears that we have overstayed our welcome, dear wife. Let us go back home.”

Home.

At that one word, Evie felt all the sadness and the anger, the helplessness and resentment, fade away. She leaned into his arms and smiled back at him.

“Yes, dear husband. Let us head back home.”