One Wicked Wish by Anna Campbell
Chapter 21
Halston handed Stella up into his stylish yellow curricle and nodded to the footman who held the high-spirited bays that were the envy of every horse-mad aristocrat in London. As Halston leaped into the seat, the man released the horses’ heads. With a click of his tongue, the vehicle rolled away at a smart pace.
“I wish I’d brought a closed carriage,” he said, smiling down at Stella who looked dazed, as though she wasn’t sure what world she inhabited right now. Having said that, she curled her fingers around his arm and nestled her hip up against his in a most satisfactory fashion.
She glanced at him. Nor was she the only person glancing at him. As he bowled along the edge of Lorimer Square, heads turned in their direction. He didn’t miss the curiosity in every face. As they passed the house where he’d met Stella in that chilly gazebo, he raised his whip to acknowledge Lord Lumsden’s bow.
“I’m sorry I’m not dressed to be seen in public. I’m not even wearing a bonnet, for heaven’s sake. But you rather took us all by surprise when you arrived on the doorstep.”
A grunt of laughter escaped. “I don’t give a rat’s arse what you’re wearing, you delightful creature. But I can’t kiss you out here on the street, and I have a burning desire to kiss you.”
“Oh,” she said on a squeak of pleasure and snuggled closer into his side. Her warmth seeped into him, when he hadn’t been warm since she left his bed.
The garden in the middle of the square had burst into blossom in the last few weeks. He couldn’t help feeling that his life was about to burgeon in a similar way, although he was yet to make his formal proposal.
They turned at the top of the square and passed the dark bulk of Fleetwood House with its overgrown grounds, also bright with flowers. “I want to kiss you, too,” Stella murmured, smiling with such joy that it was almost as good as kissing her.
“Just as you should.” He steered through heavier traffic, now they were out of the square. “But I’m at something of a loss. I imagined I’d see your uncle and gain his consent. Once I had that, I’d present my case to you, and I hoped to have a chance to kiss you then. I hadn’t planned on an elopement.”
Stella’s laugh veered perilously close to a giddy giggle, although she was a woman who didn’t in general giggle. A wry chuckle was more her style. A sign that she was beside herself. Halston hoped it was with happiness. Because he was beside himself, too, which after the last desolate weeks felt rather strange.
“So are we on our way to Scotland?” she asked with impressive calmness. “If we are, we’ll need to stop somewhere to go shopping. I don’t have as much as a spare handkerchief with me.”
He was still smiling, just so damn glad to have her beside him once more. He felt like he’d suffered through an eon without her. “We can manage that.”
“I don’t even have your handkerchief, although I’ve slept with it under my pillow every night since you gave it to me.”
Distracted, he glanced away from the road. “You kept that?”
“I did. I think you should watch where you’re going.”
By the dickens, she had him in a complete spin. He pulled the horses back from near collision with a loaded dray. “I’m…I’m overwhelmed to know that you kept my handkerchief.”
“Are you fit to drive to Gretna?”
“I hope so, although I wasn’t thinking of taking you as far as that.”
She studied him, her eyes the golden color they went when she was in the grip of deep emotion. “So where are you taking me?”
He paused and gave a startled laugh. “Devil if I know. I can’t propose to you in an open carriage in the middle of Piccadilly. And I can’t bear to wait to hold you in my arms.”
“Hyde Park? It shouldn’t be busy at this time of day.”
Still too public. He shot her a questioning glance. “I can take you to Maddox House, at least until we work out where we go from here. It has the advantage of only being five minutes away.”
He waited for her to say that would cause talk, although he had a suspicion that they’d already sparked a storm of gossip. Deerforth’s bellows of outrage had been loud enough to reach Newcastle. His insults to Stella must have traveled to every corner of the house, including downstairs. The servants wouldn’t keep such juicy tattle to themselves.
For himself, Halston didn’t care, but Stella had always been so careful with her reputation. Although once she became the Countess of Halston, she’d have the cachet to weather any amount of gossip.
“That sounds perfect.”
Startled, he turned to her. “Really?”
“Really.” The glance she cast him under her gold-tipped lashes reminded him that it was far too long since he’d made love to her. “You’re not alone in appreciating a little privacy.”
“Let’s go, then,” he said, urging the horses to a faster pace along the busy street.
***
Stella paid no attention to the splendors of Gray’s London house. All the way from Lorimer Square, his nearness had tantalized her. The tangy scent that had filled her dreams since she returned to London. The heat of his body crushed so close to hers on the narrow seat. Those strong, skillful hands that she burned to feel on her skin once again. All she cared about was finding a place where he could take her into his arms and transport her to the paradise that she’d thought lost forever.
A butler opened the door to them, as a groom drove the carriage away. Gray murmured instructions that she didn’t hear over the blood thundering in her ears, before he led her down a corridor to a well-stocked library. She felt as if she floated a foot off the ground. Nothing seemed real, apart from the warm grip of his hand on hers.
He closed the door and prowled across the room to sweep her up for a fervent kiss that claimed her forever. She sighed approval for that idea against his lips and kissed him back, making her own demands.
By the time he came up for air, she was no longer the sad, frozen creature of these last weeks. She didn’t even feel like the repressed companion she’d played since leaving Italy. Instead, she felt like a woman who had found the place she belonged.
That place was at Gray’s side.
“Stop looking at me like that, or I’ll do something to shock the servants,” he growled.
Her laugh was breathless. She still felt shaky and floaty and melty after that kiss. “Isn’t that the idea?”
He groaned and closed his eyes. “Don’t tempt me.” He gestured to the sofa near the tall windows. “Sit down, please. I have something to say to you.”
If he meant to ask her to marry him, he must know she’d consent. On the other hand, she’d love to hear his proposal and have a chance to say yes.
She stepped out of his arms and sank onto the sofa, her gaze never wavering from his beloved face. “I’m listening.”
As she folded her hands in her lap, her heart danced. Since they’d parted, she’d been so wretched. She could hardly believe that she never had to leave him again.
Stella waited for Gray to sit beside her or perhaps fall to his knees. That would be too romantic for words.
To her puzzlement, he began to pace. It took her a few moments to realize that the worldly earl was eaten up with nerves. That pleased her, too. It showed he didn’t take her for granted.
After another few seconds, she decided to put him out of his misery. “I’m guessing you want to ask me to marry you. At least that’s what you told my uncle. Or did that awful scene make you change your mind?”
“Don’t be a nitwit, darling.” He shot her a searing glare. “I’ll never change my mind.”
Some tiny niggle of uncertainty vanished, and she feared that her smile made her look completely besotted. Of course it did. She was completely besotted. “Then there’s no need to worry about my answer. You must know it’s going to be yes.”
For a fleeting instant, incandescent joy lit his features before he frowned again. “That’s capital. But I’ve got something else to tell you first.”
Her hands tightened around each other. “That sounds like you’re about to make a dreadful confession.”
He stopped prowling across the carpet like a caged tiger and forked one hand through his glossy black hair, leaving him looking ruffled. Her devoted heart turned over at how beautiful he was. “I am.”
This time, she didn’t respond, despite the curiosity that gnawed at her.
He sucked in a ragged breath and stepped closer. “I’ve spent my life believing that love was nothing but manipulation and wishful thinking.”
Love?The word thundered through her and made her go rigid.
He went on in the gruff voice that she’d learned betrayed his strongest feelings. “Then I met you, and everything I thought I knew turned out to be wrong. Those days at Prestwick Place were the happiest of my life. You make me happy, Stella. Since you left me, I haven’t experienced a second of happiness. I might be a slow learner, but I get there in the end. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you, a thoroughbred trying to disappear into a crowd of cart horses. You with your stern expression and burning eyes and no time for a profligate wastrel like the Earl of Halston. Every day since then, I’ve come to love you more.”
Gray paused as if waiting for her to say something, but she was too thunderstruck to utter a single word. He inhaled and squared his shoulders. “I wanted you. I still want you. I’ll die wanting you. But you need to know that when I told you that I believed love was an illusion, I was a foul liar. Because I loved you then, and I love you now. If you become my wife, you need to know that you’re marrying a man who worships the very ground you walk on.”
Transfixed, Stella sat on the couch, striving to make sense of what he told her. It was all so far from anything she’d ever imagined him saying.
He went on more calmly, although his tone remained urgent. “If we wed, it’s forever. It’s you and I, and only you and I, and whatever children the good Lord deigns to send us. I fear I’m going to be grumpy and possessive and mad for my wife, to the point where I make a spectacle of myself.”
She swallowed, as she came to the astonished conclusion that he feared she mightn’t love him back. When she’d been sick with love for him for as long, she now gathered, as he’d loved her.
She separated her hands and buried them in her dark blue skirts. “So you’re saying,” she began slowly, “that you love me, and you mean to be faithful, and that we’re going to have a passionate marriage.”
He made an incoherent sound deep in his throat. “Are you up for it?”
Silly man that he even had to ask. She blinked away tears. She’d hoped that her crying days were finished, but it seemed that they weren’t. “I’m sure I’ll find a way to cope.”
He held himself very straight, and the heat in his eyes threatened to set her alight. Overmastering emotion had him in its grip. At the Tierney ball, he’d looked at the edge of his control. He looked even more on edge now.
He regarded her down his long nose and when he spoke, his voice shook with the force of his feelings. “I love you, Stella.”
He loved her…
“Well, that’s altogether a good thing, Gray.” She rose on wobbly legs. The tears she thought she’d left behind thickened her voice. “Because I love you, too. More than you can ever know.”
For a long moment, he regarded her as though he didn’t believe her. Then he covered the gap between them in a single stride and kissed her as if he never meant to let her go.
***
A passionate interlude later, Stella drew away from Gray and regarded him with the adoration she no longer needed to hide. They were sitting on the couch, twined in each other’s arms. “I had no idea you loved me.”
“I was yours from the start.” He frowned. “I’ve only been able to think about you for weeks.”
“Oh, I knew that,” she said easily. “But I assumed that was a result of excessive masculine urges.”
Genuine surprise rang in his laugh. “Did you indeed? I see I need to convince you that you’ve turned me into a romantic.”
She kissed him again and shaped his jaw with one hand. “Don’t change too much. I love the rogue in you. He’s so exciting.”
“I’ll have to be a romantic rogue, then.” To her regret, he drew away. “Now, I was in the middle of something important before your rude interruption.”
She cast Gray a saucy look. “I’m not sure you got around to starting.”
“That’s enough of that.” With a rueful laugh, he stood. “I believe I was about to ask you to marry me.”
“I’d forgotten about that,” she said, her heart swelling until it threatened to explode out of her chest. Her voice lowered to throbbing sincerity. “All I ever wanted to hear, right from the start, was that you loved me.”
He smiled at her with the love she’d never allowed herself to hope for shining in his eyes. “I’ll always love you, and because that’s the case, I want to make it official. If I’d been less distracted by how much I wanted you, I’d have realized weeks ago that the obvious solution to our dilemma was to put a ring on your finger.”
It was Stella’s turn to frown. “You know if we marry, it will cause talk. The ton won’t consider me a suitable Countess of Halston.”
“Bugger the ton.”
That should have made her laugh, but she wanted Gray to understand that his choice of bride wouldn’t receive universal acclaim. “You’re a great catch, and great catches usually marry sweet little virgins of impeccable lineage and large fortune. I’m poor, and my family have disowned me, and as you very well know, I’m no virgin. Nor am I eighteen.”
His snort dismissed her qualms. “What the devil would I do with a pretty little poppet who’s sure to faint at the thought of bedding a man? A chit with no conversation and no fire and no worldly experience. I’ve made my choice, and it makes me happy. You’re the one for me, Stella. You always have been. That makes you the most suitable Countess of Halston in the world. We can weather a bit of scandal. Once we’re wed, I intend to hurry you back to Prestwick Place and take you to bed for the next twenty years anyway. Society will have forgotten about us by the time we emerge and come back to London.”
She gave a shaky laugh. “Twenty years?”
“At least.”
Then to her amazement and gratification, Gray fell to one knee before her. He took her trembling hand and stared at her with his heart in his eyes.
Shocked, she realized that he’d always stared at her with his heart in his eyes. She should never have taken his word for it when he described himself as incapable of love.
“My darling, will you make me the happiest man in the world and say you’ll be my wife?”
Drat these annoying tears. Moisture prickled her eyes again, and her eager acceptance jammed in a throat that was tight with emotion. The best she could do was grip his fingers in hers and nod.
He smiled and kissed her with a tenderness that only made her more waterlogged.
By the time he raised his head, she’d located her voice, even if a thready version of it. “I’d be ecstatic to marry you, Gray. I love you.”
That brought on more kissing, and she was breathless when she broke away at last. “What happens now?”
Gray was back beside her on the sofa. He drew a small green leather box decorated with gold tooling from his pocket. “Now I produce the ring.”
Stella couldn’t hide how impressed she was. “You’re prepared.”
His wry smile set deep creases in his cheeks and made him breathtakingly attractive. She told herself that if she kissed him again, they’d be here all day. And she very much wanted to feel Gray’s ring on her finger.
“I am. I even have a special license in the top drawer of my desk. That’s going to come in handy, now we have to marry in a hurry to avoid a scandal.”
“You said you don’t care about scandal.”
“I don’t. But you do. And as you said, the less trouble we’re in, the better things will turn out for Imogen. I’ve become very fond of Imogen. I was very fond of her indeed when she tried to protect you from Deerforth.” As Gray clicked the box open, he glanced up at her. “This isn’t the time to talk about your cousin. This is the time to concentrate on us. We can marry tomorrow, if you like.”
Stella’s head was whirling and not just from his intoxicating kisses. She’d woken this morning, convinced only sorrow awaited. Now before the week was out, she was going to marry the man she loved. No wonder she felt giddy. “I like.”
“Until then, I need to send you to a hotel. I’ll get one of the maids up from downstairs to go with you.”
Disappointment flooded her. “I can’t stay here?”
“I want to do things right.” His laugh held a self-mocking note. “As it is, we shouldn’t be alone together for too long. There’s one compensation. After the ceremony, I’ll have you to myself, and nobody will raise an eyebrow.”
Stella realized that somewhere since the Lumsden ball, the romantic had definitely overtaken the rogue. When he looked at her as he looked at her now, she didn’t mind a bit.
Gray went on. “I’m beginning to wish I’d cultivated some respectable connections. What we need is an older lady of impeccable reputation to take you in, until I make you my bride. I’d assumed you’d stay with Deerforth until we married, but his theatrics render that impossible.”
Stella frowned in thought. “You know, Lady Lumsden said that if ever I needed somewhere to go, she’d give me a home. She and Mamma were great friends. Perhaps she’d be willing to lend her consequence to the wedding. It would silence some of the talk.”
“That’s a good idea. I’ll write her a note and ask if I can take you over there.” He paused. “But first I have something important to do.” He withdrew the ring from the box and caught her hand. “I want the world to know you’re mine, Stella. Forever.”
By the time he slid a spectacular sapphire onto her finger, they were both shaking.
“Forever,” she echoed, as he bent to kiss the ring that symbolized a lifetime of happiness to come.
