“Does it still?” Marion asked, though she was smiling.
“Absolutely,” he answered. “But I am far more frightened of losing you.” He kissed the top of her head. “Say you will come back, Marion.”
She closed her eyes, savoring the moment. “I want to go home, Layton.”
“Oh.” He sounded completely deflated. Clearly, he’d misunderstood.
“No, Layton. Home to Farland Meadows.”
“The Meadows?”
“I could not imagine being happier anywhere else in all the world than I would be there.” Marion looked up at his face. “Promise you will never make me leave.”
“Marry me, my love?” Layton whispered.
No words could possibly have been sufficient in that moment. She pressed a kiss to one corner of his mouth then to the other. “I love you, Layton. I have for so very long.”
A look of contented peace filled his eyes even as a grin split his face. “We didn’t make this easy for ourselves these past months, did we?”
Marion shook her head. How they’d both suffered in silence!
“I told your cousin that if I wasn’t out in ten minutes he was to turn the carriage around and head back to Collingham.” Layton held her as closely to him as she imagined she could possibly get. He tucked the carriage blanket around her legs.
“We’re going home?” Marion laid her head against his shoulder.
“Will you help me make it a home again?”
“It only needs a little cheering.” Marion felt warm for the first time all day, all month, perhaps. “And a great deal of love.”
“And heaps of soggy leaves,” Layton added with a laugh.
“Oh, Layton.” Marion fairly sang. “What a story this will make.”
“What a story, indeed,” Layton muttered, kissing her once more for good measure as the carriage began to slowly roll back along the road toward home.