“But you aren’t betrothed yet. No official announcement has been made. You are here only to meet him. Nothing has been decided.”
“I suppose Ariadne told you all of that. She should not have given you false hope.”
“My hope isn’t false so long as you say you will be my wife,” he said, gliding a knuckle along the line of her throat with a gentleness that turned her knees weak. “I had planned to ask you to marry me the morning you left, you know. I loved you even then, though I did my damnedest not to admit it once I learned you’d fled. But my heart was already beyond reclaim; you took it with you when you left. Emma, these weeks have been hell without you.”
She shivered and leaned her forehead against his cheek. “For me too,” she whispered.
“Then marry me, love. Or will you be sorry to be no more than a countess when you could be a queen instead?”
Her head came up, her gaze fierce. “What do I care about being a queen? This marriage is my brother’s doing and none of my own. It matters not to me if you are a prince, or an earl, or an ordinary man without a title at all. I would love you the same no matter your rank.”
His eyes turned warm as smoke. “Then you agree to be my bride?”
A sensation that was halfway between despair and elation blossomed in her chest. “Were I free to give you my pledge, I would, without hesitation.”
“Then my bride is exactly what you shall be,” he stated in an emphatic tone. “In the morning, I will speak with your brother and formally ask for your hand.”
“No,” she said, aghast. “Have I not just told you that he is the one who arranged my marriage to King Otto? He will not release me.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I have already asked him to end the betrothal. He says the future of our nation depends on this union and that I must comply. He will never let us wed.”
“Men are known to change their minds, particularly where their family is concerned. Perhaps once we explain that we are in love—”
She gave a hard shake of her head. “He does not believe in love. He says it has no place in a royal marriage, that duty must always take precedence. Asking him for my hand is futile.”
“I refuse to believe that. During the war, I found myself in all sorts of seemingly impossible situations and yet I always figured some way out—some means of prevailing.”
“This isn’t a war, Dominic.”
“Is it not? It certainly feels like one. The most important battle of my life.”
She tightened her arms around his waist. “Thank you for wanting to fight for me even if we cannot win.”
His jaw took on a mulish cast. “We can. I am not afraid of your brother, or intimidated by his position, even if he does happen to be the prince regent of Rosewald.”
“You are the least cowardly man I know, but this has nothing to do with bravery. If you confront him, it will only make things worse.”
“How can it be worse?”
“Believe me, it can. He could send me home immediately and compel me to go through with the marriage anyway. It is within his power to make sure you and I are separated so that we may never see each other again.”
“I will find you again no matter what he does. I swear that to you, Emma. Now that I know you love me, nothing on earth will keep me from making you my wife.”
If only it could be so, she thought.
“If we must,” he continued, “we will elope.”
“You mean run to Scotland?”
“Yes, that is exactly what I mean. I am going to ask your brother for your hand because it is the honorable thing to do—” She opened her mouth to argue, but he stopped her with a soft touch. “If he refuses, as you assure me he will, then we will head to Scotland.”
“Once he realizes we’ve left, he will call out his guard. They are trained officers and will have no trouble following our trail.”
“They will, if we go by sea.”
Her mouth rounded on a hushed inhalation.
“I know a ship’s captain in Bristol,” Nick told her. “If I say the word, he will lend me a vessel and we can sail with the first tide. By the time anyone knows what we’ve done, we will be married and it will be too late.”
A sudden wild hope flared to life inside her. Could it really be that simple? Was it actually possible that she and Nick could marry?
“Then yes,” she said. “But let’s not wait. Let’s go tonight. I’ll pack a bag and we can be on our way before anyone realizes.”
“You forget that I have to contact the captain first and have him prepare the ship. It will do us no good to get caught. Be patient, love. Let me speak to your brother. Let me give him a chance to see reason. If he does not, then we will run.”