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Maybe he wasnotcoming to suggest that their marriage be annulled but instead to express how much he missed her. Catherine’s pulse jumped. Did he want her still?

“Catherine,” he said. “My dear Catherine.”

“Oh, am ICatherine, Your Grace?” she asked.

And did that mean he was once againWilliam, rather thanYour Grace? Catherine curled her fingers into her skirts and inhaled deeply, trying to force her scattered thoughts into some order. She had long since learned that if something seemed too good to be true, it often was. Butoh, she wanted this to be true!

She wanted William to come with an apology and a declaration of love. Catherine bit the inside of her cheek. William was near enough to touch, and her fingertips twitched with the desire to trace the plains of his chest.

“Yes,” William replied, his brow furrowed. “Yes, Catherine. I am so sorry for how I have treated you.”

“Oh,” Elias said slyly. “This will be interesting. Am I to learn what has distressed you, after all?”

“This does not involve you,” Catherine said.

“If it involves your happiness, it does involve me,” he pointed out. “You are my beloved sister.”

Catherine shot him a venomous glare, which only received a smirk. She untangled her arm from her brother’s and took a tentative step toward her husband. They were only a hairsbreadth apart, and Catherine had to crane her head up to see him.

“I was a coward when I told you to stay away. I was such a fool, Catherine.”

Her heart seemed to skip a beat. Catherine did not know if she believed him, but everything inside her ached with theneedto believe him. “And what are you now?” she asked.

He chuckled and gave her a helpless look. “A lovesick fool,” he replied. “Catherine, I have thought of nothing else, except for you. I have gone mad since you left.”

She gasped and put a hand over her mouth, scarcely able to believe those words. “Do you really mean it?”

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I want you. I love you, all of you and nothing less.”

Tears formed in Catherine’s eyes, hot and stinging. “What changed your mind?” she asked.

“I never changed my mind,” he replied. “I have loved you for a long time. It is only that I was afraid to admit it. I have lost so many people in my life, and I could not bear to lose you, also. But I lost you for just a moment when you left, and I realized that I never want to lose you again.”

Unthinking, she launched herself into his arms, and he drew her in for a deep kiss. Dimly, she noticed that other couples in the park were staring at them. She suspected that Elias was one of them, but Catherine found that she did not care.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him until her lungs burned from a lack of air. And he kissed her back with equal fervor, as though he was determined to let that one long kiss make up for all the time that they had lost.

When they broke their kiss, they remained standing close to one another, their chests heaving as heat surged through their bodies. “I love you, too,” Catherine said.

“You have made me the happiest man in the world,” William said.

She smiled. So much happiness filled her that she felt as if she might burst. “Quite a feat, indeed.”

“While I understand your desire to stay with your family, I wondered if I might persuade you to return home with me,” William said.

“I might be persuaded,” Catherine replied, her face warming. “I have missed you, after all.”

William kissed her again. “That makes me happier than you can possibly know.”

Catherine looked over her shoulder and grinned at her brother, whose eyes shone with mischief. “Am I to assume that the matter is resolved?”

“You may,” Catherine said. “I believe that I will be returning home, Elias.”

CHAPTER33

William could not stop looking at his wife, who reclined across the seat of the coach. He sat opposite her, taking in the sight of her slender throat and trailing slowly down to her full breasts. William shifted forward to the edge of the seat and placed his hands on her hips. Catherine’s breath hitched. “William…”

“I had thought to wait until we returned to the estate,” he said, his throat choked up with all the emotions surging within him. “But I am unsure if I can wait that long.”