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“But so long as I breathe,” he said, “I will love ye.”

She let out a fractured little whimper that stabbed him straight in his heart.

“But you didn’t want a wife.”

Caleb chuckled. Lord, how had he not known that saying it out loud would feel sogood.

“Nae, I dinnae. And I dinnae geta wife—I gotye, Grace. And if ye think I am stubborn, well ye are just as much so. If ye think I am brave, then I am a coward before ye.” When he reached a tentative hand toward her, she slipped her fingers in his, almost shyly. “I cannae say ye are a fool like me, alas, for ye are far too clever than is for yer own good—or for mine.”

She giggled. He prayed he could hear that sound for all his days.

“If ye daenae wish me to go, I willnae go. Even if it means staying in this godforksaken city?—”

“Oh, goodness no,” she said, blinking as if flustered, and God help him, it was just the thing, wasn’t it, for her to be flustered bythisstatement instead of the declarations of love he’d had to mine from the depths of his soul.

“No,” she said again, “I don’t want to live in London. I want to go home. To the estate.”

“Ye do?” He furrowed his brow. “But it’s so near to where ye…”

“Yes, well…” She tilted her head. “I was thinking. My fa—Graham. He said he was selling a property in the north—he said it at that awful dinner. I didn’t put it together right away, of course, but I’m thinking…what ifwebought it?”

He found himself so idiotically pleased with her use of the wordwethat it took him a moment to really think through what she was asking.

“Ye want to…have that place?”

“The millworks,” she said. “And I know that’s not what you’re asking, and, oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll never be able to step foot in there again. But for years, I remember being so angry that the stupid millworkedand yet those lazy fools didn’t do anything with it. I think…” She paused.

“I think I should like it to be something that works, that makes the village better. I think I should like to be able to controlmaking it better. Or,” she added thoughtfully, “we could burn it to the ground.”

“Is it nae made of stone?”

“Or we could smash it to bits with very large hammers,” she amended. “I don’t know. I just think…it’s our people who live in that town. What if we took this awful thing and made it better?”

Realistically, Caleb would have given her anything she’d asked for just then. The moon, the stars, the sun from the sky. A mill was nothing in comparison. His only qualm had been for her.

But the look in her eye was a determined kind of hope. This, he thought, might be good for her.

And, if it kept her close to him, in their home, at his side, all the better. He would get to see her grow round with his child—with his children, God willing. He could soothe her nightmares, hold her when she got frightened.

And she could heal him, too, he thought. She might be the only person who could.

“Aye,leannan,” he said. “I think that’s a fine idea.”

Her smile was all the thanks he needed—but if shewantedto throw her arms around his neck and press a fervent kiss to his mouth, well. He was a gentleman. Naturally, he would accept any favor that the lady chose to give.

The kiss was growing heated, her hands growing curious, when she pulled back to look at him, a playfully wicked gleam in her eye.

“Caleb,” she said, coy with lowered lashes. “Do you remember how you said you are not good at speaking your feelings out loud?”

“Aye,” he said carefully. He knew he’d enjoy having his flaws thrown in his face by this woman for the rest of his born days, but still. Caution didn’t hurt, when you had a wife as clever and wily as he did.

Her grin grew sharp, and Caleb’s body reacted on pure instinct.

“Do you think you could instead perhapsshowme how you feel?”

Her words were clear enough, but even if they weren’t, the way she ground herself into his lap was unmistakable.

It was a marvel, wasn’t it, how he’d managed to marry the finest woman in the world?