Page 47 of Gabriela and His Grace (The Luna Sisters #3)

“I encountered him at a gaming hell. Dawson was with me, and he was with his set, including old Tyrell.” Gabby scowled at the mention of the earl who had abducted Ana María several years past. “My father’s mouth fell open when he saw me, and he looked me up and down as if surprised I’d become a man without his help.

He tried to start a conversation, but I ignored him.

” Sebastian chuckled, but the sound was harsh.

“That infuriated him. He grabbed my arm and started to scold me…that is until I planted a facer right on his jaw.”

Gabby gasped, turning about in his arms. “You didn’t!”

“I did.” Sebastian’s voice lacked inflection.

“I would have done it again if he tried to get up. But he didn’t, and the sight of him sprawled on the ground looking up at me, in front of all his vile friends, is a memory that has fueled me, even while he did his best to bankrupt the dukedom in retaliation. ”

She sensed there was more to the story than he was saying, and Gabby frowned. “What do you mean?”

Sebastian’s grip tightened. “The papers were filled with inflated, often erroneous, retellings of our confrontation for weeks afterward, and other stories appeared that spoke of my father’s foul behavior.

He was, understandably, outraged. He couldn’t take the Whitfield title from me, but he sure as hell could squander my inheritance and leave me its charred ruins.

I’ve been struggling to repair the dukedom ever since. ”

“Ay, querido,” she murmured, cupping his cheek.

“So that is why the Camino Rojo mine has been so important to me. It promises a better future not just for me, but for the staff at Whitfield Manor, the staff at Whitfield Place.” Sebastian kissed the back of her hand.

“For the people who depend upon me, who trust me in ways they never dared trust my father.”

“I’m sorry.” Gabby pushed the hair back from his brow, smiling when he closed his eyes at her touch. “I’m sorry I ever believed you to be a lazy, vapid aristocrat, more concerned with his own consequence than the well-being of those around him.”

He snorted. “I didn’t give you many reasons to think otherwise.”

“But you have now.” Leaning forward, Gabby pressed her lips to his. It was a fleeting kiss, but it dissolved some of her anger. “I forgive you for not being here.”

“Thank you.” Sebastian dropped his head to her shoulder, and she carded her fingers through his soft hair. After several long breaths, he murmured, “I have something to ask you, though.”

“You do?” she echoed, her brow furrowed.

Pulling free of her arms, Sebastian set her on the love seat before he dropped to his knees in front of her. Holding her gaze, he pulled a box from his coat pocket and placed it in her hands.

“I made an additional stop before I arrived. At Carrington House, to collect this.”

Gabby shook her head. “Carrington House? Do you know the Duke of Carrington?” She’d never met the man or his duchess.

“He’s my uncle.” Sebastian smiled. “He was my mother’s younger brother, and he held this in safekeeping for me.”

Gabby opened the box to reveal a delicate gold ring.

Flanked on either side by a trio of diamonds, a sapphire the color of the bluest blue sat at the center of the arrangement.

It was obviously very old, and in a style from a bygone era.

Gabby loved it immediately. With her heart thudding painfully in her chest, she looked at Sebastian.

“It was my mother’s. And her mother’s before her, and her mother’s before that.” He licked his lips. “And I’d like for it to be yours.”

Her throat bobbed as she held back her tears.

“Will you marry me, Ella? Will you be my duchess? Will you be my wife?” Sebastian’s eyes were pools of the palest waters. “Will you let me endeavor each day to prove I can be a man deserving of your hand?”

Despite all her maneuvering to outstep first Lord Carlisle’s and then her father’s machinations, Gabby was once again faced with a marriage proposal.

Time seemed to stand still as she waited for the irritation, the impatience she usually felt when entertaining such a question to flood her.

Instead, her pulse raced and her mouth went dry.

Staring into Sebastian’s earnest gaze, Gabby felt breathless as understanding fell upon her: She’d been frightened of marriage because she couldn’t imagine a man who would respect her and value her as a person, and not as a commodity to possess.

A conquest to be made. But that was before Sebastian.

Perhaps she could be happy in marriage as long as it was a marriage to him .

A jolt of unease tempered her newly dawned insight, because suddenly she had to know if Sebastian would have asked to marry her if their affair had not been discovered. Gabby wasn’t sure why it mattered, but it did.

He must have read the question in her eyes, because Sebastian rose to sit by her side, cupping her cheeks with his hands.

“Scandal or no scandal, I want this. I want you .” He stroked his thumb over her cheekbone. “I may not have been brave enough to ask before, but I’m trying to be brave now.”

Gabby wanted to believe him. Yearned to. But there was a wisp of uncertainty that haunted her. “Is there anything you haven’t told me? Something I should know if I’m to be your wife?”

Sebastian’s expression remained unchanged, yet there was a flash of…something in his eyes that Gabby had no time to grasp. “I believe you know the worst of it,” he said with a wry grin.

She considered him a moment longer, her unease abating. “Then I want to be brave, too.”

“You’re fearsome, darling,” Sebastian said earnestly.

“Then let me bravely say yes,” she whispered against his lips.

And Gabby let go. Of her defenses. Her fears. Her prejudices against this man who had shown her that he wanted her just as she was. Twining her fingers in his hair, Gabby gave herself over to the inevitable.

They were sitting side by side on the love seat, their hands laced together, when Ana María, Gideon, and Lady Yardley returned to the room fifteen minutes later.

Estella was in her father’s arms, one chubby fist in her mouth and the other wrapped around her father’s once neatly arranged tie.

She grinned when she spotted Gabby, but the baby’s eyes flew wide when they landed on the duke and she reached out her arms toward him.

“Little Miss Fox, I’ve missed you,” Sebastian said as he scooped Estella from an amused Gideon’s arms. He held the baby against his chest in a practiced manner, and Gabby’s ribs ached.

“I can’t believe she went to you over me,” she whined, leaning forward to kiss Estella’s cheek. “She’s my niece, after all.”

“Yes well, she’ll be my niece, too, soon enough.” Sebastian bounced Estella until she giggled, and then smirked down at Gabby. “I can’t help it if the prettiest little lady in London desires my company.”

Gabby couldn’t express—nor did she want to—how the sight of Sebastian cuddling the baby close made her want to cry.

One of Estella’s dimpled hands knotted in his dark hair while her other palm slapped against his cheek as she gurgled at him.

Sebastian tucked his spectacles into his pocket and nodded at her, as if he were listening intently as the baby shared a great secret.

“No, I suppose you can’t,” she murmured around the lump in her throat.

Sebastian glanced at her and then back at the baby.

“Little Miss Fox, I asked the most extraordinary woman to be my duchess today, and she agreed. Do you know what that means?” Estella stared at him with large doe eyes, chewing on her fingers.

“It means I’m going to be your uncle. Isn’t that grand? ”

Biting her cheek, Gabby took a moment to study all the faces in the room.

Ana María met her gaze with watery eyes, coming forward to clasp Gabby’s hand tightly in her own.

Gideon was staring at his daughter and the duke, an exasperated but fond look on his face.

The viscountess clutched her dog, Dove, against her chest, no doubt planning Gabby and Sebastian’s wedding in her mind.

Finally, she looked up at the duke. The man who would be her husband. Sebastian was watching her closely, as if gauging her response. And for the first time, she well and truly exhaled. Then she smiled. A smile that hurt her cheeks but lightened her heart. “It’s wonderful.”