Page 38 of Sir Hugo Seeks a Wife (Cinderellas of Mayfair #1)

She swallowed to ease her tight throat. That didn’t help either. So her voice was husky when she replied. “I’ll have you, Hugo. Heaven help us both.”

His gaze turned brilliant. “Do you mean it?”

“Yes.” Despite her injuries and her emotional turmoil, she felt like a storm-tossed ship that had found safe harbor.

She’d struggled against this outcome from the first. Now she gave in to the inevitable.

Her heart would have its wish. She was going to be happy, and she was going to do her damnedest to make Hugo happy.

“I can’t live without you, so let’s get married and dare the world to do its worst.”

“Athene, I love you. I love you so much.” He rose to give her a gentle kiss. Even that had her wincing. Which prompted a cracked giggle, as she stroked his hair with her good hand. “I wish I could give you a suitably passionate response.”

“We’ll make up for it, beloved. We’ve got a whole lifetime to look forward to.”

Athene should be worried about what lay ahead. She wasn’t fool enough to believe that everything would become simple, once she and Hugo wed. But she couldn’t focus on dire predictions when he loved her and she loved him, and she’d survived her accident to become his wife.

“I’m failing as a chaperone,” Miles said from the doorway. He was smiling and didn’t sound too outraged.

Hugo kept hold of Athene’s hand and turned to face her brother. “You’re just in time to congratulate us. Athene has consented to marry me at last.”

Miles frowned in puzzlement. “You told me you were engaged.”

“I said that more in hope than in truth,” Hugo admitted. “But now it’s true, and I’m the happiest man in England.”

“And I’m the happiest woman in the world,” Athene said, although her moment of unalloyed jubilation had been brief. Too many questions remained to be answered.

She hadn’t seen her brother since she’d run away with George.

In her fleeting intervals of consciousness since her accident, Miles had told her that he didn’t hate her.

She hoped to goodness that he meant it. Aside from her desire to re-establish contact with her family, Miles’s approval of her match with Hugo might help smooth her social rehabilitation.

Miles came further into the room. “I can see that.” To her astonishment, he leaned in to kiss her cheek. “I can’t tell you what a relief it is to know you’re alive and well, Athene.” His lips twitched. “Apart from a few bruises and broken bones.”

She gaped at him. “I don’t understand.”

Miles looked thoughtful, as he pulled another chair up to her bedside. “After you left, I always feared the worst. Once Papa died, I discovered you’d gone to Vienna and—”

She felt like she’d thrown herself in front of another carriage. “Papa is…dead?”

Miles looked devastated. “You didn’t know?”

“No.” How could she know? Her life had been so isolated from her family’s. “When?”

“About five years ago. He lost his temper with the vicar and suffered an apoplexy. He lingered for a month or so, but he never spoke again.”

“So you’re the earl now?”

She didn’t know how she felt about the news.

Her father had banished her with a ruthlessness that had cut her to the quick.

But he’d loved her once, and he’d certainly spoiled her when she’d been a child.

Something that she knew he must have come to regret.

Only now when it was too late did she realize that some illogical corner of her mind had never given up hope that he might forgive her.

Hugo squeezed her hand. “Are you all right?”

She met his concerned eyes. “Yes. No.” She swallowed the grief jamming her throat. “It’s a shock. He seemed…immortal.”

“I never forgave him for turning his back on you,” Miles said in a grim tone.

“It was his own stupid fault that you kicked over the traces with that bastard George Foster. Anyone could see that an independent spirit like yours couldn’t be confined in a cage.

And that’s what Clere Towers was, a cage. ”

It was such a revelation that Miles didn’t hate her. Had never hated her, despite the trouble that she was sure she’d caused him. She couldn’t yet come to terms with it or with her father dying still cursing her name. “You…you mentioned Vienna.”

“I’ve had people looking for you for years. We traced you to Austria, but there was no further news. The French invasion didn’t help.”

She observed her brother’s haunted gaze. “You thought I’d died.”

Miles nodded, his expression haggard. “It near broke my heart.”

Athene couldn’t doubt that was true. She saw the marks of long sorrow on his face.

He’d always been a quiet, thoughtful boy, very different from their bombastic, demanding father.

He’d always felt things deeply. She could see now that her absence had remained an unhealed wound through all these years.

Her heart cramped with guilt and misery.

“We found out George had died.” His calmness splintered. “Damn it, Athene. I was convinced you hadn’t survived either.”

“I nearly didn’t,” she murmured. “But I had a friend who helped me and brought me back to London. I’ve been there ever since.”

Miles’s face contorted. “Thank God for him. To think, you were in England, virtually under my nose.”

She realized that her brother assumed she’d taken another lover. Even more surprising, he didn’t seem to blame her for it. “No, it was a woman. A very clever, resourceful woman.” She could never repay what she owed to Sylvie. Not if she lived to be a thousand.

“Then thank God for her,” Miles said.

“I’m so sorry, Miles. I assumed that you’d loathe me the way Papa did.”

“I could never loathe you.”

She believed now that was true. “But you’ve spent ten years thinking you were the last of the Colton-Heaths.”

“I did,” he said in a somber voice.

“You haven’t married?”

He shook his head, still looking as overwhelmed with how things turned out as she felt. “I suppose I could have, but how could I start a new life until I knew what had happened to you?”

“I should have tried to find out about the family. At the very least I should have sent you a message saying that I was still alive.” So much she ought to have done. These last ten years hadn’t just been an ordeal for her, they’d been an ordeal for her brother as well.

“I can’t tell you what it means to have you back in the family.” Miles summoned a smile that didn’t quite banish the ghosts from his eyes. “And now you’re marrying Sir Hugo, you’ll be living in Yorkshire. It almost seems too good to be true.”

“I missed you, Miles. I missed you so much,” she said on a choked wail, as her tears finally overflowed.

“And I missed you.”

Hugo released her hand, and she held it out to her brother. She was shaking. She could hardly believe that Miles hadn’t forsaken her. “I’m so sorry. We’ve both suffered so much and it turns out we didn’t have to.”

“The fault isn’t yours. It’s all down to that stubborn, self-righteous prig, our father.” He took her hand in a firm grip and rose to kiss her cheek again. “I want to give you a hug.”

A watery giggle escaped, as she squeezed his hand. “That might have to wait.”

“You can come home and take your proper place in the world.”

Athene frowned at him. “That’s asking too much, even on a day crammed with so many miracles. I’ll never live down the scandal. It’s why I held back from accepting Hugo’s proposal.”

Miles let go of her hand and regarded her with a concerned expression. “Athene, there was no scandal.”