"You come to me alone with no chaperone?"
She smiled. "Who would have accompanied me? Most of my friends are busy with other more pressing matters. They have to have their gowns pressed and ready for whatever social soiree they'll be attending tonight. It is after all, the height of the season."
"So it is." His eyes drank in the full length of her. "Though, you invite a heap load of scandal at your doorstep with your presence here."
"I know. That's why I'm here." Her blue eyes twinkled. "I need to discuss a matter of grave importance with you. I thought it could wait until the wedding night, but I daresay, I was quite mistaken."
"Then, we should get right down to it; no time like the present."
A hint of doubt glimmered in her wondrous eyes, and then faded as quickly as it had appeared. She was hesitant. He couldn't understand the startling change in her ... she'd always approached him with a certain amount of determined gusto.
"I--" She nervously cleared her throat. Her eyes took on a haunting sorrowful look that had him clenching his hands in worry. "Has your heart ever told you to do something, and your mind reels against it? Knowing that you couldn't possibly do what your heart tells you to do ... that it is beyond the realm of possibility?" With her last word, she dropped her voice to a faint whisper. She looked grief stricken, almost as if she were fighting an inner battle--and losing.
"If I hadn't followed my heart, I wouldn't be facing a lifetime of wedded bliss with you."
He hooked her arm through his, and they walked arm in arm down to the library. It was closed off, spacious and he happened to know that Carys had an extreme fondness for books. He was having his library updated before she moved in. Everything would be perfect for her. He'd have it no other way. He had to make her the happiest woman alive. If he didn't, he'd fail to fulfill a promise long ago made.
)
