Jane swayed as the room receded in a rush. She curled shaking fingers over the mantelpiece. Surely Hugh couldn’t have just said what she thought he did. “What did you say?”

He stared into her face, his eyes blazing. “You heard me.” He paused. “But I’m more than happy to say it again. I love you, Jane.”

Her heart performed a dizzying cartwheel, but she’d been hurt too often to lower her guard just yet. “That seems too good to be true.”

He flinched. If it was true that he loved her, her doubts would smart. The memory of how he’d dismissed her declaration of love two months ago still stung. “I’ve loved you since I married you.”

She linked shaking hands together at her waist. Her pulse was galloping, but she couldn’t trust this abrupt change. Only the fact that he’d never lied to her before prevented her from assuming this was some scheme to get her back into his bed. “Now that I really can’t believe.”

“Nevertheless it’s true.” He looked heartbreakingly sincere. The brown eyes glittered with urgency, and that telltale muscle in his cheek performed its erratic dance. “I was too buffle-headed to see it. I liked you, and wanted you, and acted like a bear with a toothache every time a man smiled at you, and I thought about nothing except you. If I had a brain in my head, I’d have understood that all adds up to love. But when I loved Morwenna, I was like Don Quixote sighing after unattainable Dulcinea. What I felt for her is nothing like the real, earthy, complicated, overwhelming passion we share. It took me too long to comprehend just what happened to me when I came looking for you in Dorset.”

Jane supposed it made sense. Fenella had said something similar, that her second love was so different from her first, she’d needed time to recognize it for what it was. “Are you saying you weren’t Morwenna’s lover?”

“I didn’t even kiss her.” A touch of sheepishness leavened his desperate air. “When I courted her, she was fragile and broken, and I treated her like Venetian glass.”

Hugh’s penchant for lame dogs raising its head again, she thought, even as relief flooded her. She’d loathed the idea of him sharing that big powerful body with his first love. Fenella had said she didn’t think he’d bedded Morwenna, but now Jane knew for sure. “I’m not Venetian glass,” she said neutrally. “You don’t need to rescue me, Hugh.”

He shook his head. “No, and I thank God for that. You’re strong enough to pull me into line and be my true partner.”

She regarded him suspiciously. She so wanted to believe him, but the price of making a mistake now was utter desolation. “This change of mind still seems very convenient.”

He shrugged and stepped closer. “You don’t believe I’m over Morwenna?”

For a charged moment, she studied him. Did she? It was clear something momentous had happened to him since he’d ridden away in such a temper only a few days ago. A shadow had been lifted from him. She couldn’t doubt that her hesitation tormented him, but despite that, he looked younger, less haunted.

Her hands stilled at her waist, and she spoke steadily. “Yes, I do.”

He smiled in visible relief. “Then?”

She didn’t smile back. “We both know your life will be simpler if I come back to you.”

“So while you believe I’m over Morwenna, I haven’t persuaded you that I love you instead?”

“Not yet.”

“Kiss me, and I’ll show you.”

“It will take more than few kisses to convince me,” she said, fearing she cut off her nose to spite her face.

His brief spark of humor faded, until he looked as austere as a Crusader knight on a tomb. “I know I’ve put you through hell. I’ve wronged you in so many ways that I can never atone for. I’ve been confused and destructive and bloody stupid. But, Jane, if I love you and you love me—or at least I hope you do—do you really mean to desert me and condemn us both to misery?”

She bit her lip. He sounded like he meant it. He looked like he meant it. With every word, she became more convinced that against all the odds, he had changed. She’d been agonizingly lonely and unhappy. This chance at a happy ending struck her as too unlikely.

Joy started to unfurl like a banner in her chest. But she wasn’t yet ready to wave it to the skies to announce her victory. Her voice cracked. “I can’t bear it if you’re only being kind.”

“Bloody hell!” he burst out, cutting the air with his hand. “When have I ever knowingly lied to you?”

She looked away toward the curtained window, but the image of his anguish remained burnt on her eyes.

“Jane, my darling, I’ll do anything to prove myself to you.” He went on, the beautiful baritone a low rasp. “Just give me another chance.”

Shocked, she glanced back at him. He looked like a man at the limits of his endurance. He looked like one word of rejection from her could destroy him.

Perhaps he did love her after all.

Joy broke free of the bonds of mistrust and past unhappiness. She swallowed. Then swallowed again as she forced out a response. “Hugh, if this turns out to be a trick, I’ll put poison in your coffee.”

It took him a moment to register that she’d yielded, if not in so many words. His uncertainty lingered for an instant, then the wretchedness faded. His face lit with such transcendent happiness, tears pricked at Jane’s eyes. “You forgive me?”

“Mostly.”

He strode forward until mere inches separated them. “And you’ll come back to me?”

She tilted her chin and met his gleaming eyes. “Yes.”

“And you believe I love you.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.” She hadn’t, until she saw his reaction to her grudging concession. Love still lit his face to brilliance. She’d never imagined Hugh would look at her like this. After the last despairing months, it beggared her understanding. 

He placed his hands on her waist. “And you love me?”

She sighed. “I suppose I must.”

His thick brows lowered. “Jane.”

She flattened her palms on his chest. Under her touch, his heart thudded madly. The fact gradually sank in that he’d given that ardent heart over into her keeping. “Yes, I love you, Hugh.”

His lips twitched, and he started to look more like himself, instead of the desperate ruffian who had arrived in such a state half an hour ago. “Say it with some enthusiasm.”

She arched her eyebrows. “Don’t push your luck, sir.”

With a broken laugh, he gathered her up against him. “By God, I’ve missed your teasing.”

After weeks of feeling so cold, the warmth of his embrace made her feel alive again. Their lips met in a kiss unlike any she’d known before. Because for the first time, she set her love free, and it flew to find its match in Hugh’s love for her.

By the time he raised his head, tears poured down her face, and her arms curled around his neck. He regarded her with the tenderness that had always been there. Now she recognized that glow in his eyes as an abiding love that would sustain her for the rest of her life.

He caught her face between his palms. “Jane, darling, why are you crying?”

She gulped for air. “Because…because I’m happy.”

He smiled. “But that’s good, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” She blinked to clear her vision. To no avail. “And because I never thought this would happen.”

Remorse darkened his eyes, and his smile faded. “I’m sorry it took me so long to see that I loved you. It’s been as plain as the nose on my face for months.”

“Such a noble nose, too.” She choked back a soggy gurgle of laughter. “I forgive you.”

This time, he didn’t smile back. His gaze pierced right to her soul. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“When I rode here, I wasn’t sure you’d have me, even after I told you I love you.”

“Oh, Hugh, I’m not that proud.” She kissed him softly on the lips, as gradually she accepted that against all the odds, she’d won everything she wanted. “I was almost at the point of crawling back to you anyway.”

“I don’t deserve you.” It was his turn to kiss her, with a reverence that melted her bones to honey.

He lashed his arms about her and drew her into the shelter of his body. For a long while, she rested against him in perfect peace. They’d come so close to losing one another that she needed to come to terms with how radically her life had changed in the last few minutes. Through the silence, fear and anger and anguish drifted to oblivion, leaving only an infinity of love.

Eventually, she drew far enough away to see his beloved face. He looked made anew, too, at ease as she’d never seen him.

“What is it, my love?” he asked softly.

Wonder flooded her. “You look…happy. Truly happy.”

“I am.” His smile made her feel as if the sun shone just for her. “Do you love me?”

With a shock, she realized she hadn’t told him. Not properly. Not so he knew how profoundly and eternally she pledged herself to him. “You know I do.”

“Will you say it?”

She caressed his jaw, feeling strength beneath her fingers, while his deep, dark eyes reflected his generous heart. “I love you, Hugh,” she said quietly. “I’ll always love you.”

He closed his eyes, as if dazzled by what he saw. When he opened them, she saw a world of love. “And I love you, Jane, my beloved wife. Can we start again? Can we go to Derbyshire and make a life where there are no more shadows between us?”

“I’d like that,” she said. “Take me to Beardsley Hall, Hugh. Take me home.”