Heired Lines

by Magan Vernon

  She froze, her gaze slowly lifting as I crossed the room.

  “Gavin, what are you doing here?” she hissed, jumping out of her seat as if she’d just seen a ghost.

  “I should have stopped you from leaving.”

  She shook her head. “Gavin, you…”

  I put my hand up, seizing her words. “Natalie, I’m sorry. I’m so bloody sorry. For not seeing from the beginning how amazing you are and pushing you away. For letting my mother and sister talk to you like they did. To let you go before you could explain everything.”

  “Gavin. It’s fine. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. But you don’t have to worry about me. I’m going back home, and the historical society has everything handled.”

  I took a tentative step forward as a shaky breath left my mouth. “That’s the thing, I don’t want the historical society. I want you. The lady of Webley Manor.”

  She blinked slowly, tilting her head. “Are you seriously proposing right now? After all of this?”

  I laughed despite the rumbling in my chest. “Not exactly.”

  Pulling out the sheet of paper I had stuffed into the inner pocket of my coat, I was glad it was only slightly damp.

  I was going to wait to give this to her, but now eagerness had blasted through me, and all I wanted was to make it right. To see her smile again.

  “I thought about why you didn’t tell me about Mum’s offer. Why you would have taken it in the first place.”

  Her bottom lip quivered before she spoke. “Gavin, I should have told you. But I wasn’t even sure I was going to take it. I never even answered your mother but found the balance in my account. The amount we owed for my mother’s bills. I know I shouldn’t have taken it but I left a check. I just…”

  Even as she said the words, the ones I’d been waiting to hear as an explanation, nothing was going to change, no matter what she told me.

  I knew who she was and I how I felt about her.

  Now I just had to hope I wouldn’t lose her.

  My equilibrium turned to a teeter-totter as I watched her eyes glance over the paper.

  I took a step forward, closing the distance between us. I desperately wanted to take her into my arms. To feel her warm breath against my lips.

  But first, this needed to be handled.

  “This is the title to Webley Manor. I had my solicitor redraw some lines, so the barn and all the animals are still mine, but aside from the portions going to the historical society as a museum, the rest of the living space is yours. Which, as soon as you sign this and we file the paperwork, by manorial law, makes you English nobility.”

  Her eyes widened as her anguished gaze locked with mine. “Gavin… You can’t do this…”

  “I can and I did.” I finally smiled at her. The first damn smile it felt like I’d had all day, and it was like bloody heaven.

  I took the paper from her hands then sat it on the table before intertwining our fingers. Our eyes met, and there was something different in them. It wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t lust or fear.

  It was genuine happiness.

  “From the moment you first emailed me with that American sass, I knew I was going to fall in love with you. Now that I have, there’s no way I can let you go, especially if you’re going to let me still live in Webley. Or if I’ll be sent to the doghouse, literally.”

  “Gavin…I…”

  She let out a quick breath as I cupped her cheeks with my still damp hands. “Stay with me, Natalie. Please. I love you and I don’t want to lose you.”

  I held my breath for a second, searching her gaze. Hoping to see that she felt this too. My heart beating far too heavily as I wait for her answer.

  “I love you, too, Gavin,” she whispered into my lips.

  All the air felt like it whooshed out of my lungs and slammed back in as I let out a satisfied sigh.

  I dipped my head, whispering into her lips, “So is that a ‘yes that you’ll stay,’ Lady Natalie?”

  “It’s a ‘bloody yes’, Lord Gavin.”

  With that, she crushed her lips to mine and I let everything pour out in the form of our deep, hungry kiss.

  It didn’t matter that I was soaking wet or that we were in the middle of a pub.

  At that moment I was so bloody happy that nothing else mattered but us. That moment.

  Until she brought me back to reality by breaking the kiss and looking at me with those big doe eyes. “You know you can’t just try to give me some property every time we have a fight.”

  I grinned, shaking my head as I leaned in to her again. “Of course not. I still have horses and a bunch of historical artifacts around the mansion I’m sure will interest you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re a royal pain in the ass, you know that?”

  “And you love it.”

  “I do.”

  Epilogue

  Natalie

  Six Months Later

  When I went to college for a degree in history, I always secretly imagined myself working in a European museum, not technically owning one.

  Or having the lord of the manor’s face currently buried between my legs.

  “Gavin,” I breathed, gripping his tousled blond hair.

  Meredith could walk into our suite at any moment, announcing that Lady Helena was waiting for us at breakfast.

  But when Gavin woke me like this, I couldn’t exactly tell him to stop.

  His blazing blue eyes trapped me as he moved his mouth to my stomach. His hand lazily trailed along my inner thigh before brushing against my sensitive skin. “Don’t tell me you want me to stop already.”

  I opened my mouth to try to come up with an eloquent quip, but when he slid his thumb against my clit, a loud moan came out instead.

  “I thought so,” he said in that husky tone that always made me weak in the knees.

  We’d been together longer than all of my previous relationships combined and, though it started out as a boss and employee relationship, as soon as we had our first kiss it seemed to just escalate from there.

  Especially when he gave me the deed to the castle. One I could never accept.

  Until I convinced him that both our names should go on the title. Which created even more paperwork and solicitor meetings.

  So instead of waiting, I came home one day from the solicitor’s office to find my stuff moved into his room.

  And I never left.

  I didn’t know exactly what that made us in terms of a relationship and, when his mother came around, things tended to get even more heated.

  So, I was pretty grateful for the wake-up call to settle my nerves, at least a little.

  I reached my hand across the bedpost, fumbling for the bedside drawer.

  Gavin sat straight up, his eyes widened and his hand stilled against me.

  “What are you doing?”

  I stiffened, my hand going flat against the table.

  For a man who just had his tongue inside me, he sure changed his tune quickly.

  “Grabbing a condom. If this is where it’s leading, I figured I should get a start before Meredith walks in. We really need a better lock.”

  He lunged forward, his hand on mine over the brass knob. “I’ll get it. You just relax.”

  I looked into his wide blue eyes, the nervous tick barely noticeable in his jawline.

  “Is there something you don’t want me to see in the drawer? Don’t tell me you bought some more of those gourmet dog treats and hid them there. I love our dogs as much as I love you, but really, when we let them in bed they never leave, and Ponce snores super loud and sometimes lets out other flatulent noises.”

  He winced slightly. “Well, now that you’re talking about our dogs’ bodily functions, I’m really in the mood.”

  I waited a few beats, counting my breaths before
turning sharply and pulling the drawer open.

  “Natalie,” he begged.

  Too late, already yanked the thing open.

  He sighed before standing up and grabbing the black velvet box that stared at me from the drawer, next to the copy of 1984, and a box of condoms.

  My entire body stiffened as my breath seized in my throat, watching him fiddle with the golden clasp on the box.

  “I was meaning to do this over tea in the courtyard, but stubborn you, I should have guessed you’d not listen to me and find it earlier.”

  I blinked slowly, watching as he got down to the floor next to the bed, propped on one knee.

  The air changed around us. Thickening as the world moved in slow motion.

  This was real.

  This was happening.

  He smiled. That damn smile that he seemed to have only for me.

  If I didn’t already have a fluttery stomach now my entire body was a sputtery, gooey mess.

  “I had all of this planned. I was going to wait until your mum arrived later this afternoon and ask her permission, then take you out to the barn, where I even got a little tag for Ponce with an inscription on it.”

  Slowly he opened the box and turned it toward me where a large canary-yellow diamond stared at me.

  My breath lodged in my throat.

  We hadn’t talked about marriage, but I knew with every fiber of my being that I loved this man and everything about him.

  “But nothing in our relationship has been conventional, Lady Natalie, and I’ve loved everything about it and you.”

  I looked from the diamond to his brilliant blue eyes, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper “Is this…?”

  “This is the ring Grandma passed down to Aunt Sarah who gave it to me for the woman I’d spend the rest of my life with. And that’s you, Natalie. I want you to be more than just the Lady of Webley on a piece of paper. I want you to be my wife. My forever. Will you marry me?”

  I sat up, my body trembling as tears welled in my eyes.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  He laughed as he slid the ring onto my finger before sitting on the bed next to me. “Thank God, for a minute there I thought you might say no.”

  It was as if my finger now weighed an extra thousand pounds as I laid it on my lap. I couldn’t stop staring at the way the diamond glistened in the light.

  Engaged.

  Us.

  Finally.

  And why would I say no?

  “Why would I do that? Because it’s too soon? It’s been almost a year and seems like the next step in our relationship.”

  I looked up to see his brow furrow and there went that thick feeling back in my throat.

  “No, because now we have to tell Mother.”

  I let out a deep breath that ended in a laugh.

  That was all?

  “And you don’t think I’ll enjoy telling her and Cecily that I’ll officially be the Lady of Webley?”

  He smiled, leaning forward as he whispered into my lips, “That’s my girl.”

  His girl.

  Two words I never thought I’d ever hear. But I was his and he was mine.

  I never pictured a girl with a history degree, who couldn’t get a job, would be good enough for an English lord. But now I was the Lady of Webley.

  And now I’d get to show all the people who doubted me that I was something more.

  If that didn’t make my heart flutter.

  After I put on my underwear, that is.

  Quickly, Gavin and I took our showers and got dressed, even though I found myself constantly watching the way my new ring caught the light.

  The vintage piece had to be from the 1800s at least, with the large marquis diamond surrounded by hand-woven gold filigree.

  But even more than just the new sparkly rock was the man behind it. The one who had always believed in me even from that first email.

  “Are you ready?” Gavin asked, buttoning the top button on his blue shirt, the one that brought out the brilliant color of his eyes.

  I tucked the last bit of my hair into a bun before smoothing out the skirt of my light pink A-line dress. That was when my hands shook against the fabric.

  I’d seen his mother a handful of times since our horrible encounter when she tried to ruin our relationship six months ago.

  She was always cordial, of course, but she was always silently seething and waiting for Gavin and my relationship to collapse. That there would be a loophole in the deed and soon I’d go back to North Carolina.

  But now, with a family ring on my finger, how would she take it?

  An empty feeling rolled in the pit of my stomach. I may have thought I had the bravado to face her, but now that it was really happening…

  “Hey…” Gavin’s words were gentle as he took my hands in his and then brought them to his mouth, pressing his lips to my knuckles. “You’re not getting nervous on me now, are you?”

  “Maybe a little,” I whispered.

  He squeezed my hand before dropping it between us. “What’s the worst that could happen? Mum glares at you from across the table? Cecily makes some comment and uses that C word you hate so much?”

  I widened my eyes, letting out a small gasp. “Has she called me that behind my back?”

  A ghost of a smile crossed his lips as he shook his head. “No, she hasn’t. As much as you think she has it out for you, I swear, my sister does love you, and she will welcome you into this family with open arms. And so will Mother, eventually.”

  I tried not to let the word catch in my throat. “Eventually?”

  He sighed. A sound that made my chest tighten as I straightened my shoulders. “Mother can be difficult; no one knows that better than me. But she has wanted me to get married ever since I turned of age and inherited Webley. Now that it’s finally coming true, and by manorial law you are the Lady of Webley, there’s no way she can be anything other than relieved. And if she’s happy too? Then that’s a bonus.”

  “Sounds really romantic when you put it that way,” I muttered, shifting from one foot to the other, hoping that would stop my trembling. Or at least give my nerves a distraction.

  He laughed, shaking his head, and the sound had me loosening the building tension in my body as I let out a deep breath I didn’t know I was holding.

  “Natalie, your stubbornness in going through my drawer was the reason I couldn’t give you a romantic proposal. So, let’s not argue about romance, okay?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “Fine.”

  He leaned in, placing a kiss on my temple. “You’re cute when you’re pretending to be mad.”

  “How do you know I’m pretending?”

  His smile faded, his eyes taking on a darker tone. “Because I know you, Natalie. And I know you’re nervous about seeing Mother and Cecily. But I’m going to be here for you and I always will be. It’s me and you in this together, okay?”

  Letting my shoulders fall, I closed my eyes, taking in the moment.

  He was right. Of course.

  Even in that moment when I was about to leave the manor and made it as far as the pub and train station, I somehow pictured in the back of my mind that he’d be there. Maybe that was why I sat in that pub when the train was delayed for rain.

  Because there would always be more between us. That we’d always have each other’s backs.

  “Okay.” I slowly opened my eyes. “Let’s do this.”

  We walked out of our bedroom suite and down the long hallways. I could have stared at the carpet or the oil paintings on the walls like I’d done dozens of times before. But this time, I chose to look straight ahead. To keep my focus on where we were going as I counted my heartbeats that were so loud, they echoed through my eardrums.

  When Gavin and I ate our meals together, it was usually in
one of the parlors or sometimes even on one of the patios overlooking the yard. Mainly so Gavin and I could sneak a few scraps to the animals.

  But when his family visited, his mother preferred the fancy dining room with a table that could seat at least fifty people and not just the six of us that would be there, including Cecily and Hugh.

  As soon as we walked through the open French doors, Lady Helena gasped, her shrill cry echoing through the room.

  Her face was pale as she stood up, her hand clutched to her chest as she slowly approached us.

  “Is that Grandmother Mairi’s ring?” her strained voice called as she crossed the room toward us in strides that were far too wide and quick for a woman in heels and an ankle-length dress.

  Every time I heard the woman speak, a chill always breezed across the back of my neck as if she was summoning her noble ancestors to come down and expel their fury.

  Today was no different, but with Gavin’s hand reassuringly squeezing mine, a new, calming wave washed over me. One that gave me the strength to move forward and hold out my free hand, the glittering ring catching the light from the chandeliers above.

  “I don’t know if it’s Grandmother Mairi’s but I do recognize it as being eighteenth century, judging from the style and slight crazing. It’s still in beautiful condition, though, and Gavin tells me it was passed down from Great Aunt Sarah.”

  My body lightened as if a weight had been lifted, and I could breathe easier.

  Lady Helena still had the scowl on her face, but explaining historical pieces was the best tactic to keep my mind at ease.

  The woman took a step forward, her glare bouncing from my hand to her son.

  Then she stopped in front of me, her cold fingers gripping mine as she looked down at the ring.

  It was as if there was a shift in the air in the room and everything was stale. Suffocating.

  What seemed like hours but was probably minutes, we all stood there in complete silence.

  Until Gavin finally cleared his throat.

  “I asked Lady Natalie to marry me this morning,” he said matter-of-factly.

  I glanced beside me to his stone-face. No smile. No hint of anything in his gaze.