Evrart’s tone was still light, but was he implying...? ‘Are you saying I’m the cause of our argument?’
‘You’re not the silent type.’
If she could put her face in her hands, she would. If she could hide for years, she would. ‘I can’t believe I did that!’
‘Can’t believe you told the entire village you love me?’
She thought back on that treacherous walk. ‘That’s not what I said.’
‘Margery, if you had seen your face, and the fact you were so determined to get to me... Let me assure you—you told them you love me. I was so stunned I couldn’t feel my legs or move them. I’m thankful my friends departed and let us get on with the declaring.’
He had been stunned. That was the reason he hadn’t met her halfway when she had been ranting across the field.
‘You told Peronelle you loved me,’ she said.
‘I told you as well.’ His brows drew in as he took in her confusion. ‘You asked me if I had feelings for you, and I told you I did.’
She blinked. ‘You said—’
His brows rose and he huffed. ‘When I said I felt every feeling for you, how could that not mean love?’
Evrart had declared to her back at the Warstone Fortress he loved her. All this time she had been a coward, full of doubt and worry, and all she’d had to do was ask him what he meant.
It appeared she had some lessons to learn on talking as well. Maybe they’d learn together.
‘So this is it? We’ll live here, where you spent your childhood, and I’ll help you in the fields?’
‘If you want,’ he said. ‘But we’ll be needing a bigger, separate home.’
‘Peronelle will like that.’
‘I’ll like it just to stop her asking when we’re leaving.’
‘Have you talked to her about leaving?’
Evrart shrugged. ‘Perhaps.’
Margery wanted to laugh. She’d thought when Peronelle had said she would be leaving soon it would be only her. And his mother was simply quiet like her son. Oh, so much she didn’t know!
‘I like your mother,’ Margery said. ‘I do. If some woman dressed like me, with ties to Warstone, had come into my home to snatch my son I’d have done worse than give her smiles and quiet. I’d have been there with a hot cast iron pot at the ready.’
He frowned. ‘Don’t—’
‘I’m not.’
She went to brush her face, looked at her hands and dropped them again. They wouldn’t feel shame or remorse over their pasts, which could not be changed. Their pasts had brought them together. That she could never regret—not once, not ever.
She could only hope their children would find this kind of happiness, too.
‘After dealing with your sister, I think I can just about handle anything. Maybe in a few years we can have her visit Warstone Fortress.’
Evrart threw back his head and laughed. ‘To have Biedeluue straighten her out?’
She’d been thinking of something more permanent. ‘Aren’t there unmarried guards there...?’
Evrart’s brows rose. ‘A sound idea...or maybe she’ll get stolen along the way.’
‘Stolen?’
‘As you and I were from our homes,’ he said. ‘It turned out well for us.’
All those years of suffering, of worry and fear, for both of them. And yet...
‘It turned out very well for me,’ she said.
‘You?’
‘Because of you, I’ll be the one having no problem leaving this field when you carry me out.’
In flash she was in his arms. Grinning, she rubbed her mud-laden hands against his chest.
He growled and buried his nose in her neck. ‘You’ll pay for that.’
She could think of a few ways and hoped his mother and sister had somewhere else to go for the afternoon.
Laughing under her words, she continued, ‘But you don’t know the greatest reason why I have fared so well. If we ever go picking fruit, I shall never need a ladder again!’
‘I’ll show you a ladder...’
She arched her brow. ‘Oh? You’ll show me?’
Flipping her over his shoulder, Evrart ran across the field; mud splattered everywhere. He cursed.
Shrieking and sliding, Margery laughed. ‘What is it?’
‘There’s only a pond nearby, and we can’t bathe in peace!’
* * *
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ISBN-13: 9780369711175
Her Honorable Mercenary
Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Locke
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ISBN-13: 9780369711205
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A Scandal at Midnight
Copyright © 2021 by Annie Burrows
Stranded with the Reclusive Earl
Copyright © 2021 by Eva Shepherd
Her Honorable Mercenary
Copyright © 2021 by Nicole Locke
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Harlequin Historical September 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Page 68