by Julia James
Her voice broke in another choke before she could continue.
‘I had to hide it all from my father because he’d only have been hurt all the more, worried about me more, and felt yet more trapped by Pauline. So when he died I was almost relieved, because finally I didn’t have to pretend any longer. I could find my backbone and resolve that even though I knew it was impossible to stop Pauline and Chloe from getting their claws into Haughton eventually I would do everything in my power, for as long as I could, to make it as hard and as expensive as possible for them to force a sale.’
She took another choking breath.
‘I was—just as you said—using Haughton as a weapon against them—my only weapon.’ Her gaze shifted again, became shadowed. ‘But when I came back here after leaving you I knew...’ She paused, then made herself go on. ‘I knew that I’d changed—that you’d been right to say that I was poisoning myself in my battle against them. That it was time...finally time...to let go. They had won and I had lost and all I could do was leave and make a new life for myself somewhere else. Anywhere else.’ She took another searing, painful breath. ‘This—today—was to be my very last visit, my last sight of my home.’
He drew her towards him again and his voice was gentle...very gentle. ‘And now it is yours for ever.’ His eyes poured into hers. ‘No one can ever threaten it again.’ His mouth curved into a smile. ‘Look around you, Ellen—it’s yours, all yours.’
A strangled sound was torn from her throat, and then a sob, and then another, and then tears were spilling from her eyes and Max was wrapping his arms around her, and she was clinging to him, shaking with emotion, with the relief and disbelief that all this was really true, that all the stress and fear and anguish at losing her home was over—over for ever. Because Max—wonderful, kind, generous Max—had made her dream come true. Haughton was hers, and it was safe for ever now.
He held her while her body shook with the tears choking from her, convulsing her, while her hands clutched at him and she was finally purged of all that her stepmother and stepsister had done to her for so long. And when she was finally done he stroked her hair with his hand, murmured things to her in Greek.
She didn’t know what they were, but knew that he was the most wonderful man on earth. And that she had now taken from him something he had wanted from the moment he’d first set eyes on it.
Her thoughts whirled in her head, troubling her. She lifted her face from his shoulder, looked up at him with an anxious look.
‘Max, I still don’t understand. You’ve given me this miraculous gift and I still don’t understand why. Why would you do it when you’ve told me yourself that you fell in love with Haughton and wanted to make your home here? How can you bear to give it away to me like this?’
He looked down at her, his deep, dark eyes holding an expression she could not recognise.
‘Well, you see, Ellen, I’m forced to admit that I am a shamefully devious character.’ He cradled her to him, his hands resting loosely around her spine. ‘Shamefully devious. Yes, it’s absolutely true that I was...devastated...’ his voice was edgy suddenly ‘...when I realised how wrong I’d been about you—about your behaviour towards Pauline and Chloe over this house—how deceived I’d been by their appearance of solicitude towards you, how disgusted I felt at their exploitation of your father and their cruelty to you. It made me absolutely determined to redress this final wrong, to restore your home to you, out of their clutches. But...’
His voice changed again, softening now, taking on a hint of wry humour.
‘But even while I was set on being the one to save Haughton for you, because you love it so much and have been through so much because of it, I also knew perfectly well that I had... Well, let’s say an ulterior motive all along.’
There was a glint in his eyes now, blatantly visible. It did things to Ellen’s insides that even the flood of emotion over regaining her home could not quench—things that took her back instantly to the time she’d spent with Max abroad, setting loose a quiver inside her, a quickening of her pulse that made her all too aware of how Max’s body was cradling hers, of the lean strength of him, the taut wall of his chest, the pressure of his hips, the heat of his body...
‘I told you when you signed my contract restoring Haughton to you how much I was still hoping to make it my home,’ he was saying now, ‘but that it would depend entirely on you. So...’ He raised a quizzical eyebrow. ‘What do you think? Could you bear to share Haughton with me?’
She looked at him, not understanding. ‘Do you mean some kind of co-ownership?’ she ventured.
He shook his head. ‘No, I don’t want you ever to have to worry about not owning Haughton one hundred per cent,’ he said. ‘I was thinking,’ he went on, and now the glint was even more pronounced, and she felt a sudden tightening of the arms around her spine, ‘of a different way to make this my home.’
‘I don’t understand...’ she said again. But her voice was weaker this time. Her whole body was weaker.
‘Then maybe,’ said Max, ‘this will make things clearer.’
He let her go suddenly, and she felt herself leaning back on the desk as his hold on her was relinquished. She clutched the edge of the desk with her hands. Saw him reach into his jacket, draw out a tiny square box. Felt her heart rate slow...slow almost to a standstill. The breath in her lungs was congealing.
Before her very eyes she saw him lower himself upon one knee and look back up at her.
‘Will you...?’ he said, and his eyes pinioned hers as she gazed down at him, her own eyes widening until they could widen no further. ‘Will you, my most beautiful, most wonderful, most lovely and fit and fabulous and incomparable Ellen, do me the honour, the very great honour, of making me the happiest of men? Will you...?’ he asked. ‘Will you marry me?’
He flicked open the box and her eyes went to the flash of red within. She gave a gasp.
Max quirked an eyebrow again. ‘I’m sort of hoping,’ he said, ‘again quite shamelessly, that this might help persuade you.’
He took the ring out, got to his feet, lifted Ellen’s nerveless left hand and held it. His other hand held the ring. The ring she’d worn at the Edwardian ball that had changed her life for ever. The ring that had been her mother’s engagement ring, given to her by her father. The ring that had once belonged to her grandmother and her great-grandmother.
‘How did you get it...?’ Her voice was faint again.
‘I bought the ruby parure you wore to the ball. And by the same token I also bought back all your mother’s jewellery that Pauline and Chloe helped themselves to—it was in the fine print of the terms and conditions of their sale contract. As for everything else—all the other jewellery and antiques and paintings they sold—I’ve got a team searching them out and I will buy them all back as and when we find them.’ And now that glint was blatant again. ‘You see, Ellen, I want to do absolutely everything in my power to persuade you to do what I want you to do more than anything else in the world—and, my sweet Ellen, you haven’t actually answered me yet.’
Was there tension in his voice, lacing through the humour, turning the glint in his eyes to something very different?
She gazed at him. Her heart was suddenly in her throat—or something was. Something huge and choking that was making it quite impossible for her to do anything at all except gaze at him. And force out one breathless whisper.
‘Did...did you just propose to me?’ she asked faintly.
A tidal wave of disbelief was sweeping up through her—the same as when he’d told her he’d gifted his newly acquired share of Haughton to her.
A rasp broke from Max. ‘Do you want a replay?’ he said, and he started to go down on his knee again.
She snatched at him to stop him. ‘No! No—no!’
He halted, looked at her quizzically. ‘Is that no, you won’t marry me?’ he asked her.
She shook her head violently. She could not speak. Emotion was pounding her, crashing in on he
r consciousness, overwhelming her.
‘So, that’s a yes, then, is it?’ Max pursued. He paused. ‘I’d just like to clarify this, if you don’t mind. Because it is, you see, somewhat important to me.’ His expression changed suddenly. ‘It’s going to determine my entire future happiness.’
She swallowed. That huge, choking lump was still in her throat, and the tidal wash of emotion was still pounding in her.
‘Why...?’ The single word was faint, uncomprehending.
‘Why, what?’ he said blankly.
His self-control was under the greatest pressure he’d ever experienced in his life. Even worse than that very first night of the revelation of her beauty to him, when she had offered her mouth to him and he had swooped upon it with all the hunger of a starving man—and then, with the feast before him, had had to draw back, let her go and get the hell out of her bedroom before he’d succumbed to the most intense temptation he’d ever known.
Even worse than that...
‘Why...?’ She swallowed. ‘Why are you asking me to marry you?’
And Max lost it. Finally lost it. It had all been just too damn much. Too damn much from the moment Ellen had laid into him in his hotel suite, telling him the truth about the vultures who were feeding off her. In that single instant he’d known exactly what he was going to do—and he’d spent the last fortnight pulling out every stop, racing to get the paperwork done, the contracts drawn up and completed, and to drive down here to do what he had just done. Hand her back her home and gain her for himself.
‘Will this help you understand?’ he demanded.
He swept her up to him, his strength easily crushing her against him, his mouth swooping down on hers. And instantly she went up in flames, her mouth opening to his, melding with his. Her arms wound around him, her fingers spearing into his hair. She was hungry for him. Desperate for him. When finally he released her she was shaking, breathless.
Max’s hands splayed around her face. ‘I’ve fallen in love with you,’ he said.
His voice was quiet but there was an intensity in it, a strength that came from the very core of his being.
‘Somewhere along the way I’ve fallen in love with you. Oh, I admit that my motives in taking you to London were entirely self-interested—you knew that...knew I was seeking to open your eyes to what your life could be like beyond the narrow confines you’d imprisoned yourself in with your vendetta against your stepmother and stepsister once you’d discovered your own beauty. But once I’d discovered it too—and helped myself to it!’ His voice was wry. ‘Once I’d whisked you off to enjoy it to the full... Well...’ Warmth infused his voice now. ‘It dawned on me that I was enjoying your company in a way I’d never experienced with any other woman.’
‘Even Tyla Brentley?’ Ellen breathed.
A dismissive sound came from his throat. ‘Tyla was lovely to look at, glamorous to be with—and totally self-absorbed. You... Ah, you were utterly different. Even before you had your makeover I knew that. You’re intelligent, clear-sighted, and I approve of your efforts with all those deprived city children.’
He dropped a kiss on her nose.
‘We had a good time together, Ellen, on our travels. We were good together—incredibly, fantastically good. And when you stormed off I wasn’t just appalled to discover how vicious your step-relations were, I also knew I desperately didn’t want you to leave me! I knew I had to try and get you back—get you back so we could go on being good together. Good together for the rest of our lives, Ellen—that’s what I so hope for.’
Something changed in his voice again now, and an urgency speared it.
‘And if somewhere along the way you happen...just happen to come to feel for me what I feel for you... Well...’
She didn’t let him finish. She reached up her hand, snaked it around the back of his head, hauled his mouth down to hers again. She pressed her lips hard against him to silence him. Then, as she drew back again, emotion burst in her.
And so did a storm of weeping.
For the second time in a handful of minutes she clutched at him as wave after wave of emotion swept through her yet again—and again and again. Max loved her—he loved her! He’d given her the inestimable gift of her home to her, and he’d given her a more incomparable gift as well.
Himself. His heart. His love.
‘Max! Oh, Max!’ It was all she could say. But it seemed to satisfy him.
As she finally came down on the other side of the tsunami inside her he patted her back and reached for the ring box, sitting abandoned on her father’s desk.
‘That’s got to be a definite yes,’ he told her, with satisfaction in his voice and the love in his eyes pouring out over her, embracing her and caressing her.
‘Of course it is!’ She gulped. ‘I kept telling myself that because you were the first man in my life of course I’d get the idea in my head that I’d fallen in love with you—but it wasn’t just that. It was real. Completely real what I was feeling for you. When I stormed out on you it was tearing me to pieces, and being out in Canada, facing the rest of my life without Haughton and without you—I... I just couldn’t bear it!’
Tears threatened again, spilling into her watery eyes.
‘And now I’ve got both—I’ve got my beloved home and I’ve got something even more desperately precious to me.’ Her face worked. ‘I’ve got you. And you, my dearest, most adored and most wonderful Max, are my heart, my life—the love of my life.’
‘Excellent!’ he said, and his satisfaction was total now. ‘So,’ he said to her, taking the ruby ring from its case, ‘do we finally get to the ring bit now?’
He took her hand again and, not waiting for an answer, slid the ring carefully over her finger. But he did not relinquish her hand. Instead he gazed down at her.
‘When I first walked into this house I knew it was the place I wanted to call my home,’ he told her. His face was serious now—completely serious. ‘I had a sudden vision...a vision of myself here, with the woman I love, making our home here together, raising our family here together.’ His eyes had a rueful glint in them again. ‘I thought that I would have to bring her here, having found her somewhere out in the world beyond. And yet all along—’ His voice changed, and there was a crack in it, he knew. ‘All along she was here. Waiting for me to find her. Waiting,’ he said, ‘to find me.’
He paused minutely.
‘And now,’ he said, ‘we’re done with waiting. Done with finding. We can just enjoy, Ellen. Enjoy the rest of our lives together.’
His mouth lowered to hers and he kissed her softly, gently, before withdrawing. He felt her fingers tightening over his as his lips brushed hers, felt the sudden constricting of her throat, saw the misting of her eyes as he drew his head away.
‘So...’ he said, because he wanted to make sure—to make absolutely, totally sure of his future happiness...a happiness that was already flooding through him, soaking through every cell in his body, radiating from him like a beacon. ‘Have we finally got everything sorted? I love you, you love me, and we’re going to marry and live here together in this house we both love, make it a home again, for you and for me and for all the children we are most definitely going to have! A happy family home for a happy family—just as we both wanted. Did I leave anything out?’ he asked.
Ellen leaned into his shoulder. Her sigh was pure happiness. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I think you’ve just described heaven on earth.’
Max smiled. A warm, approving smile that melted her all the way through.
‘That’s what I thought,’ he said. He dropped another kiss on her nose. ‘I do like to be right,’ he told her.
He straightened up.
‘OK, it’s a lovely day—actually the best day in my entire life so far—let’s get outdoors. Let’s get into the sunshine—the sunshine of our lives, my adored, beautiful goddess and lioness.’
She looked at him. ‘Can I be both?’ she queried, with a teasing smile in her eyes.
Max’s mouth quirked, his expression doting. ‘You can be everything you want, my beloved, providing you go on loving me.’
He started to lead the way out of the library and across the hall, his hand wound in hers and hers in his. Side by side and shoulder to shoulder.
‘And you me,’ said Ellen.
He paused at the door. ‘Deal,’ said Max, and kissed her once again.
Then, with a squeeze of her hand, he opened the front door and they stepped through it, into the sunshine, into the happiness of their life together, into their love for each other.
EPILOGUE
MAX WRAPPED HIS arm around Ellen and drew her closer against his shoulder as they leant back against the sun-warmed stone. They were sitting on the step of the little folly, looking out over the lake to where the setting sun was turning its reedy waters bronze. Ellen gave a sigh of deep contentment as she nestled into Max’s sheltering embrace, her knees drawn up and slanting against his thighs.
‘You’re really sure you’re OK with us spending our honeymoon here at Haughton?’ she asked him, glancing up at his profile.
He nodded, his gaze going to her. ‘My beautiful, adored Ellen—don’t you know that I am happy wherever you are? And if you are happiest here, then here we shall stay for all our days,’ Max finished with a fond smile, and let his lips brush across her hair.
‘Maybe,’ she mused, ‘I feel that if I ever leave Haughton I’ll return to find that this heaven was only a dream, and I’m back here again with Pauline and Chloe still trying to sell it from under my feet and force me out,’ she said.
Max shook his head. ‘Oh, no,’ he said decisively. ‘This heaven is real, believe me. And as for your stepmother and stepsister—well, they’ll never set foot on your property again, I promise you. If they even come back to the UK I’ll know about it!’
She looked at him quizzically. ‘Are you really keeping them under surveillance?’ she asked.
‘I’m keeping tabs on them, yes,’ Max admitted. ‘So that wherever in the world they go, if they try and home in on anyone wealthy but vulnerable, like your father was, then their target will be warned. Of course,’ he went on, ‘it could be that they won’t need to target money any more—they have pots of their own. And I don’t mean just their ill-gotten gains from selling me their share of Haughton!’