From This Day Forward (36 page)

“No, she didn’t. She told him she had to think about what she wanted.”

“She did?”

Maddy closed the space between them and knocked on his head. “Thick. Is it hollow too?”

Nathan blinked then roared with laughter.

How dare he laugh when she was breaking in two? Rachel shoved herself to her feet and reached for the handle to open the door.

It flung wide, nearly knocking her on her bottom. She flapped her arms to steady herself. It did not work. She went down with a crash.

“Rachel, are you all right? Where are you hurt?” Nathan knelt next to her, his hands running up and down her arms.

She wrenched away. “I am fine. Have you not heard of knocking before coming into a room—a bedchamber?”

Nathan burst out laughing again and sat back on the floor next to her.

She punched him in the arm. “What is so funny? That I am lying on the floor hurt?”
That my heart is breaking over you
.

He sobered. “Are you hurt?”

“Yes.”

His gaze swept down her length. “Where?”

She patted her chest as she rose. “Here.”

“There?” Standing, he pointed at her torso. “How did you hurt yourself there?”

“I didn’t hurt myself. You did.”

“What did I do? I know I should have knocked, but I was tired of wasting any more time.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

He grabbed her arms and pulled her around to face him squarely. “I love you, Rachel Gordon, and I don’t want you to leave for England. I want you to stay here and be my wife. There. I have said what I have been trying to deny for weeks.”

“Do you feel better?”

“Not yet.” He dragged her against him and kissed her long and hard. “Now I do. So what do you say? Will you stay and marry me?”

Rachel bit her bottom lip. Did he really mean it? If she said yes, was she making the same mistake as she had with Tom?

“Scared?”

She nodded.

“Here is a woman who tried to fight off an alligator and got rid of a snake from her house. How can you be afraid to love me?”

“I love you. That’s not the problem.”

“Then what is?”

“I thought I loved Tom. I was wrong. We married so fast. I cannot make that mistake again.”

“Then you and I will be engaged for as long as you want, and when you are ready to wed me, we will get married. How is that?”

She smiled, a warmth welling up from deep inside and suffusing her whole body. From this day forward she was his. She flung her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss that sealed their bargain.

Epilogue

May 1818

“I thought I would find you out here on such a beautiful morning.” Nathan approached Rachel in the garden behind their house in Charleston.

She cut off another rose and carefully laid it in the basket for a bouquet for the dining room table. The scent of her flowers peppered the air as she turned toward her husband and smiled. “You know me so well.”

“That and Faith told me when I came home. She and Emma are playing in the parlor.”

“Playing?”

“They are having a tea party ‘like Mama does.’ You know Emma.”

“What is her reason to have a party today?” Emma would have a party every day if she could.

“ ’Tis Jamie’s six-month birthday.”

“Is Jamie in the parlor too?”

Nathan removed the basket from Rachel’s hand and put it on the stone bench nearby, then he took Rachel into his embrace. “No, our son is up in the nursery sleeping. Emma was quite put out that he would not stay awake for the whole tea party.”

“Dinner will be in an hour. I have a feeling our daughters will not eat a thing.”

“Ben will make up for them. I have never seen a boy grow so fast. He is going to be my height in another year.”

Rachel snuggled up against Nathan. “What are you doing home early?”

“I was at Mrs. Collins’ house down the street and thought I would stop by here to check on my beautiful wife.”

“How is Mrs. Collins doing?”

“Better. Her fever is gone and her cough has nearly stopped. I think she will be able to attend Sarah’s ball next week. At least she is planning on it. She kept asking me about Liberty Hall.”

Rachel wound her arms behind his neck and urged his head toward her. “That’s nice. I remember the last time the ball was at Liberty Hall two years ago.”

He brushed his lips across hers. “A lot has happened since then.”

“Yes, Maddy and George are married and expecting their first child. I hope she will be able to come to the ball. The farm is not too far for her to travel.” On the Butlers’ wedding day, Rachel had given Dalton Farm to Maddy and George. “Do you think Patrick will get your grandfather to come?”

“Anything is possible.” Nathan’s mouth settled over hers in a deep kiss.

The warm sensations his possession created in Rachel spread throughout her whole body. In his arms she always felt cherished and loved as though she had come home.

About the Author

M
ARGARET
D
ALEY
is an award-winning, multi-published author in the romance genre. One of her romantic suspense books,
Hearts on the Line
, won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Book of the Year Contest. Recently she has won the Golden Quill Contest, FHL’s Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest, Winter Rose Contest, Holt Medallion, and the Barclay Gold Contest. She writes inspirational romance, both contemporary and historical, and romantic suspense books.
From This Day Forward
is her seventy-fifth book.