Once Upon a Maiden Lane (Maiden Lane #12.5)(35)

His father’s face filled with rage. “I’ll cut you off! You’ll lose your quarterly allowance, and I’ll lock you out of the heir’s house. You won’t have a cent to live on until I die, and I don’t intend to leave this earth for decades.”

“Indeed I hope you do not,” Henry replied sincerely. “And I made my decision with the full knowledge that you’d cut me off. I may lose your money, but I’m not without resources.” He turned to the door. “Good-bye, Father.”

“You’re insane!” the earl practically howled behind him. “What could possibly be worth losing so much?”

Henry turned to look at his father. “Love.”

He closed the door quietly behind him.



The next morning Mary sat in the Caire House garden, supposedly tending Annalise and Toby. In reality, both Mary Thames and the new nursemaid hired when Mary Whitsun had left Caire House were in attendance, making her presence redundant. Lady Caire had attempted to make Mary take a few days’ rest after…everything, but Mary had insisted on returning to her work. Lady Caire hadn’t demurred, but she hadn’t let the new nursemaid go, either.

Mary should feel insulted or worried about her position or…

Really she just couldn’t find it within herself to care.

“Mary?”

She looked up at Annalise’s soft voice and tried to smile at the girl. “Yes?”

“Toby picked a flower for you,” Annalise said. She had her brother by the hand and Toby was holding a wilting bunch of Michaelmas daisies. They looked as if they’d been torn from the plant.

Toby grinned up at her, his chubby cheeks scrunching his eyes nearly closed. “Mimi.”

Mary felt tears start at her eyes. “Thank you, Toby.” She took the proffered flowers from the toddler’s hand.

“Bob the gardener shall be ever so annoyed,” Annalise observed with big-sister honesty. Her expression became fiercely determined. “But I shan’t care and neither shall Toby. We want you to be happy again.”

Mary had opened her mouth to say something—she wasn’t sure quite what—when the back door to the house opened.

Henry strode down the graveled path, his face grave.

“Who’s that?” Annalise asked, while at the same time Mary Thames stood and said brightly, “Let’s go in for tea, shall we?”

“But who is he?” Annalise demanded, looking mulish. “Is he going to hurt Mary Whitsun?”

Mary hoped not, but she very much feared he would. She watched Henry near with the aching knowledge that he’d come to say good-bye.

She could live through this.

Mary Thames and the new nursemaid urged the children inside, and then it was just the two of them in the garden.

Mary twisted her hands together in her lap and tried to think of some pleasantry.

Henry dropped to one knee before her.

She blinked.

“Marry me,” he said, and she wondered dazedly if she’d sat in the sun too long. “My father has disowned me, but I have some monies from my mother’s uncle and a small house. It’s nothing like this”—he gestured behind him to the looming expanse of Caire House—“but it’s livable. I can sell my mares and the carriage, and I have a school friend in need of a secretary. I can work. We won’t be wealthy, but I’ll be able to afford a maid and a cook.”

“Henry,” she gasped. “You don’t have to sell your mares.”

“I do,” he said, clasping her hands and bringing them to his lips. “I do because I need you, Mary, now and forever. I think I wasn’t truly living before I met you—I was merely trundling along through my days. You woke me up, made me see the world in a fresh light. My mares are but property. You, you are my heart and soul. I love you.”

“Oh,” she said softly as the tears overflowed her eyes and ran down her cheeks. “Oh, Henry, yes.”

The words were barely out of her mouth before he was surging up and kissing her, there in the sunlight of the Caire House garden. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly as if afraid she would flee.

“Thank God,” he murmured against her lips. “Please never leave me, no matter how difficult the coming years. I’ll do everything I can to make your life perfect.”

“It already is.” She framed his face with her palms. “Because I love you.”





Epilogue



Well, that was all it took of course.

“Oh!” said Clio, even as the prince was calling for his guards and struggling back to his throne.

It seemed a good time to go, so Clio didn’t protest when Triton took her hand and ran out of the palace with her. They hurried back down the road and to the sea.

Once there, Clio dove into the waves, and immediately her land legs turned back into her beautiful fish tail. She laughed aloud and swam in a circle, swishing it about, until she suddenly realized that Triton was not with her. That was strange. Triton was always with her. Always protecting her. Hurriedly she glanced around, but he wasn’t in sight. She searched for him in wider and wider circles, all the while wondering how he could have swum past her. How she could have not seen him. Finally she swam to the palace of the Sea King, but Triton was not there, either.