Page 104 of A Most Natural Consequence
“Still, you were never once bitter or resentful, and you had every right to be.”
He shook his head as he took her hand to lead them upstairs. That would have solved nothing, and she had just as much reason to be disappointed that day in Scotland. She had not once punished him for their being forced to marry. “I would have been a weak man if I faltered.”
“That is the last word anyone would use to describe you,” she said pointedly. “‘Vivacious’ or ‘silly’ would be used before you were called ‘weak.’”
“I can admit that I was impetuous that day in Ramsgate when I promised to bring back Lydia and let you come with me. And the same when I let you drag me to the mail coach. In that moment of realisation of my sister’s foolishness, all rationality was gone, only despair and shock remained.” He had not been impulsive so much as lost and tilting toward despair.
“You would have come to your senses and acted eventually, of course, and gone after her,” she assured him as they reached their chamber. That was Elizabeth’s way: to be encouraging and kind. Even if the truth hurt, he could trust her to be honest but compassionate.
“It would not have mattered if I had; there was no convincing Georgiana. And instead of returning with a sister”—he squeezed her hand—“I came home with a wife.”
Elizabeth gave him a glowing smile as she led him through their chamber door. “We may not have chosen each other, but we chose to be happy with one another, so of course, love followed.”
The End
