Page 29 of The Heir’s Return

The debts were redeemed, the new arrangement with Rockford protected the estate, the profitable assets were already generating income, and there was no longer a way for Townsend to obtain the estate cheaply. He lost his leverage…every bit of it.

The second the entryway was cleared, Mina launched herself from the stairs and into Harry’s arms. He caught her with a booming laugh and held her close as she spun several times. “We did it!” she laughed, tears of joy filling her eyes. “We did it…”

Slowing to a stop, Harry lowered his head to hers while Mina wrapped her arms around his neck. Their mouths met in a forceful kiss that communicated every emotion flowing through them. Relief. Joy. Exhaustion. Triumph. All of it had been accomplished together.

Mina leaned back from their embrace just enough so she could look up into Harry’s face. His smile was so broad and beautiful; his joy was so boundless and beaming. Her eyes memorized the glory of it, and the way his blue eyes glittered like gems. The warmth she saw there suffused her entire body—her very soul—with the most deliciously syrupy heat until she felt as if their bodies had been fused together by a blacksmith. He continued to hold her, and she was perfectly content to allow it; in fact, she savored what she thought might be one of the last times she might enjoy such contact.

“Ravenshire Manor is safe now, and the finances are on the mend,” Mina whispered.

“Yes.” Harry did not remove his eyes from hers.

“Then you no longer need me.”

“That is precisely where you are wrong.”

Mina’s heart stuttered.

“W—What?”

“If you believe I am allowing you to slip away from me again, then you are mad.”

Mina’s fingers tightened in the fabric stretched taut across Harry’s broad, hard back.

“I would be the world’s greatest fool if I were to allow the woman I love to leave my side for a second time. Do not interrupt me,” he added with a chuckle when he noticed her lips had parted to interject. “I have been in love with you for most of my life, Wilhelmina Foster, so do not fool yourself into believing I only feel this way because your brilliance saved my estate. I fell in love with the girl who dragged a shy, grieving boy out of his shell, and now I am madly gone for the woman who was fighting for me and caring for everyone around her when it would have been simpler to take her father and run. You are so remarkable in so many ways, and I adore you to distraction; I love you beyond measure, and I need you in my life because it is so much dimmer for your absence. If the last few weeks have taught me anything, it is that—in so many ways—I would be lost without you.”

The sight of Harry’s earnest, handsome face blurred as Mina’s eyes filled with tears; each drop was a manifestation of her joy, her relief, her love for this man.

“May I speak now?” she asked, her voice watery.

Harry chuckled and nodded, his eyes mysteriously bright, too.

“You have always been my anchor. I thought it was my father’s lessons, then Ravenshire Manor, but it was you, Harry.” She paused for a shaky breath. “Both of us tried to carve out lives away from this place—away from one another—but it is clear that that is not possible. Fate has bound us together…and I would not have it any other way.”

Harry’s face split into the broadest smile she’d ever seen from him. “Then, let us make this permanent and never part again?”

“Harry?”

“Mina.” He closed his eyes as if savoring the moment, and then met her gaze once again, his pupils dilated with excitement. “Marry me. Let us give our future the proper chance it deserves.”

Mina’s mouth fell open. Her heart had dared to hope that this might be possible, but her head was not so far gone that she forgot about all the obstacles between them. The same obstacles had been there for their entire lives, and they would forever be there. She was the steward’s widowed daughter, and he was now an earl. If anything, the chasm between them had only widened since the last time they’d both been at Ravenshire Manor.

“But—”

“Do not try to dissuade me from pursuing this,” Harry interrupted, perfectly predicting her protestations. “I care not one speck for what anyone else might say. Anyone who has anything negative to say can go to the Devil for all I care. We are experienced adults and know our minds. There are far more scandalous couples in Society than the match we present. If anything, you are more worthy of the title of countess than most women born into wealth. You possess a degree of intelligence, strength, and selflessness perfectly suited to the role; and you have already proven that ten times over.”

“I am inelegant,” Mina breathed incredulously. “I have no formal training in anything that would make me a lady.”

“And why does that matter?” Harry’s arms held her more securely. “I care not at all about that, and you should not either. You charm everyone you meet—Lord knows you did that to me from the very first.”

“Charm may not be enough.”

“Mina! I will protect you with my life. I will buoy you with my love. I will slay everyone who dares to speak an untoward word about you—what?”

“You cannot slay anyone who speaks poorly of me,” Mina said with a light laugh.

“The point is that I would go to war for you. I bloody well love you—have loved you for most of my life. There has never been anyone else; there will never be anyone else. Marry me, Mina. Give me a chance to give back to you a sliver of all the joy and wonder you bring to my life. Please, Mina.”

Mina chewed her lower lip, but her resolve was eroding with shocking swiftness. “The last thing I desire is to hold you back.”