‘I wish I could say yes—I really do... He surged to his feet. ‘You cannot possibly still be harbouring any doubts, surely?’ ‘I cannot help having a few,’ she protested. ‘I mean, when I suggested marriage I thought I had many practical reasons for doing so. Only when we got here they all turned out to be nonsense.’ ‘What do you mean, nonsense?’ ‘I have no title, nor even a fortune—not by your standards. I suddenly felt as if I had nothing to bring to our marriage except disgrace. So I couldn’t understand why you seemed content to go along with it unless it was because you didn’t want to go back on your word, once given. And anyway, had I known at the time you were a duke of course I’d never have been so...so...forward as to dare propose in the first place.’ ‘Which is one of the reasons I didn’t tell you,’ he said grimly. ‘Don’t you have any idea what it did for me when you whispered that shy proposal in that barn? To know you were willing to trust your fortune to me, thinking I had nothing?
