Bride Enchanted by Edith Layton

choosing me so quickly, and asking me to marry you.”
    The laughter faded from his voice. He took a deep breath. “Very well then. The truth. No lies. No protestations of eternal love. No more embraces, delicious as they are, to cloud the issue. Desire’s a weed that flourishes in any garden, but love, I understand, has to grow in special soil. It has to be nurtured. I think I can do that; I think you can grow to love me. As for myself? I told you. I saw you and you reminded me of someone I’d been looking for a very long time. When I met you, I realized you were different, of course. All people are. I also realized that although you were very different from the woman I had sought, you suited me.”
    â€œAnd the other woman? The one I reminded you of?” Eve asked, trying not to sound disappointed. Because although she hadn’t believed he’d been drawn to her immediately by some strange wonderful thing about herself that she hadn’t known, she couldn’t help feeling let down because she’d been right.
    â€œThat woman? She’s gone,” he said softly. “Oh, long gone. So don’t think I deceive myself as to who you are. And I certainly don’t want you for any reasons you might find in a Minerva Pressromance. Don’t start imagining discarded wives in my tower, or long-lost hidden treasures in your back garden that only I know about.
    â€œI didn’t choose you for revenge either, or to spite anyone, or to show anyone that I’ve gone on with my life. I know myself and my heart. I was drawn to you from the first because of a resemblance, that’s true. But then discovered that I want you for yourself. For your company, and the comfort of being with you. And I know you are the one I want to bear my children.”
    â€œWhat if I can’t?”
    â€œYou will,” he said. “But why believe me? I’m not a physician. Say then that I vow any child you choose to call your own will also be mine. Now, will you be mine as well?”
    She gazed up at him, so breathtakingly handsome, so clever and well spoken. It wasn’t just the moonlight and the strange spell he seemed to cast over her. Moonlight, daylight, gaslight, or morning light, wherever she saw him, she liked the look of him. Dark-haired, light-haired, it made no matter. She loved the sound of his voice, his mouth tasted wonderful to her, he even smelled good to her.
    So what if she didn’t know him better? She was levelheaded, never one to leap into anything, no matter what the lure. And she knew there’d be time. Not only time in the years to come when theywere wed, but time here, now, before the fact.
    Because no one in the ton ever married in haste, unless there was a good reason, either parental objections that made them run for the border, or a child on the way, or an irate father that made them run to the altar. There’d be time enough during their engagement for her to find out more about him. And if, for any reason, and she prayed not, she discovered something bad, she could be free.
    She wouldn’t think about that. She couldn’t, not here, not now, with his eyes looking into hers. One thing she knew above all. She dared not let him go. He said he’d only ask three times. She was afraid he might not ask again, or if he did, resent her for making him ask. And where on earth would she ever meet his like again?
    â€œCome, Eve,” he whispered. “Let go of harsh reality. Life’s an adventure. Step into one, with me.”
    She stepped into his arms instead. “Yes,” she said, letting all her pent breath out. “Yes, Aubrey. I will.”
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    It was done. Aubrey rode home alone through the streets of London, smiling. He was relieved and exhilarated. He’d found her and courted her, and she’d said yes. He’d been sure she would, but still, people were difficult to predict, women twice as much so. He’d won her, and