“Anna!” he shouted, and deftly grabbed both her wrists.
“A bloody fool!” she sobbed. “And blind! I think you should see a physician straightaway about your sight, sir, for only a blind man or an imbecile would not be able to see how much I love you, and have loved you! Could you not deduce that I kept that wretched gargoyle in my wardrobe for as long as I did just so that I’d have an excuse to see you?”
“What?” he asked, lifting his head, his eyes wide.
She yanked her hands free of his grasp. “And how could you have botched this kidnapping as badly as you have?” she cried, throwing his neckcloth down.
“Botched this kidnapping?”
“Yes, botched!” she cried, slapping his hands away. “You wrapped me in a carpet that… that reeks of dog, and you drove all the way out here and there is no inn, and there is no food, and there is no bath, and I am certain you forgot my pelisse and my gloves!”
Judging by Grif’s blank look, he certainly had, and Anna wailed.
But Grif caught her by the arms again and shook her lightly to make her look at him. “Why did ye no’ tell me, lass?”
“Because,” she said, pushing against him. “You had me all trussed up like a pig! How was I to speak?”
“No, no, I mean…ere today! Why did ye no’ tell me what was in yer heart? Ye spoke of no one but Lockhart!”
“I don’t know!” she cried. “I was afraid! You …you staggered me, too, Grif—but you were a scoundrel and a liar and the good Lord only knew what else!” she said, the tears flowing now. “And you were so distant, and so enamored of Lucy! What was I to do?”
Grif grasped her jaw and tilted it upward so that he could see her tearstained face. “Hear me,” he said softly. “I wasna enamored of Lucy. I wanted to stuff a sock in her mouth, aye, but I wasna enamored of anyone but ye, Anna.” He shifted his hand, put his palm against her cheek. “I understand now, mo ghraidh that I didna speak me heart, either… but what matter? It’s all changed now, has it no’?”
Anna unsteadily wiped the tears from beneath her eyes with her fingers. “Yes. Everything,” she whispered, and looked at him.
They reached for each other at the exact same moment; Grif pulled her onto his lap and kissed the path of her tears from one cheek. “I’m neither a thief nor a scoundrel,” he said. “I canna offer ye great wealth, but I can offer ye unending love,” he vowed, kissing her eyes, the bridge of her nose.
“I don’t care about wealth,” she said. “I don’t care about anything but you, Grif—just to be with you, by your side, part of your life…”
“I’ll no’ let ye go, Anna. The king’s men couldna take ye from me now. I’ll keep ye safe, I’ll keep ye warm, and I’ll love ye until I draw me last breath, I swear to God I shall.”
Anna closed her eyes as his earnest vow seeped into her heart. Suddenly, nothing else mattered— not the kidnapping, or the scandal that was sure to follow, or the lack of food—nothing but his arms around her. She opened her eyes and unconsciously lifted her hand to touch his face. He leaned into it, kissing her palm.
“Ye’ll come with me, aye, Anna? Ye’ll be with me.” His voice had grown rough, his green eyes glittering with the strength of his emotion. “Ye’ll be with me for many long and happy years, aye?”
Her heart rose and swelled to fill the cavity of her chest. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, yes, yes…” Her dream had come true—she would marry for love …wouldn’t she? “Then…” her voice trailed off.
“Then?”
“Then will we…I mean, what I’d ask, is whether…” She paused again.
“Whether…?” He looked confused.
She frowned. “Whether those… long and happy years, as you so eloquently put it… would result in something perhaps a bit more …formal than… this,” she said, gesturing to the two of them and the coach.
“Formal,” he repeated, looking around at the coach. “Aye, of course… ye’d want it formal.”
She blinked at him, her mind unwilling to accept what she was hearing. “Don’t you want… formal?”
He looked at her from the corner of his eye. “I… want, I suppose, whatever…ye want,” he said uncertainly.
Anna stared at him for a long moment. “I can’t believe you!” she cried, pushing against his chest and off his lap. “Do you mean to say that you have kidnapped me and will convey me all the way to Scotland to be your mistress?” she exclaimed hotly, and punched him square in the arm.
“Ouch!” he shouted. “I didna say mistress!”
“You didn’t say anything!” she shouted back at him. “You never said a bloody word but kidnap!”
She saw a spark in his green eyes, and Grif threw his head back with a shout of laughter as he caught her fully around the arms and clasped her to him. “Ye are the most impossible woman God ever made!” he exclaimed. “Of course I mean to marry ye! Do ye think I’d have endured so much for anything less?”