Matteo finally met her eyes, the emotion in them so intense she flinched. “Isabella,” he rasped, “in all likelihood, I have very little time left. If you fail, I will end this...this existence myself. I can’t hurt another innocent. I refuse to be the devil’s instrument.”
He fisted his hands and looked away “However...” she prompted.
With a heavy exhalation, he sat next to her. “However, if I can spend the rest of my days, be it weeks or months, as your husband then I will die in peace, having gleaned what little happiness I could from this damned life. I know it would be next to impossible for you to forgive me for what happened that night. I saw the marks I made and I know how you suffered. But if there’s anyone who could understand that was not the real me, it’s you.”
Isobel squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the cushion of the chaise lounge to steady herself. It felt like the world was spinning. A part of her wanted to absolve him, to ease the torment in his eyes, but she wasn’t ready to do that yet.
“And...maybe there would be a child,” he said, taking her breath away. “A tiny bit of myself and of you that would get to start all over again and live this life better than I did. With you as its mother, there’s no possibility he or she wouldn’t be remarkable. You would raise our child with your purpose and strength—”
“Stop! Stop...” she said finally, holding up her hands. Dropping her head, she exhaled.
The air moved as he shifted closer to her. “I swear I’m going to spend all of my time loving and cherishing you for as long I can—anything to make sure you don’t regret marrying me, even for a short while. Whatever I can do for you, I will do.” He paused. “Isabella, mi amore, there isn’t another choice.”
His voice sounded like it was coming from very far away.
Dizzily, she nodded. “I know,” she whispered.
Chapter 16
When Matteo revealed that his plans to marry Isobel were genuine, his father’s thunderous expression could have stripped paint from the walls.
“Don’t even think it,” Aldo glowered at him when he got him alone in his room to explain.
Matteo glared back. He’d given way to his father on a lot of things, but this wasn’t going to be one of them.
“You will support me in this,” he said in a tone hard enough to make his father sit up in attention. “Isobel is my only chance for recovery, and I won’t have her reputation destroyed because she was forced to help me.”
He sat back in the uncomfortable extra chair the inn had moved into his father’s room so he would have a place to converse in private.
The count opened his mouth to argue with him again, but Matteo cut him off. “And there is a chance the closest I’ll come to recovery is extending my time long enough to sire an heir.”
His father leaned back and considered his words before dismissing them with a wave of his hand. “You don’t have to marry the witch. We’ll take her and this library back to Santa Fiora. Bed her if you must, but you can marry one of the young ladies from home. Donneto’s girl, perhaps.”
Neck rigid, Matteo shook his head resolutely.
The count leaned forward. “You were meant for better things and you will not disgrace your family now. She is beneath you,” he hissed.
The censure in his father’s voice would have been enough to make him retreat once, but that was before he’d been damned. He no longer had anything to lose.
“There could be no finer union for me than one with Isobel. She is gently bred with a fine education, or else Clarence would never have hired her. And while she does not possess a fortune, she does have something more important.”
“And what might that be?” his father asked sarcastically.
“Power,” he said honestly, playing his strongest card. “Even now, without her books and the knowledge in them, she has it. And if her family history holds true, then our child would have it.”
His father’s face softened, his attention finally caught.
“I can imagine it now,” Matteo said enthusiastically. “Our son would know the things Isobel does—the ability to see evil in those around them. And he would be ready.”
The implication was clear. Isobel’s child would grow up with the ability to defend him or herself against the forces of darkness, the same thing they’d found themselves completely unprepared for.
Matteo’s shoulders dropped, and he looked down at his hands. “Isobel is not just my salvation,” he whispered. “She’s our salvation. For all the Garibaldis.”
It was the simple truth, one even his father could see.
Aldo sighed loudly. “Very well. I will support the marriage.”
***
Matteo waited until well after midnight before sneaking into Isobel’s room. His father had consented to their marriage, and to the need to keep up appearances. He and Isobel could not share a chamber before the wedding, but the count feared Matteo’s deterioration too much to allow him to sleep without her.