For All Time (Nantucket Brides 2)

At her tone, Graydon got his first inkling that Toby wasn’t overjoyed with what he was saying. “We can have a huge wedding later,” he said quickly. “At the palace.”

“Oh? And what will be the name of the person I’ll be marrying?”

“We need to talk about all that. I may have to continue being my brother.”

Toby took a step toward him and there was anger in her eyes. “I want to know about Danna. Does she know who she’s marrying?”

Graydon stepped back. “Remember how you said I should ask Danna what she wants? That was brilliant! When I asked her, she had some rather strong opinions.”

Toby took another step toward him. “What did Danna say?” She wasn’t sure but she thought maybe Graydon’s face was turning red.

“She, uh … It seems that she’s always known who was me and who was Rory, and she said she had never really liked me. According to her I’m a ‘sword stuck in its sheath.’ It’s a Lanconian saying and it means—”

“I can guess. Did she refuse to marry you?”

“Yes,” Graydon said.

“So Danna dumped you and you came running to me. And now you’re offering me a two-dollar wedding and a lifetime of living a lie and of hiding. If it’s ever found out that you abandoned your kingdom for me, an entire country will hate me. Maybe the world will hate me. There will be books written about how I enticed you, a man who was groomed to be king, away from your destiny.”

Graydon’s face lost the soft, pleading look. His shoulders went back, his body rigid. He was The Prince. “I didn’t understand. You want to be made queen.”

“Oh, right. Then just your family will hate me. And if the truth of you and Rory is revealed, Danna’s father will pull out of Lanconia and the country will be impoverished. And it will all be my fault.” She lowered her voice and when she spoke, everything she felt was in her words. “What I want is for you to be king.”

Instantly, Graydon lost his rigid stance and he went from being The Prince to the man she’d come to love. He put his hands in his pockets and leaned back against a tree. “You’re right, of course.”

When he looked at her, his eyes were so full of misery that Toby almost went to him.

But she didn’t. “You shouldn’t have come here,” she said softly. “I was just beginning to think I could actually live without you.” In spite of her good intentions, there were tears gathering in her eyes.

“Have you thought about me in these last weeks?” he asked. “At least some of the time?”

“Thought about you? No, I didn’t. I lived and breathed you. I felt you in my heart, inside my soul. The air, the sun, the moon all reminded me of you. My body and my mind craved you, ached for you. I couldn’t stand hearing your name or your country’s. I couldn’t even bear to search out Tabitha or Garrett. Every—” She looked at him.

Reaching out, Graydon pulled her to him, but this time it wasn’t with passion. She folded her arms up inside his, her cheek on his chest and she could hear his heart pounding. It was as though she could feel his despair, his sense of helplessness—which exactly matched her own.

“Tabby and Garrett lived long and happy lives,” he said softly. “I couldn’t bear to search out their history either, but Lorcan and Daire did, with Aunt Jilly’s help.”

“Your Headless Horseman act saved them.”

“No,” he said, as he kissed the top of her head. “You did, in spite of me. You begged Valentina and Parthenia to allow no doctor near you. When Dr. Hancock wouldn’t come to Nantucket, Garrett hired another one. Your friends locked him in a closet.”

“Did they?” Toby asked, smiling against his chest. “And the baby?”

“Big fat boy followed by two more boys and a girl, who Valentina wrote was as beautiful as her mother.”

“Did the children grow up to be happy?” she whispered. There were tears on her cheeks.

“Our descendents helped the world. A great-granddaughter campaigned to reform orphanages in New York. In World War II a great-great, et cetera, grandson saved an entire shipload of soldiers. Senators, governors, teachers, physicians, a famous female pilot, they’re all there now, thanks to you. To us.”

Toby nodded against him. “That was what we were meant to do and we did it.”

“Yes,” he murmured, his face buried in her hair, and she could feel the dampness from his tears. “In fact, we have a contemporary descendent, a young woman, who is in rather bad circumstances right now. Since she didn’t exist until recently, I thought I might introduce her to a cousin of mine, Nicholas. It’s said that he was conceived in 1564. They might understand each other.”

She knew he was trying to cheer her up. “Graydon, I—”

“Sssssh,” he said. “We won’t talk of this anymore. Today, we’ll be as we were. Tonight we will dance in the moonlight and drink champagne.”

“One last time,” Toby said.