Marrying His Cinderella Countess

‘No…’

She stopped and tugged him round to face her, laid his hands on her midriff.

‘Blake, your feelings for Felicity are not the only reason I left. What you said about the way your father expected to direct your marriage, your future, and how you would expect to do the same for your eldest son. That chilled me to the bone, my love. Children deserve to be l

oved for themselves, not as dynastic pawns. Your heir will be a child who deserves to find his own way, his own love. And the others will be just as valuable, will deserve to be valued as much as your heir. My emotions might be all over the place at the moment, and I know I was upset—but, Blake, I had to find some way to make you realise that. Because otherwise how can we make a loving family together?’

He looked down at her, and then at her hands. ‘You weren’t feeling well… Ellie?’

‘There’s nothing to see—nothing to feel yet. But the doctor says that there is the beginning of our family snug in there.’

‘Oh, Ellie. My Ellie.’ He swung her up into his arms and kissed her. ‘My clever girl. I don’t deserve any more than to get you back safely, to know that you love me. But this—’

He set her down gently on her feet but kept his arms around her.

‘All my adult life I have told myself that my father had the right to direct my choice of wife and that it was part of my duty as the Earl to think like that too. But what if our son found a woman to love who was simply Miss Brown of nowhere in particular? Would I say to him that I found true love but he must forgo it? And as for his brothers and sisters—they will be ours, and they will be loved, because you have taught me how.’

Eventually he took her hand and they walked up to the crest and then down the slope to the farm, where Jon was standing with Polly in the yard, looking around. Blake raised a hand and waved to his brother. He waved back, then, reassured, went into the house.

‘Don’t sell this place,’ Ellie said as Blake bent and picked a buttercup and tucked it in her hair. ‘Please.’

‘No, we will keep it as our place of escape for when we do not want to be the Earl and the Countess—just Blake and Ellie. All our children will like the animals—’

‘All our children?’

‘We have made a start,’ he said, holding the gate for her. ‘And now we have the knack of it we ought to keep on, don’t you think? Imagine all those little boys and girls, chasing the chickens and getting covered in mud.’

‘Idiot.’ She elbowed him gently in the ribs. ‘I missed you so much,’ Ellie added, suddenly shy. ‘I told myself that if I could only have the space to think I would be able work out how to have a happy marriage.’

‘Of course you would,’ Blake said. He closed the gate and swept her up into his arms again. ‘You can do anything, my Ellie.’

‘When you look at me like that I believe you,’ she agreed as he carried her across the yard and stopped just before the door. ‘I was meant for you.’

‘And I for you. And when I carry you over this threshold—that is when our real marriage begins, my love.’

Blake shouldered the door open and stepped over the threshold, and Ellie finally allowed herself to believe in happy endings.

*