When the two noblemen had shepherded their prisoner from the cabin, only March was left. Nicholas watched as Aurora went to the earl and took his hand. With the softest of smiles, she raised her lips and planted a tender kiss on his cheek.
Nick found himself clenching his jaw… but he willed himself to endure it. He no longer had reason to be jealous of the nobleman, he told himself. Not when he was the one claiming Aurora as his wife.
March murmured a farewell and then fixed his gaze pointedly on Nicholas. "You had best take good care of her, Sabine, or you can be certain I will be paying you a visit in America."
"Be assured, I will guard her with my life," Nick vowed solemnly.
The earl returned his attention to Aurora. "I wish you all the happiness in the world, my dear."
"And I, you. Simone is a fortunate woman. Perhaps someday I may meet her."
Stepping back, March gave Aurora a final smile and then left, shutting the cabin door behind him.
Nick took a slow breath, trying to ease the brutal tension in his body. When Aurora turned to face him, his gaze riveted on hers. "I wasn't wrong, was I?" he breathed. "You love me?"
"Yes, Nicholas. I love you."
Joy hit him with such fierceness it made him shake. In two strides he had reached her and caught her up in his arms, the way he'd been longing to do since her arrival onboard the schooner. Aurora found her lips smothered beneath his passionate kiss.
Even when he had stolen her breath away, he wouldn't cease. His mouth moved over hers hungrily as if he were starved for the taste of her. Finally, however, Nicholas broke off the tender assault long enough to rasp hoarsely against her lips.
"Tell me again," he demanded.
She didn't misunderstand his urgency. "I love you," she managed to say before he cut off her declaration with another devastating kiss.
It was a long, long moment before Nick allowed her to speak again, although he still refused to let her go.
Breathless with desire and love, he pressed his forehead against hers. "What caused your change in heart?" he dared ask.
"I realized I couldn't live without you," Aurora said simply.
"Then you will be my wife?" He lifted his head, searching her face. Her eyes were bright with love; her lovely smile trapped his breath in his throat.
"Yes, Nicholas. I will… on one condition."
That finally gave him pause. He drew back to eye her warily. "What condition?"
"That you promise to make at least a small attempt to curb your recklessness."
"My recklessness?"
"Since I've known you, all you have ever done is deliberately court danger. I have no intention of becoming a widow again."
"I have no intention of letting you."
"You just said you intended to guard me with your life. And I saw you eyeing Gerrod's pistol as if you planned something rash. I felt sure you would have fought him for it if I hadn't acted."
"I would have found another way. I wouldn't have risked endangering you." Nick couldn't help but grin. "The look on Gerrod's face… He was so certain he had me in his grasp. He didn't count on having to deal with my beautiful, courageous wife."
"It was not courageous in the least. I was terrified he would shoot you." She shuddered. "I couldn't bear to lose you, Nicholas. I want your promise that you will try to keep yourself safe for my sake."
"I promise, sweetheart. My reckless days are over, I swear to you. I have too much at stake to risk losing you."
He gazed down into her azure eyes, still not quite believing his good fortune. "I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Aurora. I want to have children with you and grow old with you. I want to sleep with you and share dreams with you and wake up beside you…"
Aurora thought she had never heard words more beautiful.
Just then she felt the movement of the ship as the anchor was weighed. Nicholas lifted his head for a moment, then bent again to nuzzle her lips. "We have a long journey ahead of us, do you realize that, my love?"
She felt her pulse quicken at the thought; the prospect of having weeks and weeks alone with Nicholas filled her with joy.
Deliberately she raised her arms to encircle his neck, gazing into his dark eyes that shone so fiercely with tenderness.
"Not long enough," Aurora whispered, wanting to sing with the fullness in her heart.
She was actually sailing to Virginia with Nicholas as his wife. The enormity of her decision no longer alarmed her. She could only contemplate her future with eagerness and excitement and hope.
Nicholas was her life. The only man she would ever love.
As her lips molded to his, a line from the journal came back to her: He held my heart captive, with chains stronger than steel.
She was Nicholas's captive, she reflected, but a completely willing one.
She sighed and gave herself up to his searing kiss. Nicholas owned her heart. And she knew with utter certainty they had touched only the beginning of something vast and beautiful. Their future lay ahead of them. A future bright with promise. Husband and wife, bound together by an irresistible passion known as love.
Epilogue
Journal entry, February 4, 1814
I see the truth so clearly now. All of my existence before you was nothing but a shadow of living. I kept life at a distance, never allowing myself to get close.
Only you freed me from my prison. Only you touched me deeply enough to find the core of passion inside me. Only you saw into my heart, baring the depth of my yearning.
You taught me passion and then taught me love -
Aurora paused in her writing, her gaze lifting to the door of the sitting room that adjoined the bedchamber. Nicholas. She had sensed his presence rather than heard him, they were so attuned to one another.
He stood casually leaning against the doorjamb, looking so irresistibly handsome that her heart skipped a beat. The bright winter light gleamed golden in his hair, which was no longer darkened to disguise his identity.
She smiled to see him, overcome with love and desire. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long."
"You seem to be developing a habit of watching me."
"True. It's one of my greatest pleasures, looking at my beautiful wife." Nicholas crossed the room to where Aurora sat at her writing desk. "Are you writing about me again?"
"About us," she contradicted.
She was writing her own journal, setting down her most intimate thoughts. She had wanted, needed, a means to express the depth of her feelings for Nicholas.
He was the only one who would ever see it. She had no secrets from him. He had led her on an odyssey of the heart, an odyssey that was still unfolding. Each day with him was a fresh wonder, each moment a joy.
"Forgive me for interrupting, dearheart," he said, handing her a rolled parchment, "but this just came from Lucian. It should please you."
Curious, Aurora set down her pen and opened the document. She gave a cry of delight to see the royal seal of England's Prince Regent. "You have been pardoned?" she exclaimed, reading feverishly.
"Yes. The price was exorbitant – two merchantmen and a schooner from the Sabine shipping line – but I can now return to England without a death warrant hanging over my head. And you can visit your homeland, sweetheart."
Aurora was elated, more for Nicholas's sake than her own. He was no longer a fugitive. She no longer had to live in terror that he would be apprehended like a criminal and sent to the gallows.
"If you like, we can plan a trip there as soon as the war ends," he offered.