“My sister knew she left?” It appeared he was in fact the last to know.

Nodding, he stalked from the dining room and up the stairs, determined to locate his errant wife and teach her that she could not run away from him simply because she disapproved of the way he handled matters with his sister. He would not stand for it. He wanted her back. In his bed. In his life. Regardless that she believed herself in love with him, they would go on as if she had never made that foolish declaration.

He stopped suddenly, one hand poised to knock on Julianne’s door.

Dragging a hand over his face, he cursed. Haring off after Jane would show her precisely how much control she wielded over him. Too much. More than he had vowed to give any woman again.

Fine. Let her remain at the cottage. He would not go traipsing after her like some lovesick fool.

Suddenly the door opened. Julianne stood there, pale and expressionless.

“I thought I heard your footsteps.” Leaving the door open, she turned and moved back inside her room.

Encouraged that she was at least speaking to him, he followed her into her room, watching as she took a seat on a chaise near the window.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

She snorted, smiling humorlessly. “You expect me to tell you? When you discount my feelings as whims? When you bullied the man I want to marry out of my life?”

“That is not—”

“Save your denials. You’re here about Jane, aren’t you? Have you only realized she just left?”

“Yes,” he admitted. “Did she speak with you before she left? Did she say she was going to the cottage?”

“Yes. She felt sorry for leaving me here. With you. But I told her you could do nothing more painful than you already have, and that she needed to do what was best for her.”

“You make me sound like a monster.”

“Do I?” She tilted her head thoughtfully. “You’re no monster. Merely a man. Flawed, to be certain. It’s wonder Jane loves you.”

His chest tightened at his sister’s words. “She said that did she?”

“She didn’t have to. It’s why she left, of course.” She faced the window, staring out of it almost as if she could see. “I hope you’ll leave her be.”

“Of course I won’t.” He inhaled sharply. “She’s my wife.”

“But you don’t love her. Or won’t.” Julianne shrugged. “Same difference. Why do you care if you live apart from her?”

He opened his mouth to explain, then shut it with a snap.

 Why do you care if you live apart from her?

Why did he? Seth thought hard, trying to formulate a reason. One he could tolerate. And not the one pushing at his carefully erected barriers.

Julianne’s smug voice interrupted his anxious musings. “I thought so.”

“It’s not right,” he snapped, scowling. “A husband and wife should live beneath the same roof.”

Turning on his heel, he called over his shoulder. “I’m bringing her home.”

“She won’t come,” Julianne retorted. “And who could blame her?”

She’ll come, Seth vowed. He would not return without her. No matter what it took.

Jane pulled her shawl tighter about her shoulders at the sudden gust of wind that threatened to rip the warm chenille free. A glance to the heavens revealed dark skies rolling overhead. A storm was coming.

Turning, she headed back down the beach, intent on returning to the cottage. Her slippers sank into soft sand as she walked, disappointed that the coming storm had cut short her afternoon stroll.

The wind picked up, tearing strands of her hair free from its tidy coiffure and whipping the tendrils across her eyes. Scraping the loose hair back off her face, her vision narrowed on a figure emerging in the distance.

Her steps slowed as she watched the shape grow and take shape into a man, dark cloak whipping about him in the wind.

“No,” she whispered, a heaviness settling into her chest as his face came into focus.

Absurdly, she glanced left and right, as if she would take flight, as if there was somewhere to flee along the thin stretch of shore.

Deciding to hold her ground, she stopped, not taking another step as he advanced on her, the grim lines of his face becoming alarmingly visible.

At last, he was upon her. She noted her fingers had grown numb where they clutched her shawl around her.

Before she had any idea what she meant to say, she blurted, “Go away.”

A muscle rippled along his jaw. One word escaped him, hard and biting. “Never.”

“Why did you come? I don’t want you here.” She stared into his eyes, dark and unreadable in the graying light. “Please don’t make this more difficult—”

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that.”

“Why? Why can’t you let me be?” A desperate sob scalded the back of her throat. “Do you wish to punish me? To—”

“I wish,” Seth began, stressing her own words, “to take my wife home. Where she belongs.”

Jane shook her head, scooting back a step. Then another. The prospect of spending the rest of her days with him, living with his apathy and indifference as he took his pleasure in her body and left her with nothing in return would slowly destroy her.

“No.”

He followed, closing in like a stalking predator. “Yes.”

“I don’t belong with you,” she insisted, continuing her retreat. Foolish, she supposed. But there was nothing rational about her need to flee. The very sight of him fed ambrosia to her starved heart, undermining her determination to be free.

“Stand still,” he hissed, reaching for her.

“Why can’t you let me go?” she pleaded, fingers loosening their hold on her shawl as she jerked her arm from his groping hand. The wind snatched hold of the blue chenille, carrying it away.

Stumbling, her foot caught on a bit of debris, and she went down in a graceless heap, a cloud of sand rising around her.

“Jane!” Seth dropped to his knees beside her. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head, searching his face. “Why?” she whispered.

Eyes locking with hers, he grasped her by the arms, the strong feel of his hands deceptively reassuring. At the look in his eyes, her heart slowed and she felt as though she hovered along the edge of a great precipice.

Crouched over her, he warded off the worst of the wind but she could still not stop the chill that skated over her.

“You have me, Jane,” he declared. Pausing, he moistened his lips. “I can’t let you go because you’re the reason I live. The reason I was born.”

She dipped her head and dragged in a great lungful air, his words too much, impossible to hear, impossible to believe.

Firm fingers forced her chin up. “I’m sorry I couldn’t say it before. I’ve been a complete ass.

About so many things.”

“What are you saying?”

He brushed the loose hair back from her face. “If I can’t have you with me, I’ll cease to exist.

Jane, it has always been you. You were my first friend, the only one who mattered. A part of me always knew it. I was mad to ever think I loved your sister. Even then, when I was too young and foolish to know any better, it was you. I love you.”

 I love you.

“I was selfish,” she confessed. “I should have spoken out the day my father tossed you out, but I did not want you to marry Madeline.”

He cupped her cheek, catching the trail of a wet tear with his thumb. “Thank you, Jane. Thank you for saving me for you.”

She flung her arms around him then, burying her face in the warm wall of his chest. “I never stopped loving you.”

His chest swelled on a breath beneath her cheek. “It will be you until the day I die.”

“I never thought to hear such words from you.”

His arms tightened around her. “Prepare yourself to hear them every day for the rest of your life.”

Epilogue

Jane lifted her face to the breeze’s cooling caress, basking in the kiss of spring on her skin.

“Momma, come on,” her daughter urged, tugging insistently on her hand as they strolled between two perfectly symmetrical rows of apples trees. Ahead lay a blanket with several baskets. A veritable feast covered the cloth, leaving little room to sit. Evidently Seth had already unpacked their lunch. Her gaze roamed the waving grasses, searching for her husband as she readjusted their young son on her hip. A year old, James wiggled to be put down.

“Auntie Julianne, Uncle Gregory, hurry up!” Olivia called back to the remainder of their party.

Jane tightened her hold on her squirming son and reminded her daughter, “Your aunt cannot move quickly these days, Olivia.” Jane glanced over her shoulder to smile at her sister-in-law, waddling to keep up. Even with her husband’s arm supporting her, Julianne looked winded, one hand supporting the bulge of her belly as she walked.

Turning back around, Jane gasped when a cloud of apple blossoms showered her.

“It’s raining flowers, Momma!” Olivia squealed, trying to catch the delicate white blossoms in tiny fists, her small features screwed tight with determination.

Jane looked up, knowing as she did whom she would find. Perched high in the branches, Seth grinned down at her as he shook a branch. The cheerful expression on his face—similar to the way he had looked as a boy, when she had first lost her heart to him—stole her breath.

“Come down from there before you break your neck,” she admonished.

Deft as a monkey, he lowered himself to the lowest branch, dropping down to earth with a resounding thud. Olivia clapped her hands and pounced into Seth’s arms with wild glee, nearly knocking him off his feet.

Seth hugged his daughter, eyes warm and tender on Jane as he sketched a bow. Stepping forward, he tucked a sprig of apple blossoms in her hair.

Her heart caught in her throat and she blinked past the burn of tears in her eyes. The simple gesture, the look in his eyes… reminded her of a time long ago. Only today the love in his eyes was for her. And the blossoms twirling through the air no longer echoed bitter memories.

Seth nodded to the spread of food before them and lowered Olivia to the blanket. “Hungry?” he asked.

Jane nodded and deposited James beside his sister, smiling when the little boy plunged a finger into one of the custard pies.

Facing Seth again, she allowed him to pull her into his embrace. “Famished,” she murmured, smiling coyly as his eyes darkened, the centers glowing with a familiar fire.

“Then I better feed you.”

Apple blossoms swirled around them, fragrant on the air, wild as moths in the wind as he lowered his head to kiss her.

Closing her eyes, she let the wonder of the moment rush over her… the reality far better than any fantasy her heart had ever dreamed.