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.’‘No.I don’t suppose she will.Which is why I intend to have a special licence in my pocket and a clergyman standing by.She will marry me before she leaves the house, or she will not leave it at all.’Rebecca, seeing at last how she could help, seized one of the jugs that decorated the embrasure and leapt to her feet.Standing on the window seat she pulled back the curtain.The noise distracted Mr Willingham, who looked round, and Joshua, seeing his chance, lost only a fraction of a second in surprise before hurling himself at Mr Willingham.Mr Willingham, turning his attention back to Joshua, lifted the gun - and Rebecca brought the jug crashing down on his head.He stood for one moment, and Rebecca thought her efforts had been wasted - but then he swayed and fell, crumpling up in a heap on the floor.Joshua caught the gun as it dropped out of his hand and checked that Mr Willingham, now lying prone, was really out cold, and then turned to Rebecca, who was still standing on the window-seat.The strain of the last ten minutes, coupled with her cramped conditions - which had left her with pins and needles in her legs, so that they could barely hold her - made her begin to sway.Joshua held out his arms, and as she lost her balance he caught her in his strong embrace.‘Becky,’ he said, with such a look in his eyes that she felt herself melting.‘Josh,’ she said breathlessly, feeling the heat of his body against her own.He looked into her eyes for a long moment.Then, as if remembering she had been through something of an ordeal, he carried her over to one of the chairs and set her down gently in it before kneeling in front of her.‘Your hands are cold,’ he said.He began to chafe them.‘It was cold in the window embrasure,’ she said.‘And I forgot my shawl.It’s still in the ballroom.’He moved her chair closer to the fire.‘But what were you doing behind the curtains in the first place?’ he asked as he continued to chafe her hands.Briefly, she explained why she had taken refuge there.‘It’s a good thing you did.Otherwise I may well be —’‘Don’t, Josh,’ she said with a shudder, putting a finger to his lips.‘Don’t even say it.’He took her hand and kissed her fingers, then, turning it over, he kissed the palm and the inside of her wrist.Could his feelings have changed? she wondered again as the most intoxicating shiver washed over her.Could they have developed into something as deep and sincere as her own? For she was no longer in any doubt as to the nature of her own feelings for Joshua.She was in love with him.Oh, yes, she was in love with him, and no matter how hard she had tried to deny it, she knew that she had been so for a long time.To begin with, she had felt no more for him than physical attraction, but her feelings had soon begun to undergo a transformation.When she had been caught in the path of the charging horse in London and he had pushed her to safety she had been filled with a sense of security that had warmed her through.His tenderness towards her following the incident had surprised her, revealing that there was a gentler side to his nature than the one he generally showed the world.His concern for her reputation had earned her esteem, and his obvious devotion to her beloved grandfather had earned her affection and her gratitude.His drive and ambition had struck a chord in her own nature - she was not Jebadiah’s granddaughter for nothing! - and his ruthlessness, once she had realized it did not spill over into cruelty, had roused her respect; for she knew it would be impossible to succeed in his chosen sphere of business without it.And yet all these feelings, whilst explaining some of what she felt for him, did not explain it all, for she felt something she had never felt for any man before: that she wanted to join herself to him - in every way.She felt a warm tingling sensation spread through her as the realization hit her with full force.How strange.She had never thought, when she had first met him at The Queen’s Head, that she would fall in love with him, but despite the fact he was stubborn and determined – or perhaps because of it - she had done so.And yet, did Joshua love her? Or was he still resolute in his determination never to offer her his hand again?‘Rebecca,’ he said, stroking his fingers over her palms in the most delicious way, ‘I asked you once before,’ he said, his eyes glowing in the mixed fire-and-candlelight —A low groan interrupted him.He cursed under his breath.Dropping her hand he turned in the direction of the noise.Rebecca, too, turned her head, and saw that Mr Willingham was starting to stir
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