“What if, from now on, we were honest with each other? What if there were no more half-truths? No more convenient fictions?”

“A dismal prospect.”

“Why do you say so?”

“What you’re proposing is absolute candor. Laying all of our cards on the table, so to speak. Even those cards we’ve been dealt that are…less than ideal.”

“Yes, I believe I am. Whatever brought us to this juncture, we’re husband and wife now. We should begin as we mean to go on.”

“With honesty.” He sounded skeptical.

“With honesty. Even if we eventually part forever.”

His brows lowered. “Laura…”

“You said it would be my decision. That, if I wished it, one day we would quietly go our separate ways.” She tried to keep her voice light. “Is that what you want? To return to your old life in a month or two?”

He stared down at their joined hands for a moment, an expression on his face that was difficult to read. “The truth?” His mouth twisted into a grimace. “I don’t know anymore.”

Laura absorbed his words in silence. She wasn’t surprised by them. She’d sensed his growing uncertainty when they’d walked in Talbot’s Wood yesterday. “Shall I tell you what I’d like?”

His gaze lifted back to hers.

“I’d like this to be a real marriage, not a marriage of convenience,” she said. “I’d like you to stay with me.”

“For how long?”

“The usual length of time.” She managed a faint smile. “Until death, I believe the vicar said.”

Alex didn’t smile in return. “Forever, in other words.”

“Or…for as long as you’re able.”

“With you, at Bramble Cottage. As man and wife.”

She moistened her lips. “Yes.”

“In every way.”

Heat rose in her cheeks. “Would that be so terrible?”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “No. It wouldn’t be terrible at all. Not for me. For you, on the other hand—”

“It wouldn’t be terrible for me either,” she said swiftly.

His eyes searched hers. She’d never seen him looking so serious. “And what if I leave you with child?”

Her face was positively burning now. Such things weren’t discussed. Not even by married couples. It took all of her wherewithal to hold his gaze. “Would you leave? If I fell pregnant?”

“I don’t know what I’d do, or how I’d manage to ruin things. I’m not a good man, Laura.”

“So you keep saying. But except for your nefarious arrangement with George, I’ve seen no evidence of the fact. Rather the opposite. Since the day we met, you’ve been every inch a hero.”

He gave her an odd look. “How wrong you are.”