“Look at me, Margaret,” Sebastian said gently. “If you don’t want to marry this man, you have only to stand firm in your resolve until you are of age, and then we can be married, with or without their blessing.”

“If only it were that simple.”

“If you love me . . .”

“I do, how can you doubt it?” A sob caught in her throat. “I am absolutely miserable every single moment I’m not with you. I wish we could be together always.”

Sebastian wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her tightly up against him. “And we can be, if we want it enough.”

Torn, she pressed herself closer, closing her eyes, wanting to lose herself in their perfect little idyll, to forget all about the real world and everyone in it. The familiar scent of him and the heat of his body was making her senses whirl. “I love you,” she said, willing it to be enough. “I love you,” she said again, an incantation against reality.

“Then that is all that matters, isn’t it? There are hurdles to be overcome, I realise that,” he said. “Obstacles to be removed. We may have to wait, but I am willing to wait forever for you. Do I take too much for granted, expect too much? It would be a very different life that you would lead here in Lambeth, not without its challenges and short on comfort.”

“How could I be anything other than happy, if I was with you?”

“Then it’s settled. You will be my wife.”

He truly believed it was possible. He had no idea what he was asking of her, but if Sebastian believed in her, and in the power of love, then why couldn’t she? “I can’t,” Margaret said, though even to her own ears, she sounded ambivalent. “I want to, more than anything, but wanting is not enough. My parents—”

“Must come to understand that your first duty is not to them but to yourself. What will make you happy, Margaret? Marriage to some man you have admitted you cannot love, playing the lady of the manor and dispensing jam at Christmas? Or a new life in Lambeth by my side, genuinely doing good, making a real difference?”

“You know the answer to that question,” Margaret said, knowing full well that it was the wrong question. Sebastian made it sound so simple and so wildly attractive. He loved her. He had chosen her as the woman he wanted by his side for the rest of his life. She loved him, too, but there were more pitfalls than he could possibly imagine. And yet, when he looked at her like that, she believed it just might be possible.

He pulled her back into his arms and kissed her tenderly. “We will find a way.”