“W-were – you – s-shocked?” she whispered.

Lord Dorrington held her so close that she could hardly breathe.

“My adorable sweetheart, I have prayed I could awaken a little flame within you from the fire that utterly consumes me.”

Alyna made a little sound that was half a sob as she murmured,

“The – fires – of Venus.”

“The Prince of Wales told you to trust my judgement,” Lord Dorrington said. “I knew that no one could be so beautiful, so utterly and completely lovely, and be without a heart.”

“And now it is – yours,” Alyna said. “I love you – Knight Errant, with all my – heart – my soul and my – body.”

“And you are no longer afraid?” Lord Dorrington questioned.

“Not of you – I have never been afraid of you.”

“Now you have no need to be afraid of anything, my darling. I can protect you by day and by night.”

“That is – all I want,” Alyna murmured.

“And there will be no reason for you to be jealous,” he said, “or, my precious, to worry about other women.”

Alyna blushed and turned her face against his shoulder.

“You – knew?” she said.

“Am I wrong in thinking that was the moment when you began to realise that you loved me?” he asked.

“How did you – know?”

“I think I know everything about you,” he answered. “That night you came to me in terror and I told you that it would not be the first time I had shared a bed, I knew when you stiffened you had begun to realise that I was a man.”

“You are too perceptive,” Alyna said. “I shall be afraid that I could never keep a secret from you,”

“That is something I will never let you do,” he said. “We belong to each other, Alyna, we are one! I have always been looking for you and, now that I have found you, I will never let you go,”

“But there have been – other – women?” she said hesitatingly.

“Of course,” he answered, “but they were but pale shadows of the woman I was seeking. That was why my interest in them never lasted very long.”

“Even the – girl you were – engaged to?” Alyna asked.

She knew as she spoke that the thought of that particular woman had been an ache within her heart.

“She again was but a shadow,” Lord Dorrington answered. “She had hair your colour and perhaps I was drawn to her first because subconsciously she recalled to me someone I had known in other lives.”

“Was she very – pretty?” Alyna enquired.

Lord Dorrington laughed.

“There speaks the eternal woman!” he teased. “Yes, my darling, she was very pretty and I was very young and at the time very infatuated.”

“What – happened?” Alyna asked.

“I killed two of her lovers.”

“Killed – them?” Alyna echoed incredulously.

“In perfectly honourable duels,” Lord Dorrington replied. “But nevertheless they died! So when Clarice, for that was her name, ran away to marry another suitor, my father intervened.”