And the whole of a man’s forbidden, thwarted love vibrated in the word as he spoke it.
Then he bent his head, and for a moment his lips were against her soft palms....
She stood very still and quiet when he had gone, realising in every quivering nerve of her that whatsoever the future might bring—even though Blaise might choose to shut himself away from her again as in the past and the dividing wall between them rise as high as heaven—she knew now, without any shadow of doubt or questioning, that he loved her.
In the burning utterance of a single word, in the pressure of passionate, renouncing lips, the assurance had been given, and nothing could ever take it away again.
She spread out her hands, palms upward, and looked at them curiously.
CHAPTER XXIV—AN UNEXPECTED MEETING
“H AVE you been very bored, Nick?”
The week in London had nearly run its course, and Lady Anne’s eyes begged charmingly for a negative. Nick accorded it with a smile.