Prince of Secrets (28 page)

‘When you were unconscious I told you. And you're at your old tricks again, Cobie, answering a question with a question. Now I know you're going to recover!'

He looked up at her, smiling. ‘Will you still be so bossy when I am well again? Let me boss you a little. Come and sit by me and hold my hand. I've missed you so, my darling. Where would I be without you? Were it not for you, I know that I would never have survived at all.'

‘Oh, that's nonsense,' she said airily, but she did as he asked her, lifting his hand to her lips.

‘No, Dinah!' he said, and his voice was strong and urgent again, the voice of the living, vibrant Cobie.

‘There is something I must tell you, something I should have told you before. I love you, Dinah, I love you dearly. I think that I have loved you ever since that first afternoon at Moorings when you walked into the library, but my own wicked selfishness prevented me from admitting it.'

There was more which he wanted to say, but not now. His lack of strength was stopping him, and he had no desire to put too great a burden on her after she had been so brave.

He knew that he would always retain his questing spirit, but because of his love for her and the coming child—children, he hoped—he would never again walk on such a high tightrope of danger as he had done since meeting Lizzie Steele. He would owe a duty to them, and to her.

They must come before any crusade he might embark on, particularly now that he knew that Lizzie's shade might rest in peace with her death avenged by Hendrick Van Deusen—who had never met her.

He saw the blazing love for him on Dinah's face when he had finished telling her how much he loved her.

‘Oh, my darling,' she said earnestly, kissing him on his
warm cheek, ‘I never thought to hear you say that. I never thought to be so blessed.'

In his delirium he had told her of his love, but she had feared that he might not live to tell her so. Her heart was so full of joy that she thought that it might burst.

The daisy she had plucked at Moorings had told true.

He loves me.

She knew him as she had never hoped to do, all the complexities of him, and that his love for her was as powerful as her love for him.

Cobie opened his eyes again, and said drowsily, ‘My mother has told me how devotedly you nursed me. You must be tired, my love, and you have the baby to think of now. You must get some rest yourself.'

‘Oh,' Dinah said, ‘my best rest is with you,' and, still holding his hand, quietly and gently, as she did everything, she fell asleep, for him to follow her. The Dollar Prince with his arms around his beloved Princess, having reached haven at last.

And the magician's best trick of all was the child his dear wife was carrying.