“We have been through this before,” Carina said. “I will not ask for explanations. Cannot we be happy just as we are?”
“Happy?” Lord Lynche asked the question with a bitter note in his voice. “The Gods have given so much and yet they have tied my hands and sealed my lips.”
He looked down at her, and suddenly dropped on one knee at her side.
“Help me, Carina,” he pleaded. “I am not worthy of you and yet I beg you to love me a little just as I am.”
She resisted an impulse to put her arms around his neck and draw his head to her breast and instead said quietly,
“How can I help you?”
He rose to his feet and walked across the room and then back to her again.
“What can we do?' he asked. “I love you, I cannot let you go – and yet I cannot ask you to be my wife.”
There was silence for a mo
