Lencia made a little movement, but he did not release her and went on,
“But when I saw you holding that small baby in your arms, I knew that I wanted you as my wife and the mother of my children.”
Lencia looked at him in surprise and he then added,
“But I was still fighting against what my heart and my soul told me and that was why I came to your bedroom.”
“Yet after – that, when I – sent you away – you wanted to – marry me?” Lencia asked.
“I was always suspicious that you were not what you were pretending to be,” the Duc answered. “You seemed in so many ways so young and so innocent and, although it did seem incredible, untouched.”
Lencia blushed.
“You really – thought – that?”
“I thought it,” the Duc replied. “Then, when I kissed you, I knew two things. First that you had never b
