In her agitation Aria put her hands against his chest and threw back her head.
“How can I prove it?” he asked. “Unless you will marry me at once, so that we can go away together. I was sure before I kissed you on that night you drove me almost to madness. I was jealous of Tom because he was obviously so infatuated with you.
“I was furious with you because you seemed shocked and disdainful of everything I did and said. And then, when I saw you together in the arbour, something seemed to snap in my brain.”
His arm tightened round her before he continued,
“I am not going to be an easy husband, Aria. I am not going to pretend for a moment that I shall be. I have a savage temper when it is roused. I can be brutal and difficult and altogether exasperating.
“But I always knew that when I lov
