Everything settled into a sort of routine after Lilly's outburst. Victoria and Claire had fashioned themselves her watchdogs, making sure she did not repeat the folly of leaving her bed. The men of the house visited her in shifts. Don Alejandro and her father together, Diego, Felipe and Wright individually.

With her watchdogs, however, she scarcely had a moment alone. Well, moment alone as in by herself, certainly, but not one alone with Wright which was what she wanted. Something was bothering him, and every time she seemed to be on the verge of it, Victoria appeared with her lunch or Claire with a book Diego thought she might like. It was almost as if a conspiracy were afoot. When she said as much to Victoria the senorita only laughed and told Lilly to focus on her recovery. Lilly didn't know whether she should laugh, scream, or cry, but she was determined to have a conversation alone with Ward Wright and soon.

So, one morning when Claire before had left her to retrieve her breakfast, she told her that she might want to go back to sleep. Then after her companion left, she arranged her pillows on her bed in hopes they would be mistaken for her sleeping form and made good her escape the same way she had that first day. Through the window.

She hadn't the first idea where to find him, but he wasn't exactly hiding. She discovered him shirtless, chopping wood, of all things, on the eastern side of the stable.

She saw him before he noticed her, and observing him covertly as he was occupied in such a mundane task was so engrossing she almost forgot why she was there. That wasn't exactly true. It wasn't the mundane task that captured her attention. It was HIM.

She couldn't take her eyes away from the movement of the muscles in his back as he raised the ax and brought it down on the firewood. She might have stood there watching all day if Fitz hadn't chosen that moment to join his friend.

"Lady Lilly?" he spoke with concern and the sound of his voice made the Englishman turn toward her.

His expression was furious, and his voice was a growl, "What are you doing out of bed?"

She squared her shoulders before she spoke, "Testing your threat."

He looked back at Fitz who was already wisely retreating. When he was out of earshot she continued, "You've been avoiding me. Why?"

"You're going back to bed." Wright put the ax down and reached for his shirt.

"Not until you answer me," if he thought he was obstinate she was about to give him a lesson in obstinacy.

"Lilly," he began to plead and she saw the vulnerability under the fury. She walked toward him.

"Yes?" she searched his face. He tried to avoid her eyes.

"If I'd lost you…I don't have the words," when his eyes met hers they were filled with a kind of anguish she'd never seen in their green depths. "I failed to keep you safe…"

"No," she interrupted him. "You didn't. I'm here and I'm safe. And as for words, I don't need them. What you feel is clear, I KNOW you Ward. I know."

She reached for him clutching his bare forearm, but he pulled away. Turning his back he started to put his shirt on. She let him have the moment, and presently he turned back to her.

"I've been torturing myself, wondering why you did it. Wondering if he'd turned your head, but I KNOW you Lilly, and I know why," he was moving toward her now, with a purpose. "I'm a fool to gaze so high, to even think of you, but I'm not foolish enough to let you go."

She thought he would kiss her then, was aching for him to, but instead he picked her up like a bag of grain and said, "You're going back to bed."

She laughed suddenly full of joy, "You're making good on your promise, then" she said breathlessly.

"Yes, I always make good on my promises."

"Always?"

"'Love's riddles are, that though thy heart depart,

It stays at home, and thou with losing savest it:

But we will have a way more liberal,

Than changing hearts, to join them, so we shall

Be one, and one another's all.'"

"Donne," she whispered. "It wasn't a dream. You've been reading me poetry!"

Without stopping for the astonished faces of everyone in the house he continued to her bedroom, deposited her onto the bed and said angrily, "You asked me too didn't you?"

Her smile couldn't have become warmer with supernatural assistance. She knelt on the bed and threw her arms around his neck.

"I love you, Ward," she fairly shouted.

"Thank the bloody stars for that," he said, harshly and then he kissed her.