“Many things about you bewitched me.”His lips quirked.“The chemicals behind your ears, however…”
“It’s science,” she babbled.“I could never have attracted you on my own.You can’t deny it.Duchesswas the one—”
“My turn,” he said, and took a step forward.“You’re right.I knocked on your door because I wanted to haltDuke, not seduce its creator.But that changed.”
She nodded.“The ‘one night’ rule.I know.”
“You don’t know because I didn’t tell you.”His gaze was intense.“I realized I didn’t want a night with you.I wanted all the nights.All the days.All the sunsets, and twilights, and sunrises…”
She bit her lip uncertainly, her throat scratchy.“You did?”
“No.”He took another step forward.“I do.I always will.”
“Me too,” she whispered and threw herself into his arms.“I want you every single second.You are the reason I know love is real.”
“You love me?”he whispered into her hair.
“With everything I have.”She hiccupped into his cravat.“I love you more than alchemy and chemistry and biscuits—”
“Bad news,” he told her.“I never said I loved you more than biscuits.”
She slapped his chest and gazed up at him with hope in her heart.“I love you, Nicholas Pringle.”
“I love you, Penelope Mitchell.”His eyes twinkled.“Even more than biscuits.Will you be my wife?”
“Yes.”She pressed her mouth to his and kissed him.
The door swung open.“Your trunks are in the carriage, milord.What shall I tell the driver?”
Penelope’s eyes met Nicholas’s.“My house?”
“Your cottage contains a shockingly insufficient quantity of workshops,” Nicholas said with a straight face.
The footman cleared his throat.“You’re staying, milord?”
“I’m definitely staying.”Nicholas tossed the footman a sovereign for his troubles and returned his mouth to Penelope’s.“Banns take three weeks.Think we can build something more appropriate in that amount of time?”
Chapter 18
“Are you ready?”Nicholas gazed down at his beautiful bride.
Penelope grinned back up at him.“For anything.”
She lifted her fingers to his elbow.
He swung her up into his arms instead.“Allow me to carry you across the threshold and into our new life.”
Penelope’s eyes twinkled up at him.“Does it count as new if we’re going to be doing the same things as before?”
“Newer and better,” he assured her.“Now we’ll be doing the same old things together.”
He turned toward the open door.Although the reading of the banns only required three weeks to complete, construction had taken months.
Their splendid fireproof home boasted what Nicholas considered to be not one, but three workshops.A chemical laboratory for Penelope.A glassblowing and mold-making workshop for Nicholas.And a well-stocked kitchen for endless supplies of biscuits.
Not to mention an oversized chaise longue reclining beside their new chimney, just waiting to be christened.
Heart full, Nicholas stepped over the threshold with his wife in his arms.He swung her in a circle, then paused when he noticed the empty mantel.“Blast.I should have brought you a gift.”
