Virginia took a deep breath. “I cannot accept your proposal until Lady Beatrice knows she won’t be receiving one.”
He frowned. “She knows there’s no contract. Her father schemed with mine, but I never once said—”
She stopped him. “There are all sorts of promises a person can make without saying a word.”
Theodore’s expression was blank. Virginia tried to make him see.
“My parents never verbally promised to love me and look out for me, but I believed it, and was destroyed when I was wrong.” She shuddered at the memory. “Even if you never made Lady Beatrice an explicit promise, she believes she is your future wife, and you know she thinks so.”
He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “You’re right. Our fathers tried to plan our lives when we were children. Now that we’re adults, it’s time we plan our own. I will speak to her.” He lifted his dark gaze. “Might you perhaps provisionally accept in the meantime?”
“I promise to give you a proper answer when you’re truly free to ask.”
“Then I can get up off my knee?”
“Up off your knee at once, you addlepate.” She tugged him from the floor to the chaise longue.
As he fell back against the cushions, he pulled her with him and cradled her in his arms.
Virginia snuggled into Theodore and tried to calm her erratically pounding pulse. She wanted nothing more than to say yes to his proposal, to believe they had a future together, that happiness was something they could have.
The truth was, there was no way to know what the future held. Her only option was to do the one thing she had sworn never to do again: trust someone with her heart.
Chapter 12
When Virginia awoke, she was not tucked away in her castle guest chamber but curled against Theodore’s chest. Her eyes widened. They’d fallen asleep in each other’s arms.
They lay fully clothed on his chaise longue, not tangled naked in the middle of his bed, yet she could not help but suspectthosemornings would begin much like this one. Warm and safe, her cheek nestled next to Theodore’s heart. She had no interest in disturbing his slumber.
Excitement coursed through her. The past dozen hours had turned her world on its ear. Not just accidentally spending the night with atongentleman, but being proposed to. She was almost betrothed. No one would believe it. Virginia could scarce credit the miracle herself.
The moment was too wonderful. She reveled in Theodore’s strength, his heat, his scent. No one at the castle would notice her failure to come home. But once she married, that would never be true again. They would start and end every day in each other’s arms. She would belong.
Her chest filled with joy. She had never believed a happy ever after existed in her future, but it was starting right now. Her life with him would—
Loud bangs crashed against the knocker without cease.
Virginia winced. Someone had come looking for her. One of her friends, no doubt. How had she believed her indiscretion would go unnoticed?
She eased out of Theodore’s arms and down the corridor without bothering to shake out her skirts or fix her matted hair. There was no fresh gown to change into, and besides, her friends saw each other in worse dishabille than this when they slept in one another’s homes and stayed up all night. Now they would definitely have something to talk about.
Virginia came to a standstill. The woman standing just inside the entryway was not a familiar face at all.
This exquisitely dressed young lady—flanked by a pair of equally elegant lady’s maids—wore a fur-trimmed pelisse, a bejeweled gold tiara atop perfect blonde ringlets, and an expression of pure contempt.
“What do you mean he is not receiving?” The woman’s tone was baffled. “I’ve traveled for days to be reunited with my intended. Surely you don’t mean to send me away without a chance to speak with him?”
Virginia’s heart dropped.Lady Beatrice.It could be no one else.
She stepped forward.
Lady Beatrice frowned. “Who are you?”
“Miss Virginia Underwood,” Virginia stammered out of reflex.
Her chest fluttered with panic. If typicaltoninteractions were difficult to navigate, this one had her completely at sixes and sevens.
“Impossible.” Lady Beatrice shook her head. “I am acquainted with the Underwood girls. Their eldest sister died almost a decade ago.”
