“Oh,” she said.
“Well?” He gazed down into her eyes.
“I decided I could not marry any of the others,” she said, “because none of them was you, Daniel. Because I couldlove only you.”
He smiled at her.
“I will marry you,” she said. “But I think you will be sorry.”
He laughed. “No, I won't,” he said, lowering his head and kissing her openmouthed as he had been longing to dofor days.
“Daniel,” she said when they finally came up for air. Her smile was radiant “Oh, Daniel, we will be able to keep oncoming here for the summers, won't we? Sometimes? Justfor the sake of nostalgia?”
“Every summer,” he promised. “We will invite everyone here as always, Julia, and bring our children here. There isone thing I am going to do, though. On our wedding day. Iam going to give you Primrose Park as a wedding present.”
Her eyes widened.
He grinned at her. “I do not want to have you throwing in my teeth every time we quarrel,” he said, “the accusationthat I married you only for the property.”
“I wouldn't,” she said. She chuckled. “How nasty you are, Daniel. You are taking away from me what could havebeen my most powerful weapon.”
And then he kissed her again in an embrace that soon enough had far more than just their mouths and tongues involved.
“Too public,” he murmured eventually against her ear, lifting her dress to cover the breast he had exposed to kissand fondle. “And too soon. We have to leave something forour wedding night, Julia. But God, how I want you.”
“Is it still early?” she asked, buttoning up his shirt again with reluctant fingers. “Or is that really the noonday heatbeating down on us?”
“I think the noonday heat is coming from inside us,” he said, nipping her earlobe and straightening up again.
She was smiling impishly at him. “It is still early?” she asked. “How about a swim, then? It would feel wonderful,Daniel.”
A swim? Together? Julia in her chemise, he in his breeches? It would be quite shockingly improper.
She was laughing.
“I'll beat you to the lake,” he said, turning and racing away, taking quite unfair advantage of the surprise that heldher immobile for a fraction of a second.
And then she shrieked and came after him.
The family was gathered in the drawing room again. But this time they were not all dressed in black, and this timethe servants were not present.
And this time Julia sat in the front row, her head bent her hands twisting each other with nervousness. She waswishing she had not agreed to the suggestion Daniel hadmade earlier that morning. But then she would have agreedwith anything he had suggested after they had swum andfrolicked and splashed each other and kissed until they sankto the bottom and then spluttered to the surface and kissedsome more. And shrieked with laughter. Or rather, she hadshrieked. Daniel had merely laughed.
Oh, it had been so wonderful to hear him laugh again, to see his eyes dance with merriment, to see his dark hair plastered to his head with wetness and water droplets on hisbare chest. It had been wonderful beyond imagining. Yes,she would have agreed to anything.
Mr. Prudholm cleared his throat and everyone fell silent. Julia twisted her hands and drew a steadying breath. Andthen he was explaining that she had summoned him backearly since she had made her decision and he had been ableto find nothing in the wording of the will to say that theyhad to wait the full month. He would await Miss Maynard'sdecision, then.
Everyone awaited her decision with bated breath.
There was a dramatic way of doing this, she thought. She was sure that was what Daniel had had in mind that morning when he had suggested it.
“I am going to marry Daniel,” she said so quickly and so quietly that aunts were craning their necks from all directions.
“What did she say?”Aunt Eunice asked in a stage whisper.
“Whatdid dear Julia say?” Aunt Millie asked aloud.
“Julia did me the honor this morning of accepting my hand in marriage,” the earl said distinctly.
