“Right,” Jasper murmured. “Noted.” Another thing he hadn’t sodding considered.
With a small smile, Miss Huntsbury continued, “Because your staff will be absent, Maria will direct the new staff. A potential source for the laurel water must be found—if indeed the letters have been left by someone in His Grace’s household. Maria and the new staff will secure the house by keeping guard and inspecting all entrances for evidence of tampering. Both Maria and Heather have been given some training and are more than capable of aiding the new staff in defending the home, should it be required.”
Maria has received combat training?He caught her profile as she listened to Miss Huntsbury, and his heart tripped over in his chest. Might she be capable of overpoweringhim? Hell, but that was a curiously arousing thought.
Heated images of Maria flipping him onto a bed and restraining him flashed through his mind…and his cock stirred.
A distinctly uncomfortable awareness of where he was sobered him, and he internally shook himself.
“…Cook is an assassin best skilled in archery, while the last three new members of staff are exceptionally skilled in espionage,” Miss Huntsbury was saying.
Blast. He was sorry to have missed that last bit; it sounded intriguing.
“And they shall be at your disposal, just as your ordinary staff are, Your Grace.”
Jasper nodded his understanding.
Maria shifted uneasily in her seat, her face crestfallen. “Your plan is an excellent one, Grace, but I’m afraid I’ll not be able to continue my role in this plot. Mayhap my part ought to be given to Juliana?”
“Can you not?” Miss Huntsbury asked, her brow furrowed.
Despite himself, Jasper’s chest gave a squeeze at the hopelessness and defeat in Maria’s grey eyes.
“You see,” Maria went on, “my parents have demanded that I accept an offer of marriage within a fortnight, and I am currently being courted by?—”
“Why not marryme?”
The room went entirely still, and Jasper’s heart nigh stopped beating. Had he truly just proposed soddingmarriage?
Just that morning, he’d reminded himself that he did not wish to incur the weight of responsibility for anyone else’s life, and marriage was just that. Maria would be in his home, in his care, and in his…bed.
He swallowed convulsively as his cock stirred once more.Thatwas certainly an inducement for marriage to Maria. So long as she said yes. But truthfully, his stirring anticipation at the thought of Maria in his bed was secondary to the leap his heart gave when he considered the possibility of a future filled with her intelligence, determination, and kindness. The way she saw the world around her, the curious solutions that she always managed to find when faced with a problem, and her incredible—and often insufferable—penchant of outwitting him.
The notion of a future with Maria was tempting, indeed.
Gaze sharpening on the woman, Jasper shifted in his seat, his pulse drumming through his veins. Damn, but it was alarming just how much her answer meant to him.
The proposal might have been sudden, but he wanted to trust the instinct that had driven him to it.
* * *
Say yes!Maria’s heart screamed, while her mind saidabsolutely not. The internal battle had her incapable of coherent thought, let alone speech.
This wasJasper, for goodness’ sake! The man who was capable of charm and affability as a means to win a wager. And, whose presence had the ability to speed her pulse and spread tingles of awareness throughout her body. Lord, but intimacies with him would be?—
Stop that, Maria.Think rationally.
She took a slow, deep breath, acutely aware of her friends’ penetrating gazes.
Consenting to marry Jasper would both satisfy her parents’ demands and potentially give her a child. He was aware of her position on Bow Street, and would likely not question her frequent absences as a result. She could still maintain her apartments, and…
It would offer her the freedom that she so desperately required.
Hope buzzed through her, and yet just that morning, she’d told Thomas that she would not marry a man for whom she might possess amorous feelings. And this wasJasper, the very man to teach her such a mortifying lesson about his sex.
Logic—and hope—won out. Her reply was all but written already, no matter how painful the result might be. She simply must hold firm against any burgeoning feelings and guard her heart.
“Very well, Your Grace,” she said, her voice hoarse and trembling. “I shall marry you.”
