Eli was not quite sure how he found himself sneaking into Jane’s courtyard in the dead of night that Monday.
He’d intended to focus on preparing for the inquiry, as she’d advised. But once he and Hal had determined that the whole of his plan was to keep his mouth shut and hope for the best, it had left a great deal of free time to stew about his engagement. He’d finally concluded that his only choices were to drive himself mad with wondering, or to talk to Jane.
He’d tried a morning call—a more respectable, conventional option—but the butler had coolly informed him that Mr. Bishop was absent and Jane would not be admitting gentlemen until his return.
She’ll forgive the intrusion once I explain, Eli told himself as he scaled the gate behind Jane’s town house with no small concern for the state of his trousers and dropped to the earth below. It might not be the most respectable means of entry—and yes, one busybody neighbor with an owl’s vision was all he needed to sound the alarm—but what was the worst that could happen? He could hardly be forced to propose a second time.
It wasn’t a particularly difficult climb up the side of the house, as the ground-floor windows were framed with decorative brickwork that jutted out from the face of the building and gave him easy purchase. Certainly no worse than scaling a ship’s mast. The hard part was in contemplating what would happen if she didn’t answer his tapping at the window.
When Jane’s lamplit face finally appeared at the pane, inches from his own, she gave a little shriek.
“Shh!” he said, quite uselessly.
She rushed to undo the latch and threw the window wide to admit him to the safety of her chambers. “What are youdoing?” She whispered, jerking the curtains back in place to hide them from sight the moment his feet were safely upon the floorboards.
“Your butler refused to admit me this morning.” Eli removed his hat, which had miraculously retained its perch atop his head the whole time. “I needed to see you. This was the only way.”
“Did you consider throwing pebbles at my window until I came down to unlock the door, like an ordinary prowler?”
“It was an easy climb,” Eli protested.
Jane stared at him in wonder for another minute, then took the hat from his hands and plopped it on her vanity. It seemed a concession. Eli’s eyes had adjusted to the lamplight by now, and he absorbed the gentle form of Jane’s curves beneath her nightgown. She hadn’t put on her wrapper before she came to the window, and the thin muslin didn’t do much to preserve modesty.
“I woke you,” he murmured.
“It’s all right.” She must have realized what he was looking at, for she folded her arms across her chest and blushed, the faint color barely visible in the lamplight. “Has something happened? Have you decided to make a run for it instead of facing the inquiry?”
“Make a run for it?” Eli smothered his laugh, a reflex prompted bysurprise more than amusement, before it could wake the household. “Why would you think such a thing?”
“What other reason could you have to creep into my room in the dead of night the evening before your hearing?”
“To talk to you, of course.”
“You should be sleeping so that you’re at your best tomorrow!” Jane’s eyes flashed in the lamplight, but her pique didn’t mollify him in the least. She worried because she cared. It was something to hold on to.
“I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about how if I’m cleared tomorrow, your uncle will want to announce our engagement straightaway even though we haven’t discussed things properly. This felt like my last chance to speak to you while you can still tell me what you truly want.” Eli brought a hand to rest against Jane’s cheek, cupping her face in his palm.
The air felt heavy between them, the scent of crushed grass on the soles of his shoes mingling with the faint, acrid smoke of the lamp, and something else. The tension of what neither of them had said aloud yet.
Jane parted her lips, but Eli spoke first, half-afraid that she might put him off again before he got out what he’d come to say. “No, let me finish. I need to tell you this. We were rushed into a match before you’d had a chance to think about anything I’d told you. I hate to think you only agreed because your uncle forced your hand.”
Everything up until this point could still turn out to be a dream. Jane could still tell him that she’d thought on it further and couldn’t forgive his mistakes. She could still release him. Worse, if shedidn’trelease him, he might spend a lifetime wondering how much of the choice was hers.
“Would you let me try again?” Eli dropped to his knee, fumbling in his breast pocket for the ring he’d purchased yesterday, a delicateamethyst teardrop surrounded by seed pearls. “A proper proposal this time. As you deserve.”
Jane sucked in a swift breath, her eyes dark pools in the shadows.
“Will you marry me?” Eli asked softly, half-afraid of the answer in spite of their current circumstances. “I know I’ve been foolish, and it isn’t fair to ask anything of you with the inquiry hanging over my head, but I want you to know that there’s no one for me but you, Jane. If I come out of this unscathed, I’ll give you everything I have. But if you don’t want that, tell me now, and we’ll think of some excuse to put off your uncle before this goes any further.”
“I know that,” she whispered, holding out her hand to accept his ring. “Uncle Bertie didn’t force me into anything, Eli. I want this. I wantyou.”
Eli rose to his feet to claim Jane’s lips, giddy with the thrill of her acceptance.
She kissed him deeply, tracing the plane of his chest as her hands came up to hold him. He shivered at her touch, though the air in her room was warm.
“Jane,” he breathed. Eli’s heart was hammering.
But she didn’t pull back. Nor did she tell him again that he should go home to sleep.
