“Are you going to destroy our love,” he said, “just because I am wealthy and titled and you are a schoolteacher—though you are something of an heiress too, I was informed yesterday. And just because I amWhitleaf? Just because I will always honor my mother? Just because she and your father once sought comfort for their loneliness with each other?”
She closed her eyes.
“Or are you going to marry me?” he asked her. “Are you going to make three elderly people in the ballroom very happy by allowing me to make an announcement tonight?”
“Oh, Peter!” She looked up sharply. “That isgrosslyunfair.”
He stared grimly back at her. And then he smiled. And then grinned.
“It is rather, is it not?” he said. “Butwillyou? Make them happy, that is?”
She had simplydespisedall those girls in Somerset who had melted beneath his every smile—until, that was, she had realized that it was his sheer likability they had responded to. But even so…
Was she to become one of them?
“What does your mother have to say about this?” she asked him. “Have you told her?”
“I have,” he said. “My mother has been possessive, a little domineering, even selfish, in her dealings with me during my lifetime, Susanna, but there is no doubt in my mind that she loves both my sisters and me totally. She will love my wife rather than lose me. I cannot promise you an easy relationship with her, but I believe I can assure you that it will not be impossible—unless it is to you.”
She gazed at him. Was this really possible after all, then? Or was she listening with her heart rather than with her common sense?
Was it with one’s heart that oneoughtto listen?
And then he took away all her power to listen with anythingbuther heart. He closed the distance between them, possessed himself of her gloved hand in both his own, and went down on one knee before her.
“Another horrible cliché,” he said with a grin. But the grin faded almost immediately. “Susanna, will you please, please marry me? If you cannot truthfully tell me that you do not love me, will you tell me instead that you will marry me?”
And the only protest she could think of making was an utter absurdity.
“Peter,” she said, leaning a little closer to him, “I am ateacher. I have obligations to my girls and to Claudia Martin. I cannot simply walk out in the middle of a school year.”
“When does it finish?” he asked her.
“July,” she said.
“Then we will marry in August,” he said. “The month we met. That particular dragon, you see, was not even worthy of the name. A mere worm. Any others?”
“Oh,” she said helplessly, “there must bedozens.”
“Then you had better name them quickly,” he said, “or it will be too late. I am going to kiss you very thoroughly and then bear you off in triumph to the ballroom. Supper follows the waltz—the perfect time for announcements. I arranged it that way.”
“You are very confident, then, Lord Whitleaf,” she said.
“I am not,” he said. “Heaven help me, I am not, Susanna. Put me out of my misery. Tell me that you love me—or do not. Tell me you will marry me—or will not. Please, my love. I amnotconfident.”
She supposed the dozen reasons for saying no would rush at her long before the night was out. She supposed equally well that she would vanquish them one at a time by the simple expedient of remembering how he looked at this precise moment—anxious, his eyes full of uncertainty and love, down on one knee. And by remembering howshefelt at this moment—overwhelmed by love.
She drew her hand free of his, cupped his face with both hands, and leaned forward to kiss him softly on the lips.
“I do,” she said softly, “and I will.”
“Iknew,” he said, “that I should have done this in the drawing room rather than in here. There is a kissing bough there. I suppose, though, I will manage well enough without one.”
And suddenly he was on his feet, bringing her to hers at the same time and drawing her into an embrace that proved his supposition quite correct.
And the strange thing was, Susanna thought—when she could think at all—that it was not in any way a lascivious kiss that they shared, lengthy as it was. It was one of joy, of hope, of commitment, of love.
Ah, yes, those dozen reasons were not going to stand even a moment’s chance of being allowed a hearing.
