“It is worse,” she groaned.“To be discovered in such a lie.”
“Tell me of it.I am very curious.”
She sighed and looked back up at him.“When I came up with the scheme of paying back the debt as a courtesan, my thoughts, of course, flew immediately to you.I had long nursed this fantasy of becoming your mistress—and, I reasoned, that once you had done with me, other men would want me because you had been my protector.”
“Very logical.”
“I thought of approaching you directly.But it seemed far too forward.And I doubted that your mistresses approachedyou.”
“A fair surmise.”
“And I knew, from the scandal sheets, that you were best friends with the duke and Lord Trem and Lord Montaigne.I thought if I could convincethemto convince you, then you might not say no.But I wasn’t sure how.And they were all married.I looked atBurke’s Peerageand I saw that Lord Montaigne was related to so many families.Cousins upon cousins upon cousins.There was no way he could keep track of them all.Especially not third cousins.”
“Very clever.”
“And he had just married Olivia.She had been a maid.In his home.I thought that—well, I thought he seemed kind.”
“You were right about that.”
“I was.”
“So you told Monty that you were his third cousin so that you could bed me?My, my, Miss Salisbury, you do put the worst rakes of London to shame.I do not think me or any of my friends have ever tried so desperate a scheme.”
Beatrice groaned.“I was sure it wouldn’t work.But then it did.Beautifully.”
“I did wonder for a time why you did not take Monty’s offer of money.I thought it was merely your pride.You are very proud.But now I see that you were even more delicately situated than I imagined.”
She blushed again.“It seemed wrong to take money from an earl who thought I was his relation—when I was, indeed, not his relation at all.And anyway it wasyouI wanted.”
“And yet, my love, you were not altogether very warm with me when we first met.In fact, you seemed like you didn’t like me in the slightest.”
“You should have seen how you looked at me!When Lord Montaigne suggested thatIbe your mistress, the turn of your countenance…it was dreadful.”
“Well, you know better now why I may have felt that way.I certainly did not want anyone prying into my affairs, such as they were.”
“No, you did not.But I didn’t know that yet.”
Leith was gazing deep into her eyes now.He couldn’t believe that he had found her here—and he couldn’t believe that, on some level, she had wanted him all along.She had traveled to London to becomehismistress.
He kissed her again, drinking her in, until he forgot anything but Beatrice, her touch and her fire and her goodness.When he broke the kiss, her cheeks were flushed from, he suspected, a completely different emotion than embarrassment, and she was looking at him with an expression that by now he knew well.
But before they did that, he needed to ask her a question.Hopefully, this time, as Monty had discovered with Olivia, a repeat application would earn a more positive reception.
“Will you marry me?Will you be my wife, my marchioness, my everything?”
She smiled up at him, her dark eyes flashing.“Yes,” she whispered.
He picked her up, then, and kissed her once more.“I will love you forever, Beatrice.”
“Good,” she said, smiling and crying at the same time.“Now take me to bed.”
Epilogue the First
London, England
July 1820
Later That Same Evening
