“Hush now! No talk of that nature, if you please. I am as real as you are.”
He shook his head again, pleased to find that the explosion of pain was lessened this time. “Can’t be real. Can’t be here. Goin’ to marry Emblaton… Embling… the marquess.”
She giggled, but said softly, “I amnotgoing to marry Lord Embleton.”
“Oh!” His eyes shot open, to find her face just inches from his. He could hardly breathe! She was free! The nightmare was over. “Will you marry me, then?”
She knelt back on her heels, her face solemn. “Well, I might, but I should like a proper proposal, if it is all the same to you, and I should like you to be sober, so that I know you mean it. But I should very much like to kiss you.”
He smiled at her, wanting nothing more than to reach out to her, touch her, sweep her into his arms, but painfully aware of his dishevelled state.
“No. First kiss… has to be romantic… beautiful. The lady… lovely ’n’ eager ’n’ enticin’, which you are, always. The gentleman… ’maculately groomed… new coat… carryin’ a posy, which I’m not. If you will wait… what time is it?”
“A little before noon. We arrived first thing, but you had locked the door, silly boy, and there was some trouble finding the spare key.”
“Ah. Sorry. Might be… couple of hours to make myself p’sentable enough for a kiss. Will you wait or—?”
“I will wait.”
“Then meet me in… winter drawn… draw… drawin’ room… two hours.”
***
It was more than three hours, in the end, but Olivia did not mind. He would come, he would kiss her, he would propose, and then this strange, unsettled, not-quite-belonging feelingwould disappear for ever. She would be with Robert, and everything in her world would be in alignment again.
Izzy stayed with her as she waited. Lady Kiltarlity and her daughters sat with them for a while, but eventually they had other matters to attend to and then it was only Izzy.
“Will it be strange for you, if I marry him?” Olivia said. “You nearly married him yourself, after all.”
“That just shows what excellent taste in men we both have,” Izzy said with a smile.
At last, Robert came, freshly bathed and shaved, wearing a coat of blue superfine that seemed moulded to his form, and bearing a small posy. He saw Olivia, smiled and marched straight across the room to the window seat where she was perched. He did not so much as glance at Izzy, as she crept quietly out of the room.
“Where did you find flowers at this time of year?” she said, burying her face in them. “Oh! They are silk!”
“Yes, but pretty, are they not? Lizzie found them for me when the footmen came back from the hothouses empty-handed. I had promised you a posy, so a posy there had to be.”
“As if I would have minded!” she said laughing. “But it is quite delightful that you went to the trouble.”
“Do you like them?”
“I love them!”
“Ah. Good. So perhaps you will forgive me for keeping you waiting all alone for such an abominable length of time.”
“I did not mind waiting, and I have not been alone. Izzy was here.”
“Was she?” He looked about vaguely as if he expected her to pop up from behind a sofa.
“She has just this minute left. Did you not see her?”
“I confess I saw only you,” he said, his voice husky. “There is only you.”
Olivia found it hard to breathe suddenly.
“My sweet Livvy,” he murmured, “whatever Izzy once was to me is long gone. When she chose Farramont… I was cross, but not heart-broken. What I felt then is nothing at all compared to what I felt these past days when I thought I had lost you forever. I wanted to die, Livvy. I could not see how I could struggle through the rest of my life without you. The brandy was just a feeble attempt to shut out the misery for a few hours. And then… there you were! My lovely ghost had come back to me.”
“Then… it is not just that I remind you of Izzy?” she said.
