“Do you remember sitting with me in the gallery at Marshfields, when you nearly kissed me? I can see that you do. Have you not sometimes wished that we had not been interrupted?”
Simon knew exactly what he should do. He should release her and leave the chapel gallery at once, for to stay would be quite fatal. If he once kissed her, he would be lost, utterly lost and…
He should leave…
He should definitely leave…
He should leave at once…
And yet he could not. Slowly, oh so slowly, she lifted her face towards him and he bent down to reach her.
Then there was only magical warmth and sweetness of such intensity that he almost cried out in joy. Her lips were soft and gentle and yielding, yet they bound him to her with unbreakable iron bonds, and he was lost.
16: A Question Of Marriage
Sophia was in paradise. To be held in Simon’s arms was bliss such as she had never experienced before. Her mother hugged her sometimes, or her sisters, in moments of great excitement or distress. But this kind of embrace, enfolded in the strong arms of a man, was something quite different.
And his kisses! She had been kissed before, but never like this, never with such tenderness… such affection. He had said he wanted to marry her and then kissed her, so that was almost an offer, was it not? And since she had allowed herself to be kissed, that was almost a betrothal. She was betrothed! Or as good as…
For a long time, they kissed and cuddled and talked about this and that — she did not press him on the question of betrothal, in case he squashed the idea at once. Best to leave it up in the air, so that at least she could hope.
Eventually, Mr Godley could be heard moving about the chapel below, humming as he went.
“I must go,” she whispered to Simon. “Mama will be wondering what has become of me.”
Nodding, he released her. Did he seem reluctant? She thought he was. With another quick kiss, she was gone, dancing down the stairs to the ground floor, but not to find Mama. It was not Mama she needed now.
She tried the library and the duke’s study, then the nursery. Then Froggett, to see if he knew. At last she ran her quarry to earth in his own study upstairs.
“Richard, there you are! I have been looking everywhere for you.”
He was seated at his drawing table, his chin in his hands, gazing pensively out over the gardens. Spread out on the table in front of him were Simon’s drawings of the gallery bridge and conservatory, and his own sketchbook, opened to a blank page.
“This is a large house,” he said abstractedly. “What do you think of Payne’s design? Do you like it?”
“I like it very much.”
He smiled at her wanly. “Because it incorporates a ballroom?”
“Not only for that reason. It is very elegant. From the house one will see the bridge arching over the river and the orangery which looks like a Greek temple.”
“It is a Roman temple, and indeed it is all very elegant.” He sighed. “And expensive, of course, but the duke seems inclined to pay whatever it costs. But let us not talk about this wretched orangery. Did you want me for anything in particular? Oh! Did Rowena send you? Is it the baby? Is anything wrong?”
“Nothing like that. You know that Lord Daniel has left, I take it?”
“Yes, and I am sorry for it. That would have been a good match, if it had come off, but I am sure you will find someone else.”
“I have… or at least, I may have. Simon Payne wants to marry me.”
For the first time, Richard turned to face her fully. “Paynewants to marry you? He has said nothing to me.”
“Well… it is not quite agreed yet. He has some scruples about it, but you will not turn him away just because he does not have a great estate or a title or anything of that sort, will you?”
“No, but… he is an odd sort of man. Would you want to marry him?”
Odd?For an instant, Sophia could not breathe. Simon was the best sort of man in the world. How could anyone find himodd?
“I should like to marry him very much,” she said stiffly.
