He exhaled slowly. “Well… that was all very improper. Lovely, of course, but most irregular, since I had nothing to offer you. But now I have a good allowance from my brother so—”
“Oh, that is kind of him!”
“It is no more than my father should have done all these years. If he had treated me as he ought and not interfered, I should have been established and independent by this time. But now I have money and prospects, and I need not hold back. So… will you marry me, Sophie?”
“Mr Payne, I am disappointed at the brevity of your proposal. Lord Daniel’s was much longer.”
He chuckled. “You deserve better, I know, but I am not very good with words, I regret to say.”
“Oh, neither was he, for he told me in plain terms that he would dispense with the‘flowery nothings’,as he described them. Not that I wish for flowery nothings, but a little animation does not go amiss.”
“Do you want me to tell you that I love you? I can do that all day long, if you like.”
“That would be delightful, but you have a much more effective way of demonstrating your love.”
“Ah. But first, you must answer my question.”
“Which question was that, Mr Payne?”
“Will you marry me?”
“Ooh, I shall have to consider the matter—”
“Minx!”
“—very carefully. Matrimony is a solemn undertaking and one cannot rush into—”
“I am going to account that as an affirmative.”
“—anything precipitately.”
“Sophie.”
“Hmm?”
“Stop talking.”
“Make me.”
So he did, and there was silence in the chapel gallery for a very long time. Then, from somewhere near his left ear, he heard a whisper.
“Yes.”
“Um… what?”
“Yes. I will marry you, Mr Payne.”
“Obliged to you, Miss Merrington.”
She chuckled, and pulled his head nearer to hers again. After that, not another word was spoken.
Epilogue
STAINEYBANK, BRINSHIRE; JUNE
The baptism of Miss Caroline Georgiana Merrington was a rather grander affair than might have been expected, for a great many people crowded into the Staineybank chapel to watch Mr Godley rouse the infant to loud rage by the splash of water on her face. Beside the proud parents stood the godparents, namely Mr Simon Payne, Mrs Georgie Hastings and Miss Charlotte Merrington. Behind them stood the duke, the stern countenance for once wreathed in smiles.
After the service, the principal participant was whisked away to the nursery by her parents to be pacified and cuddled and thoroughly doted upon, while the rest of the attendees drifted into the morning room, where refreshments were laid out. The event would normally have called for the more formal setting of the White Drawing Room, but preparations for a much greater event were underway elsewhere in the house, so thatall the principal rooms were filled with footmen rushing about with chairs, the kitchen boy carrying a great mountain of candle boxes, maids with cloths and china and glasses, and the gardeners with vases of flowers. Outside on the drive, an army of local men laboured to erect a vast pavilion on the drive to shield the Marble Hall from draughts whenever anyone entered or left.
