She leaned against him.
“Will you marry me, Caroline? Even though I am not a toad?”
She laughed. “I will.”
Tristan crushed her in an embrace that nearly lifted her feet from the floor. He tilted her chin up and kissed her with aching sincerity, sealing their promises to one another.
“It is a good thing I’m a fine hand at economizing,” she said.
Tristan leaned back to better see her. “That won’t be as necessary as you think.”
“If you mean to sponge off James’s new fortune?—”
“Of course not. James and I have gone in together on an investment. It’s the mill in Manchester I told you of, and it might take time to see rewards, but I have a feeling it will serve us well.”
She tensed. “That sounds as though it has great risk.”
“It does. James and I put in the majority of our personal capital, so we will fail or succeed together.”
“Except he will soon have a rich wife,” Caroline said.
“And I have an expectation of five thousand pounds once I inherit my house.”
“Five—” Caroline choked. “What do you mean?”
“My parents have been keeping it a secret, but it has been set aside for me for nearly all my life.”
Caroline felt her body relax. All the things she had been prepared to sacrifice, to live without, would have been reasonable. She did not need all that they had. But the security of knowing an inheritance was in their future provided her with an added measure of relief.
“Things have a way of working out,” she said.
“My friend Andrew Langford said that very thing to me. I wondered how he could feel so confident, but I see now that as long as we love one another, the rest hardly matters. We will find a way.” He ran the pad of his thumb over her chin, cradling her face in his hands. “Together, we can think of it as an adventure.”
“I like the idea of going on an adventure with you.”
Tristan kissed her again. When they broke apart, he gave her a rueful look. “Though it might have to wait a moment. I have an errand to see to with James first.”
“Are you not staying for tea? I’m told your parents are due to arrive within an half hour.”
“And be in the way as you and my mother and your mother all discuss wedding plans?” He wrinkled his nose. “I promised James I would go with him. Now that he is engaged to Kitty, he has something to take care of.”
“Engaged!” Caroline said, grinning. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew what the errand was, but she chose to keep silent on the matter. If it was the first thing James wanted to do now that he was engaged to Kitty, that was within his rights. “Be safe.”
Tristan’s dashing smile did not inspire the confidence he probably felt it ought. “I will return before you have time to miss me.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Leaving Caroline behind so he could pass the following hour with her brother was not how Tristan imagined he would spend his first afternoon as an engaged man. But promises had been made that morning, when they had delivered their funds to Harry and given him consent to move ahead with their investment.
Tristan found James in the dining room, and together they set off for Grosvenor Square. Lord Bengard’s house was imposing, the white stone edifice tall and gleaming, wet with rain.
“Are you certain you wish to do this? You’ve already knocked the man flat once,” Tristan asked as they mounted the steps.
James shot him a look. “I heard him talking of it in White’s. He needs to be silenced.”
“Do you have a plan?”
James clenched his jaw. “Not exactly, but I have been thinking about this moment for weeks.”
