“Not because of any card game, or because I’ve harmed your reputation, or even because it’s the right thing to do.” He grinned. “I have a question to ask you, Charlotte Arabella Jackson.”
She swallowed hard.
“Because you’ve given me permission to be myself. Because you’ve touched a part of my heart I never knew existed. And because I cannot imagine living my life without you in it every single day. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”
For an instant, Charley thought about her home back in Philadelphia. About her father’s house and the experimental barrels of whiskey she would abandon. And her father, whom she’d always thought would be the most important man in her life.
“And because I love you,” Jules added, squeezing her hands as he waited for her answer.
“Yes.” The answer could never be anything else. “Because I love you, too.”
Epilogue
Charley stepped carefully through the meadow, not rushing to keep up with her father, but rather, forcing him to match his stride to hers. Exactly one week had passed since Jules had officially announced their engagement.
Her father had just arrived late last night and hadn’t met with either Jules or his mother yet. He didn’t know that she’d accepted Jules, nor that she knew about the bet.
She gritted her teeth, not yet ready to forgive him for everything but not nearly as angry as she’d been two weeks before.
And she couldn’t help but compare this morning’s walk with the last time she’d walked with him, when she’d been introduced to Jules.
So much had changed since then.
As they’d set out from the manor, her father regaled her with information he’d gleaned from the few distillers he’d managed to meet before he’d been called back to Westerley Crossings. He hadn’t seemed at all taken aback by Lady Westerley’s summons. It was almost as though he’d expected it.
Neither of them mentioned the note he’d left for her, a course of action which reflected the nature of their relationship. She listened to him thoughtfully, intrigued by some of what he had to say, but mostly waited for him to ask why Lady Westerley had sent the messenger to ask him to return early. Perhaps he simply assumed she’d not done as he’d asked.Be good. Keep an open mind.She bit her lip to keep from grinning.
Because she’d definitely opened her mind up to the idea of marriage, but she had not been a good girl by any measure.
She would have thought he’d be curious about it, what with his own attempts to marry her off.
When he eventually fell silent, Charley summoned the courage she needed to say what was on her mind. “Mother requested that you bring me to England so that I could be presented to gentlemen—at balls, at garden parties and such—not so that you could force me upon a titled one over a game of cards, a game that you cheated in.”
He dipped his chin. It wasn’t often her father managed to appear sheepish. But then he just as quickly glared in her direction. “I don’t know what it’s going to take to get you married. You don’t seem to understand that I can’t watch out for you forever.”
“Well, I won’t be forced.” She glowered back at him. She had him precisely where she wanted. “But…”
He shot her a weary glance. “But…?”
“I can perhaps be persuaded.” She delighted in the fact that his eyes lit up.
“To… marry?”
“If you meet my terms.”
At her response, he threw back his head and laughed out loud. “By God, no one can ever accuse you of being anyone’s daughter but mine.”
Charley met his gaze and lifted her chin. “Lord Westerley has offered for me.”
That light in his forest green eyes brightened. “And?”
“I will agree to it, on three conditions.”
He subdued his enthusiasm slightly but was rubbing his hands together. “And they are?”
“Firstly,” Charley began, “You will continue developing the whiskeys I’ve been working on back home. And you will market them and price them according to the business plan I showed you.” She narrowed her eyes. “Six months before we left for England.”
He was nodding however. “I believe I can manage that. What is your second… demand?”
