“I am honored,” she told him. “Yes, I will be your wife. I love you. I have loved you, and I will love you always.”
“We were supposed to be standing under the trees, in your favorite environment,” he said. “But adventures have a way of taking twists and turns. And I had the opportunity to go to London and get you this.”
Digging in his pocket, he drew out a box, and her heart, already pounding with all that was happening so quickly, sped up even more. He slid off a green silk ribbon and opened the small box for her. Nestled on black velvet was a gold ring with an oval-shaped emerald and four small diamonds around it.
“It’s beautiful.” Overwhelmed, her voice had come out as a whisper. “The green is exquisite.”
“For my naturalist, Eleanor.”
She laughed again, and then he slipped it onto her finger.
“It fits!” he said, sounding surprised.
“It does,” she agreed, turning her hand this way and that. “Imagine what it will look like when the sun hits it. Or moonlight!”
She couldn’t contain the squeal of excitement. Even with a throbbing ankle, this was the absolute best evening of her life.
“Do you think Maggie has any champagne? I do love bubbly wine.”
Grayson grinned at her. “You’re not childish at all. You’re delightfullychildlike. And I hope you always remain that way.”
She shrugged, glad he appreciated her as she was, for she believed she was too old to change. “I think it’s time you kissed me.”
“Long past time,” he said, leaning low and claiming her lips.
For the duration of his kiss, she no longer felt the pain in her ankle, no longer worried about being dirty on Maggie’s sofa. She was Grayson’s fiancée, and he was going to become her husband!
When he raised his head, she said, “I confess, I was worried when you so easily stopped…you know, what we were doing in the fishing shelter. Then when I found out you went to London, I didn’t know what to think.”
He put a finger to her lips.
“There was nothing easy about drawing away from you in the lean-to, silly woman. But I already knew I wanted you for my wife and that wasn’t the way I wanted to treat you”
“You did know, didn’t you? You wrote the note many days ago.”
He nodded. “And I didn’t want you finding it alone either and reading it without me beside you.”
“True, it wouldn’t have been the same sharing your proposal with Bess. But the entire Kidd adventure, start to finish, was a wonderful birthday gift.”
“Now you know all my secrets,” Grayson said.
Secrets!She wasn’t going to start her engagement by withholding a secret from him, even if there were others that weren’t hers to disclose.
Barely even hesitating, Eleanor made her confession. “I was teaching your mother to write. That’s why I stayed at Angsley Hall. That’s why I wouldn’t come away with you when you left. I had promised her, and I don’t break promises.”
As long as he didn’t ask her anything more about it!
His handsome brow crinkled into a frown. “Why on earth would she want to learn to write now?” Then he grinned. “But how wonderful. And you succeeded, in such a short time?”
Eleanor nodded. “Your mother is very smart.”
He looked proud. “As soon as your ankle has healed, we’ll go see her together and tell her our news.”
“All right.” She was interrupted from saying more as John and Maggie returned.
“There are only so many times we can stroll up and down our hallway,” the earl pointed out.
“We didn’t hear a thing,” Maggie promised, though Eleanor would vow her sister already knew of her engagement, especially when the maid entered a moment later with champagne.
