Hurrying to light a lamp, she snatched up her thick wool dressing gown and wrapped it around herself. Having been awakened by voices, she had lifted the sash at precisely the wrong instant.
Returning to the window, she heard Lord Trent exclaim, “What light through yonder window breaks.”
“Quiet,” she pleaded. If her parents weren’t already awake, they would be. And that would bring this unexpected farce to a hasty end.
On the other hand, knowing Geoffrey was mere feet away, for the first time in weeks, she felt happiness drizzle like a gentle rain upon her.
“Yes, do muzzle yourself,” Geoffrey added. Then he looked up. “I need to speak with you.”
“Come closer and speak softly,” she said.
They both shuffled forward, but then Geoffrey waved his friend away. “Stay back, for God’s sake,” he ordered.
“Only trying to help,” Lord Trent replied, but then he and his lantern disappeared toward the wall.
Geoffrey began again. “I am sorry to awaken you and to hit you with coins.”
Her heart melted at his awkward beginning.
“After what you said about not marrying me, I had to discern the true depths of your feelings. I must know what’s in your heart.”
She caught her breath. Perhaps he was the terrible rogue her parents believed him to be, for it was inconceivable he could ask her to state plainly such an intimate thing. And how unwise for her to tell him that she loved him. If he knew, it would put her in a terribly vulnerable position.
In the end, all she said was, “Why?”
“Why?” he repeated. “I assume you are asking why I wish to know.”
“Yes, exactly.”
“Because you have moved into my heart and taken up all the space.”
Then they were as twins.How brave of him to confess that to her.
“Your silence makes me exceedingly nervous,” he said. “Moreover, I saw you with an unfamiliar man at the theatre.”
She leaned a little farther out, wishing she could be down in the garden with him, but it was too dangerous to try to sneak past her parents’ room and down the stairs.
Taking a deep, chilly breath, Caroline decided to tell him. Either she would be as happy as her best friend Daphne, who had long since forgiven her for sullying her pantry, or she would become as forlorn as Shakespeare’s doomed Juliet, to whom Lord Trent had just alluded.
“I love you,” she confessed.
When he said nothing, Caroline’s heart began to pound.What was he thinking?That this was a turning point in their lives, or maybe he was pondering the impossibility of their situation given the animosity between their parents.
When she was about to demand he tell her his thoughts, he spoke.
“I wish someone had thought to put a strong rose trellis here or planted a sturdy tree with branches touching your window. I love you, and I swear I would be up there beside you in a twitch of a lamb’s tail if I could.”
Relief poured through her, and she closed her eyes with a long sigh.
“Will you marry me, Lady Caroline Chimes?”
Her eyes popped open. “If I could, Geoffrey Diamond, I would.” It was as honest as she could be.
He stared up at her.
“And you don’t actually long for Mangue?”
“I promise you, I do not. I was stunned when I found out that my parents had spoken to him about marrying me. I should have told you.”
