Delilah smiled too. This was a surprise, but they both looked so happy. “Best wishes to both of you,” shesaid. “I’m trying to find your brother to ask him the same question.”
She didn’t pause long enough to explain that loaded statement. Instead, she turned and hurried through the foyer and down the corridor in search of Thomas’s study. When she arrived, she pushed open the door and stepped inside. Thomas sat behind a large wooden desk in the center of the room, bent over some paperwork. He started when he saw her.
“Delilah?” His jaw was clenched and his expression hard. “What are you doing here?”
She quickly made her way over to the side of the desk and fell to one knee beside him, tears in her eyes, blurring her vision. She grasped his hand in hers. “Thomas Marcus Devon Peabody Hobbs, will you and all of your ridiculous names marry me?”
“What?” His brow furrowed and confusion played across his handsome features.
“Madame Rosa told me I had to let you go. I think she meant you’d have to come back to me, but now I realize that I always needed to come to you. I’ve been a fool for a long time, Thomas, but I promise I see everything clearly now. And I love you too.”
His gaze searched her face for a breathless, heart-pounding moment, and then, to her abject relief, the hint of a smile played at the corner of his mouth. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her cheek. “Why do you love me?”
She gave him a half-grin. “Because you’re kind, intelligent, funny, and extremely handsome and kissable. I can only hope you’re also forgiving.”
“You forgot healthy.” He nudged her temple with his nose.
“That too.” She wrapped an arm around his shouldersand trailed a finger along his jaw. “I think I’ve always loved you. Only I didn’t realize what love felt like until now.”
“What about your engagement to Clarence?” he asked, his expression turning thunderous.
“Imayhave told my mother I wouldn’t marry Clarence if he was the last man in London.”
Thomas’s eyebrows rose. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” She nodded and laughed.
“What about the elixir?” he asked.
She winced. “Derek told me you knew about that all along.”
His fingers played with the satin lining of her bodice. “Yes, I was awake that night. I switched rooms with Branville. I knew what you were going to do.”
“You did it on purpose,” she said. “But you didn’t need to.”
“I’ve loved you for years, Delilah,” he admitted. “Only I couldn’t figure out a way to show you that would make you believe. Your silly potion gave me the perfect excuse.”
“If you knew, I suppose that means…”
“The potion doesn’t work?” He grinned. “I suppose we’ll never really know, will we? Because I am madly in love with you, and you did sprinkle it on me.”
She threw back her head and laughed. “Whether it worked or not, Madame Rosa was right about one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“She told me true love was in my future.”
“Indeed.”
“But I don’t understand.” She brushed the hair back from his temple. “If you were in love with me all these years, why did you constantly say you had no interest in marriage?”
“So you and your meddling friend Lucy wouldn’t matchmake me, of course. I needed an excuse to remain a bachelor until you were ready to find a match. Only, I had no idea you’d set your sights on someone so quickly and without warning.”
She pressed her nose to his neck and breathed in his familiar scent. “I suppose I was impetuous.”
“Impetuous and determined. It gave me quite the conundrum.”
Delilah laughed and hugged him harder. “Do you know I tried to find an antidote to that silly elixir? Madame Rosa refused. She said, ‘Verus amor nullum facit errata.’”
