“What?”
His eyes opened. “Egypt, of course. I’ll go as a clerk or something boring, but ye’ll be our expert in the field. As my wife,ye’llbe able to keep an eye on all the antiquities smuggling we’re trying to regulate, and?—”
“Kenneth, are you…offering me a job?”
“Fair’s fair, love. Ye offered me marriage.”
Oh my.
In a daze Barbara sat up, her palm splayed across his chest. “You think the Crown would want to hire a female scholar?”
“Why no’?” Shrugging, he tried to sit up, then winced at the effort and fell back. “We have plenty of female spies. And it wouldnae be the Home Office we’d be working for. It’d be the Foreign Office—an’ ye’d be my partner.”
Partner. Wife.
“Dear God,” she breathed, eyes wide. “It is…” Barbara swallowed, hardly daring to hope. “You do not think my foot?—”
“Oh, to hell with yer foot!” He pulled her back into his arms. “It’s yermindthat’s so remarkable, love!” With that, his hands slid down her sides to her arse. “Of course, the rest of yer body is fairly impressive too.”
She found herself giggling like a silly lass at the compliment, and his grin showed he approved.
“Perhaps, if I were to become a spy like you, I could employ a clever cover story,” she teased. “Egypt’s first lady rake?”
His hold on her rear tightened. “Never,” he announced sternly, a glint in his eye. “Once we’re married, ye’re mine, Barbara, and I’m yers. My raking days are behind me--and I hope to shite I’m enough for ye, because I’m no’ sharing.”
Smiling, she bent forward. “You are enough, Kenneth. You always will be,” she whispered as she brushed a kiss over his lips.
And from the hallway, her brother’s voice piped up, “See, everyone? Itoldyou he was a spy!
Epilogue
Kenneth paced from one end of his modest drawing room to the other, wondering if his new wife needed help.
He was nervous, but in all the best ways. Tonight was their wedding night, but it was hardly their first time together. In the last three weeks—after his side had fully healed—he’d climbed the brick wall up to her bedroom so often she’d begun to leave a rope out for him.
But tonight wasspecial.
Trying to calm his nerves, Kenneth crossed to the drinks cabinet and removed the bottle of smuggled French brandy his new father-in-law had gifted him last week. As he poured himself a large dollop, Kenneth did a few experimental stretches, pleased his injury was fully cured. It hadn’t been that serious, but he smiled, remembering the way his future wife had insisted on pampering him.
There wasn’t any need for him to worry.
Barbara was so casual about her healthy inheritance, and Kenneth…well, his lodgings were comfortable, and she assured him that she would be as well. But his new man of business wasalready looking for townhouses near her family, so she could set up another library intheirshared home.
He stared down into the depths of the alcohol.
A home. A wife. Perhaps, one day, afamily.
With a wry smile, he took a drink.
“How the mighty have fallen, eh?”
Remington had said that to him with a laugh at the wedding breakfast this afternoon. Unlike Merevale—who had sent a nice note from his new estate—Kenneth’s old friend Remmy had attended the ceremony and had embraced him after the fact. It was nice that Remmy looked genuinely pleased for him, but it was impossible to deny that their stupid wager had landed Kenneth in plenty of trouble, even if only momentary.
Remmy, on the other hand…it appeared his Serpentine dipen dishabillein front of so many witnesses had done exactly what he’d wanted: his reputation as a wicked rake was now firmly established among theTon, thoughThe Grand Follytheater wasn’t saved yet.
Still, Kenneth was more than happy to turn over his title ofraketo his old friend. Hopefully he could do some good with it, because his raking days were over. All because of one woman…
As if his thoughts had conjured her, Barbara emerged from their bedchamber and his breath caught, as it did every time he saw her.
