“You know the answer to that as well as I do, even if you do not feel like listening.” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, scraping the lobe with his fingers in the process. A shiver went through her, tickling her insides and curling her toes. “Trust me in this,” he implored her while withdrawing further. “We have to wait.”
“Perhaps I ought to propose to you,” she said. Now that she'd made up her mind about what she wanted, she was starting to lose her patience with the whole courtship process. She felt like running with full speed ahead, and he was asking her to walk.
“Please don't.” Raising her hand to his lips he pressed a tender kiss against her knuckles. “It would ruin the entire plan.”
Sighing, she allowed a faint smile while searching his eyes for the truth she knew could be found there. “Does there have to be one?”
“To secure your heart and regain your trust? Absolutely.”
She saw the truth then, flickering like sunshine falling between forest foliage to dance upon a lake. Love, so pure and so simple, it lifted every unhappy moment she'd ever known and swept them away forever.
“Very well,” she agreed, “we shall do it your way and follow the plan.”
17
“He still hasn’t askedyou?” Cassandra said two days later when Mary returned from another wonderful outing with Caleb. He’d taken her to see a special exhibit on Italian art and architecture at the British Museum and to Gunther’s Tea Shop afterward for hot chocolate and strawberry tarts.
“Not yet,” Mary said. She’d found her friends in the Clemenses’ library with Peter and Penny. The children had to their delight been permitted to explore the impressive collection of books Mary’s father had acquired over the years.
Occupying three armchairs while the children studied the shelves, Mary was telling her friends about an interesting reconstruction she’d seen of the Septimius Severus Arch when Cassandra had blurted her question.
“There was no opportunity,” Mary explained. “His mother was there with us all the time and never more than a few feet away.”
“So he brought a chaperone along with him,” Emily remarked. “That’s new.”
She was right. After their visit to the miniature museum and The Grotto, Mary had joined Caleb for a walk in the park the following day. Impulsively, he’d suddenly pulled her behind some trees and pressed up against her, whispering things in her ear that no innocent lady ought to hear. And then he’d kissed her again while allowing his hands to roam her body with greater insistence than ever before. He’d touched her most feminine parts, and she’d not only liked it but craved it while begging for more.
“I think it may be a necessary precaution,” Mary told her friends.
Cassandra smirked. “I see. All the more reason for him to propose.”
“Do you know why he is delaying?” Emily asked.
Mary considered. “He mentioned trying to regain my trust.”
“Ah,” Cassandra said with a nod as if all was now made clear.
Mary stared at her friend. “Ah?”
“He obviously wants to make a big thing of it,” Cassandra explained. “A grand gesture to prove his devotion.”
“I don't need a grand gesture,” Mary said. What she chose not to mention was how nervous he was making her by acting as if he were mad for her and then failing to act on it. There must have been a dozen opportunities for him to propose by now and yet they remained unbetrothed.
It reminded her too much of her experience with Wrenwick, even if he had never taken her to museums or restaurants. But there had been an understanding. He'd said he would speak with her father.
“Does he know that?” Emily asked, scattering Mary's thoughts. What had they been discussing? Oh yes, grand gestures and how she didn’t require any.
“I haven't told him, but he should know me well enough by now to discern as much.”
“Men aren't always astute when it comes to such things,” Cassandra said. “And since most women would enjoy a big declaration of love from the man they plan to marry, we must not blame Camberly for assuming you would too.”
“It does make sense,” Emily said.
Mary wasn't so sure, but Caleb had asked her to trust him, and as difficult as it was to do so after everything that had happened, she intended to at least try before suspecting him of leading her along on a path to nowhere.
Because his doing that made the least sense of all. He could have bedded her several times already and been done. Instead, he was making a deliberate effort to entertain her while holding back.
“You're probably right,” Mary told her friends. She forced a smile. “No cause for concern.”
