“Marry me.”Her voice was husky but sure.
He paused in his progress back up her throat and smiled against the edge of her chin.“My dear Lady Georgiana, you do me great honor, but I must say that isn’t the proposal of a young man’s dreams.”He went back to kissing and would have taken her mouth again if she hadn’t covered his lips with her fingers.
“Wretch.”She smiled at him.
He grinned into her hand and tried to kiss her again.
This time she pulled away.
“I’m teas—” he began.
“Mr.Mallet,” Georgiana shook him off, pulled a few feet away, and struck a pose of mock seriousness.“You must be aware of the high esteem I hold for you and know, as I know, that we suit one another very well.”He moved toward her, but she eluded him.
“I am all too aware that I have little to offer,” she went on as she avoided his hands.“My fortune is small, but I am compelled to put my suit to the test.”
She slipped the book cart between them and whirled it sideways when he tried to pass.“Therefore, with trepidation, aware of my vast unworthiness, I ask if you?—”
He reached across for her.A growl rose deep in his throat.“Georgiana!”
She slipped gracefully to her knees, one hand on her heart and the other extended as though pleading.“—would extend to me the great privilege of your hand in marriage.”
He stopped in his tracks, sobering.Amusement fled.Georgiana remained.Beneath her teasing, he saw fear and expectation.
“Of course I will, foolish woman,” he said while he helped her to rise.He held her at arm’s length and went on, “But I think I need to know what you expect from this marriage.”
She didn’t shirk the question; she stepped away from him and took a steadying breath.That’s my Georgie.Her courage warmed his heart.
“That night, when I told you I wished to stay with you, you said you wanted it too.I remember you said, ‘it’s called marriage.’I have thought of it many times.What I wanted was to be here with you, sharing this house, sharing your bed, and spending our days in work.I wanted to have a voice in that work.”
She sighed, and he watched her chew her lower lip, that endearing habit she had when she searched for words.He held his peace and waited for her to go on.
“You said ‘it’s called marriage.’That closeness, that sharing isn’t what my parents called marriage, but if that is what you mean, I want it.”
“I want it too.”He said in a rush.“It doesn’t have to be here.We could live at Helsington or anywhere you choose as long as we’re together.”
“I like it here.Helsington is no longer mine.”Her breathless admission startled him.He let her explain.“I sold it.I am, or I was, using the proceeds to support myself without my father’s interference.We’ll need to manage without it...Father’s money, that is.I have no staff.My new house is smaller than this one.”
“I can afford a decent staff.We could buy a different house.”
“There’s more.”He waited expectantly, and she went on.“Yesterday, I think I gave you pleasure.I know it.”
Pleasure?Mind-exploding pleasure.“Foolish woman.You underestimate yourself.”
She held up a graceful hand to silence him.“I didn’t realize how it would feel to give pleasure—in bed, when we work, when we’re together.It is a powerful thing togivepleasure like that.”
He frowned and tried to follow her logic.
“It occurred to me that it is powerful to care for one you love in other ways, the giving part.”She sighed again, deeply, as if groping to be understood.“I never thought of it, Andrew.You have to allow someone to love you.You have to let them so that they can feel powerful, too.”
He took two steps toward her.“You want to let me give you pleasure.”He wanted to say it lightly, but he found he couldn’t.Something profound shifted around them.
“I think you want to do more than that.And, yes, I want to let you care for me.”
He closed the gap between them and pulled her to him, her head nestled on his shoulder.“You trust me with your care?”
“I think.”She paused so long he thought she had lost her train of thought, but she finally spoke.“I think caring for someone isn’t the same as having power over them.At least it isn’t in the abusive sense.If you can take the burden of my love, I can take yours.”
He kissed her then, a gentle touch, once, twice, and then more deeply.Her hands went around his neck to pull him into her embrace.He felt her smile against his mouth.“We’ll need more work.”
He smiled back.“There is plenty to be found.Women poets in Latin perhaps?”
She laughed out loud.It would be well.They could make a life together.Even the sound of Jamie Heyworth at the door didn’t interfere.
“So, am I to wish you happy, or to call Andrew out?”
“Go away, Jamie.”Two voices spoke with one mind.The passion of their embrace didn’t decrease in the slightest.
“Well then, I’ll just take myself down and tell Harley to open that fine bottle of wine he has chilling.Bailey will want his answer.Ten minutes?”
