“If she will have me,” said the captain, capturing the lady’s hand and raising it to his lips.
Miss Ellen blushed and murmured, “I will.”
“In that case,” said Kat, cheekily, “calling her the Lady of Carr Abass was just a little premature.”
There was an important question Jake needed to ask before he could make any plans of his own. “Miss Ellen, do you allow married servants to remain in their positions?”
Miss Ellen frowned at him but then her expression cleared and her eyes widened. “Do you wish to marry my Kat?” she asked.
“I have always wanted to marry Kat Fivepence,” Jake said. “If she’ll have me.”
“I shall,” said Kat.
“Heaven help us all,” said Captain Harraway, in mock despair. “Two tricksters in the one household.”
“Your household?” Miss Ellen asked him.
“Our household, darling Ellen,” Captain Harraway corrected. He stood and offered her his hand. “My dearest Ellen, will you become the Lady of Carr Abbas in truth? My wife, and my love?”
“I shall,” said Miss Ellen.
“And will you let us—both of us—stay on as your servants?” Kat challenged, as she took Jacob’s hand and stood up.
Miss Ellen glanced at the captain, and he smiled at her before saying, “We shall. Jake, I’m taking my betrothed for a walk to give you time to propose properly.”
Jake’s captain placed the lady’s hand on his arm, and escorted her away on the path that led around the lake.
Proposing properly?The captain was right. It was the least Jake owed his Kat. But right at this minute, his brain had turned to mush and he had not the least idea what to do or what to say.
He looked Kat’s way. She was regarding him with calm, level eyes set in a face that gave nothing away. Both of them had learned early not to let their emotions show. It meant nothing, except that once she had not worn her mask in front of him.
A sudden thought occurred, and he blurted it. “I should have flowers!”
Kat laughed, her face suddenly alive with amusement. “Thatis what is keeping you silent? You should have flowers?”
There she was. The girl behind the mask. And he had made her laugh, even if the joke was on him. “Well, I should. I always promised myself I’d propose to you when I saw you again. You took me by surprise in the bakery, but I knew I would see you again today. I should have thought to bring flowers, as a token of my esteem and affection.”
“Listen to you, with your fine words—‘a token of my esteem and affection,’ indeed,” she jeered, but her tone was fond.
Jake’s heart soared. She would not be teasing him if she did not still like him. Suddenly, declaring his heart seemed the easiest thing in the world. “Kat, I have loved you since I was a boy. I told you eight years ago that I wanted to wed you, and I’ve never changed my mind. Now that we are both grown, you are even more amazing than you were eight years ago. I admire your devotion to Miss Ellen. I am in awe of how you turned one guinea into a marriage and a future for her, and your behind in those breeches is driving me demented.”
She was no longer hiding behind a bland expression and the emotions flitting across her face made him increasingly certain of her answer. He finished, “I love you, Kat. Will youmarry me?”
His beloved still had the habit of tipping her head to one side while she thought. Jake held his breath, waiting for her answer, and he hadn’t passed out from lack of air by the time she answered, so it could not have been as long as he thought.
“You are the only man I have ever imagined marrying, Jacob Flynn. If I do not marry you, I suppose I shall never marry. But we do not know one another. Not anymore.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but she put up a hand to stop him.
“Don’t misunderstand. I like what I have seen. But Jacob, eight years!”
It was to be a negotiation, then. “How about this? We ask the vicar to read the banns, then spend the next few weeks in one another’s company. Miss Ellen and Captain Harraway will be husband and wife in a few days, so we shall have plenty of time to see if our wedding should go ahead.”
Kat thought about that, too. “Very well,” she said, at last. “But if we don’t agree, let us not fall out about it. We will still have to work together.”
Jake agreed without a second’s thought. That would not be an issue. Either they would marry, or he would leave. For he loved Kat Fivepence with all his heart and soul, and he would not be able to stay near her unless he could make her his.
They would marry,of course. Kat was already certain of it, though all the lessons she’d learned about the unreliability of others urged her to caution. She amended her thought.We shall marry unless Jacob shows himself to be a bad man.
