Honorable? I lied to her from the beginning.Bile rose in his throat.
“I know that you care about people,” she went on.
He shook his head to deny it. He cared about Nora and Isabella, yes. But he contributed to the death of one hundred and thirty-two souls.How is that caring?Do you want to marry a slave trader, Nora?
She ignored him. “I know you treat me with respect. That is more than Edmund did.” Her lips quivered.
He leaned over and took her hand; the touch turned his heart to mush. “Edmund must have been a fool,” he said. “Any man of sense would respect you.”
Nora drew breath and squeezed his hand. “What is more to the point, you care for Isabella.”
“Care? I adore the little imp.” That he wouldn’t deny.
“You can protect her. You can give her what she needs. She’s lost her father. She needs the security of home.”
And what will happen if she loses another father figure?He could marry Nora and bring Isabella home, but sooner or later it would all crash down on their heads.
“You want this marriage, Nora? Think,” he said.
“Yes. Marriage solves our problems,” she said as if it were that simple.
“It creates others,” he warned, thinking fast. Her adorable frown while she tried to puzzle out his meaning drove him on. “I’m not sure I can manage marriage in name only. Not if I’m living here.”Be afraid, Nora. Run.
If he hoped the threat of physical marriage would discourage her, her response flattened him. Her eyes glowed in anticipation.
“If that is what you wish, then I wish it, too,” she whispered, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
A rush of triumph washed through him; alarm brushed it aside. Jamie groaned. “We won’t be able to annul it in that case,” he warned in a last ditch effort to turn her decision.
“I’ll live in Rome, in this house, with Isabella the rest of my life. If you want your freedom, Jamie, we’ll make sure you preserve it.” She gave him an impish look. “We have separate suites. Mine has a lock.”
Jamie threw his head back and dropped her hand.
“You want this badly,” he said through tight lips. “So does Castellimonte.”
He lost himself in thought for several minutes. When he lookedback across the table, the fearful anticipation on Nora’s face decided the matter.
“It appears to be inevitable,” Jamie said at last. He put his serviette on the table, folded his hands, and leaned toward her.
“How quickly can Mother Margarita manufacture this wedding?” he asked. “And where is the damned pudding?”
Her mouth spread wide in a smile she couldn’t seem to suppress. His heart stuttered.God help me.
“You won’t regret it,” she said. “I’ll do my best to make sure you never regret it.”
I already do.
The footman placed a sweet Italian cake, fragrant with lemon, in front of him.
“Paradise on a plate!” he exclaimed. Her cook would keep him supplied with cakes and biscuits.That much I won’t regret.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Nora sat on her hands to keep them from shaking.
“But it must happen immediately, Mother,” she stressed. “In England, we can marry by special license. Is that possible in the Papal States?”
Mother Margarita smiled across the well-worn table that served as her desk and said carefully in broken English, “Not worry. It will be done properly. Padre Barnabas will ensure it.”
