Page 70 of A Wallflower to Win the Viscount

His expression became serious. ‘I’m assuming you do want children, because if you don’t—’

‘Oh, yes, I want children. Your children,’ she said as every last attempt at indifference completely dissolved. ‘I’d love to have your children, and I love you.’ It was so good to say it out loud she just had to repeat it. ‘I love you.’

‘Oh, Primrose,’ he said tenderly, taking her in his arms and kissing her at length and with such affection it would have immediately banished any lingering doubts as to his love, if she still harboured any, which she most emphatically did not.

He continued to hold her as he gazed down at her, his eyes shining with so much love that further words were hardly necessary.

‘So will you do me the honour of becoming my wife and making me the happiest man in the world?’

Words might not be necessary, but it was lovely to hear those particular words again, this time imbued with such honesty and love.

‘Yes, of course I will become your wife,’ she said with a joyous laugh. ‘And as to making you the happiest man in the world, well, I’ll certainly try.’

‘With your acceptance you’ve already succeeded,’ he said and kissed her again.

When their lips finally parted she looked up at the magnificent man who was soon to be her husband. ‘So now that we are betrothed, and as we’ve already ignored the good reverend’s instructions, perhaps we could…’ She smiled at him and raised her eyebrows in what she hoped was a suggestive manner.

‘Are you trying to trick me again?’ he said, his voice teasing.

‘Trick you?’

‘You told me once before that in the heat of the moment you would have said anything so I wouldn’t stop making love to you.’

She bit her top lip to stop herself from laughing. ‘Oh, that… No, this is different.’

‘Is it?’ he asked knowingly. ‘But can I trust you? You might be leading me on again so you can have your wicked way with me. I think we should wait until I’ve got a ring on your finger.’

‘What?’ Primrose blurted out, shocked by his words. ‘Of course you can trust me. Of course I’m not leading you on. As for having my wicked way with you—’

His sudden laugh stopped her from continuing, and she realised he was teasing her, just as she had done to him.

‘Primrose, my love,’ he said, taking both her hands in his and kissing them lightly, ‘I want our wedding night to be special. I think we should wait until then, don’t you?’

She, too, wanted their wedding night to be special, but waiting? About that she was less sure. ‘If you want to make sure I don’t try and seduce you before we get married, then you had better get that special licence, now. Quickly.’

‘Very sensible. You start organising a wedding. I’ll be back soon.’ With that, he kissed her one more time, then rushed out the door, calling to his footman to hail a hansom cab as he had no time to wait for his carriage to be readied.

After he left, an exhilarated Primrose turned to Clawdia. ‘Well, sweetheart, it seems I am to be married, and we are both going to spend the rest of our lives with the man we love.’

Clawdia curled up with her kittens, closed her eyes and went to sleep, as if she’d known all along that this would happen.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Lucian was no martyr. He’d meant what he said about making their wedding night special, but that did not mean he was prepared to test his self-restraint more than was absolutely necessary.

To that end, he obtained a special licence and within two days he was standing at the altar of the local church, waiting for his bride-to-be.

Primrose and her friends Alice and Margaret, along with Beatrice, had sprung into action immediately, and he’d hardly seen anything of his future wife during those two, long, agonising days and nights, as she appeared to have turned into an organising whirlwind.

Although, he had to admit, in the limited time available, they had done wonders. The small stone church was decorated with an array of flowers. Each pew was strung with bunches of large white flowers which Beatrice had informed him were hydrangeas. Enormous bouquets of what even he knew to be white roses and orange blossoms decorated every corner of the church, and a vase of tall white lilies stood at the altar, filling the church with their heady scent.

All he and his best man, Reginald, had had to do was dress for the occasion in their morning suits and allow Beatrice to place white rosebuds in their buttonholes, which she informed him symbolised innocence, purity and true love and would match the bouquet Primrose would be carrying.

While the symbolism was apt with regards to true love, when it came to innocence and purity, he and Primrose could have informed Beatrice that those qualities had already given way to passion, but he liked the idea that the rosebuds would be a private joke between the two of them.

When the organist began playing the wedding march, Lucian stood up straighter, while nerves and feelings of pure joy battled for supremacy within him.

Primrose entered the church on the arm of the Duke of Rosedale, followed by her two matrons of honour, Margaret and Alice, and pure joy won. She looked beautiful: No other word would do to describe the vision that was his bride.