Page 24 of The Earl’s Second Chance

“Hartley is.”

“Then we shall hope he is not slow.”

He was not.

The following week, in the Herfershire garden square beneath blooming lilacs, Viscount Hartley asked Jane to be his wife.

“I love your beauty,” he told her, “but it is the least interesting truth about you. I love the courage hidden inside your gentleness, the judgment you once concealed, and the future you have allowed me to imagine beside you.”

Jane answered with tears and an unreserved yes.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Estates and Apologies

Richard proposed three days later at Herfershire House.

He had asked Elizabeth to meet him in the library, where the door stood open and both fathers occupied the adjoining room with remarkable deafness.

Upon the table lay a map.

“What is this?” Elizabeth asked.

“Oakmere.”

The estate lay in Northamptonshire, three hours from London and half a day from Herfershire Hall. It contained a gracious Georgian house, six thousand acres, excellent pasture, neglected stables, and farms producing eight thousand pounds a year.

The Earl of Matlock entered.

“I purchased it six years ago,” he said, “when Richard’s regiment was sent abroad. I had the absurd conviction that owning a place for him might ensure he returned to it.”

Richard’s throat moved.

“It was never payment for marriage,” Matlock continued. “It is his whether you accept him or not.”

“Father—”

“A second son should not have to wait for deaths to begin his life.”

He left before either could see too much emotion.

Richard turned the map toward Elizabeth. “The pasture is suited to horses. I intend to resign my commission and breed mounts for the army—sound animals chosen for endurance rather than fashionable height—as well as hunters and carriage horses. There is a tenants’ school, though Jane would despair of it. The west garden is a wilderness. The library is offensively small.”

Elizabeth smiled. “A catalogue of defects.”

“An invitation.”

He came around the table and took both her hands.

“I had prepared a speech. It contained words such as devotion, partnership, and probably livestock. But I find I can say only this: every future I desire has your face within it.”

He went down on one knee, his injured leg protesting so sharply that Elizabeth gasped.

“Richard!”

“I survived French artillery for this gesture. Do not spoil it.”

Laughing and crying, she let him continue.