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‘Oh must I? I want to stay with Papa and Miss Leigh.’

‘Elinor, it’s very important you let Miss Stafford treat your legs. You don’t want any scars, do you?’ Her father had stood up and his voice was firm.

Elinor Asprey climbed off the sofa and in an impetuous moment kissed Angelica on the cheek, then turned to embrace her father. ‘Goodnight, dearest Elinor,’ he said, holding her close.

‘Goodnight. I’ll see you in a few days for tea.’ Angelica waved from the sofa.

As Miss Stafford left, she turned to say, ‘Miss Leigh, after I’ve dealt with Elinor and put her to bed, I’ll sort out some clothes of mine and leave them for you in your old bedroom.’ She closed the door.

Unexpectedly alone, Ivor Asprey and Angelica looked at each other in the flickering firelight. ‘I really ought to invite in a chaperone to protect your honour, Miss Leigh.’ He leaned against the mantlepiece and smiled down at her.

‘My honour and yours are rather compromised already, don’t you think?’

‘That may be so. And I dare think no one in my household will complain at the state of affairs. Are you happy for us to continue as we are?’

‘I am.’ Angelica was aware of every breath they took. ‘Would you share the sofa with me, Mr Asprey?’ she said, looking at him standing so imperiously at his fireside.

He hesitated for a moment and then sat down. She shifted her position to give him enough space and her small pale feet and ankles were suddenly exposed. Mr Asprey took them in his hands and she shivered. ‘You’re still cold, Miss Leigh?’

‘Just a little, but I’m feeling much better now I have your dressing gown to warm me.’

‘I don’t think you should give it back; it looks too well on you.’ His eyes were watching her with an expression that made her heart turn over. In a soft amused voice he said, ‘I have missed you so since our last tetchy meeting. Do you think you can forgive a proud and arrogant man?’

‘If he will forgive an insufferably interfering woman.’ She laughed.

‘Well, that interfering woman has possibly saved my beloved daughter’s life, certainly saved her from further injury. I forgive all presumptuous meddling for that.’

His warm hands enveloped her feet but his thumb was slowly tracing a line up her instep and encircling her ankle. Angelica was exquisitely aware of the intimacy of this small movement and her skin tingled under his touch. She flexed her foot against his thigh and moved closer to him. ‘Do you think you could put your arm around me to warm me up?’

He looked at her in the firelight, barely clothed, her hair quite undressed as if she had risen from bed, and love and desire crashed over him like a wave. He pulled her towards him and held her close, her head on his shoulder. ‘What are we to do, Miss Leigh?’ he asked. ‘Could you bear to share your life with a politician who has a mission to improve the lot of others?’

‘Could you bear to have people gossip about your liaison with a mere actress who prances on the stage for every man to gaze on?’

He pulled himself away so he could look her in the eye. ‘It’s not a liaison I had in mind, Miss Leigh. I want you for my wife.’

Angelica could not suppress a gasp as tears sprang to her eyes. For a minute or so she could not speak while he watched her with the most tender expression on his face. She hiccoughed and her words stuttered out, ‘But I cannot bring any fortune or breeding to enrich your family name. I only have scandal and criminality to offer you.’

‘But you bring your courage and intelligence, your great heart and beauty to enrich my life. That is more precious than anything.’ His voice was thick with emotion.

With a cry, Angelica slipped her feet from his warm grasp and knelt on the sofa beside him, slipping her arms round his neck. She felt her breasts, pressed softly against his chest, and knew by his sharp intake of breath that he was aware too of their lack of constraint within the silk brocade of his dressing gown. The effect of her proximity on him excited her. Angelica watched his pupils dilate and his eyes grow almost black. His arm across her back held her closer as their lips met, gently then with increasing passion. She sank into the heady strength of him, sensitised to the fresh-air scent of his skin, the salty taste of him.

Angelica was the first to break away. ‘No,’ she whispered with a sob.

He extricated himself from her embrace with a sigh. ‘Miss Leigh, if you continue like that I’ll be obliged to reclaim my dressing gown and leave you undefended from my touch.’

She laughed, sitting back on her heels. ‘You’re right, Mr Asprey. I should go and dress and then Rocky can take me home.’

He pulled her to him again. ‘Not just yet. I have something for you.’ He removed the familial ring he wore on his little finger, an emerald carved with his family crest and the words TIBI SOLI, and slipped it onto her marriage finger. ‘It says to you alone which is what I offer you. Everything I have is yours, myself, my heart, my soul. I hope, Miss Leigh’ – he paused – ‘Angelica, will you do me the honour of marrying me?’

The use of her name at last speared straight to her heart. Her breath came fast as she looked down at the ancient ring, glowing green and gold on her finger. To you alone expressed everything she felt about him, even when she feared they were but star-crossed lovers. She looked up, aware that he was still waiting for her answer. ‘Ivor,’ she said shyly. ‘Ivor… Ivor… Ivor and Angelica.’ She rolled their names round her tongue, smiling to herself. ‘Yes, Ivor Asprey, I will be happy indeed to marry you.’ With a shout of amused laughter, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her again and she abandoned herself to his embrace.

As she settled into the crook of his arm he said, ‘Do you think, my beloved, my Mrs Asprey to be, that my interfering daughter could have had anything to do with this?’

Angelica sat up abruptly and looked at him, a question in her face. ‘How could she? She could not have known about the tower bursting into flames.’

‘No, not that. But she’s been planning something with my mischievous nephew and insisted we all ended up in St James’s Park to see the fireworks. And miraculously, it seemed, there you were with Charles and Miss Fitzjames and Dante Locke. Elinor’s already giddy with success over Miss Stafford marrying my secretary. She considers it her doing, you know.’

‘Oh, I know. She’s got a lively romantic heart. And an over-developed sense of responsibility. Only she can secure the sun will rise and the world will turn; I wonder from whom she could have inherited that trait?’ Angelica laughed, comfortable in his arms.