“I don’t understand. He’s here?”
Lucy dared to hope. Dared to take her father’s sudden mirth as a good sign. They’d met him and they weren’t scowling. Mama still looked worried, but Papa was smiling. Good grief, so much worry and now it melted into a warm, joyous flutter in her middle.
Her father stood, stepped from the room, and returned a moment later with James. Despite her father’s amusement, James looked wary.
“He accosted me outside my club,” her father said with false gruffness.
“Did he indeed?” Lucy smiled at James. “He wanted to catch you early.”
“As patient as you are, it seems,” Mama put in. “That should make for an interesting next few months.”
“Few months?” James and Lucy voiced the two words at nearly the same time.
“As you’ve seen with Miranda, it does take months to properly plan a wedding.”
Lucy felt James’s gaze on her and looked up to find he liked that prospect as much as she did. Which was to say, not at all.
“Don’t even think of going back to Scotland to elope,” Papa said firmly. “Cassandra has enough to answer for.”
“Aunt Cassandra did nothing wrong.” Lucy couldn’t bear her father’s wrath toward her aunt any longer. “She wasn’t even—”
“Terribly in favor of our courtship,” James interjected.
And thank goodness he had. Lucy’s parents didn’t know that she’d been alone with James for days at Invermere. And really, why did they need to?
“Why is that?” Mama sounded slightly alarmed.
“James was the man who owned the home she’s been living in for years,” Lucy explained. “The home she loves. She didn’t take to him at first.”
“But you did, apparently.” Papa held her gaze with a searching one of his own, but he knew her well enough to see.
“Yes, I certainly did.”
“And you, Lord Rossbury?”
James turned his head to Lucy, taking her in with a look that traced all the features of her face. All the spots he’d kissed.
“The first moment I saw her, I knew. I didn’t understand it. I’m not sure I fully do now. But I know that I love her beyond all reason, that I want tospend every day in her company, that I want to give her whatever she desires.” He leaned in and whispered, “I adore you.” Then he turned back to Lucy’s parents. “I adore your daughter, and if she’ll have me, I’m hers.”
Lucy couldn’t hold back. She leaned in, resting a hand on his arm, savoring his warmth and strength. Then pressed a kiss to his cheek.
Her mother cleared her throat. Papa let out a stifled chuckle.
“Perhaps we should forgo those months of preparation and look into a special license.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Two weeks later
“Are you very disappointed?” Lucy asked him the question as James held her in his arms in the house they’d soon share as newlyweds. They’d finally relented and agreed to the sort of grand wedding her parents longed to give her as they had her older sister.
“I’m not an enormous fan of pomp or weddings, but I’m a quite serious devotee of you, so I’m fine with however we get our names together on a marriage license.”
Lucy bounced up onto her toes and kissed him. He dropped a hand to her lower back, pulling her closer, and she deepened the kiss, sweeping her tongue in to taste him.
“Pardon, my lord.” Mrs. Wilton, who James had come to suspect Lucy’s mother had put on retainer, stood at the threshold of his study. The woman was suddenly as watchful as a guard dog and seemed to have an unerring ability to sense when he and Lucywere about to pull each other’s clothes off in the middle of the day.
“All is prepared as you requested. The...” She cleared her throat. “They’ve cleared out now, so it’s all presentable.”
