Page 106 of The Virgin Who Humbled Lord Haslemere
Georgiana threw her arms around his neck. “I love you too, Benedict, more than I canever tell you.”
“Show me, then.” He pressed another kiss to her lips, his eyes twinkling. “Marry me at once, and we’ll get to work straightaway on giving Freddy and Augustus the cousins they’re demanding. They’ve asked for six, allof them girls.”
“What?” Georgiana gaped at him, her cheeks on fire. “No, they didn’t! They’re too young to ask forsuch a thing.”
“Well, I might have helped them along a bit. Here, Jane sent you a letter.” Benedict rummaged around in his coat pocket and handed it over. “And Freddy sent you this,” he added, placing a thick, wooden objectinto her palm.
Georgiana turned the puzzle piece over in her hand and a laugh bubbled up in her throat. “Italy? Hesent me Italy?”
“Well, you did say you fancied it. He was quite taken with you, you know, but then all of the Haslemere gentlemen end up smitten with exceptional ladies. He’s anxious to see you, but he’ll have to wait, because no one is more anxious than I am, and I need youall to myself.”
“Indeed? How intriguing. What did you have in mind?” Georgiana asked, stroking her thumb overhis bottom lip.
“Oh, I was thinking a wedding, followed by a marriage, a half-dozen children, and a school full of willful little girls.” He caught her hand and pressed a kiss to the tip of her finger. “What do you think, princess? Do you think you’d like to be Lady Haslemere?”
Georgiana took his beautiful face in her hands and touched her forehead to his. “I’d like to beyours.”
He groaned, and took her mouth again. When he broke away, they were both panting. “If we keep this up, Brixton willhave my head.”
“Daniel? What’s he got to do with it? I hope you two aren’t quarrelling again.”
“We neverstoppedquarrelling. I went straight to the Clifford School when I arrived in town, searching for you. After delivering a great many threats and casting dozens of aspersions on my character, Brixton finally told me you were here, but if we don’t return soon, he’s bound to come after me. The man’s a menace.”
Georgiana tried to look stern, but her lips were twitching. “I think you both enjoy baiting each other. Daniel will be content enough once we’re married, though. Who are you going to wrangle with then?”
“Whyyou, of course.” He planted a sweet kiss on the tip of her nose. “Though I confess I have quite a different sort of wrangling in mind.”
Georgiana rested a hand on his chest and felt the steady beat of his heart against her palm. His brave, true, honorable heart. “There’s nothing I want more than a lifetime of wrangling with you, my lord. But are you certain you want a wife with such asharp tongue?”
He gazed down at her with warm dark eyes. “I want everything you are, Georgiana. Your sharp tongue, your hazel eyes, and your insatiable appetite for preserves. I want everything with you.”
“You have it,” she whispered, her hands curling against his chest. “Everything I have, everything Iam, is yours.”
Georgiana opened her mouth to say more—to tell him he’d already given her everything, even those things she didn’t know how to dream of—but her throat ached with happy tears, and her heart was too full for words.
So she rose to her tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his lips that said more than words ever could.
Epilogue
MillStreet, London
Two months later
“Faster, Lord Benedict—faster!” Sarah let out a delighted squeal, her arms tightening around Benedict’s neck as he neared the newly planted quince tree at the bottomof the garden.
“For pity’s sake, Sarah, will you hush?” Benedict came to an abrupt halt and peeked around the slender tree trunk, which wasn’t yet large enough to hide their antics from Georgiana. “I told you, if Lady Haslemere hears us shouting and happens to look out the window, she’ll scold us until our ears ring for running footracesin the garden.”
Marriage hadn’t tamed Georgiana’s tart tongue. Benedict, who delighted in her scolds, wouldn’t have it any other way. Lecturing turned her eyes the most fetching shadeof mossy green.
“Eh, we’re safe enough. She’s all the way up in the attics with the little ones, teaching them their sums.” Susannah dangled Benedict’s pocket watch on the end of one finger, watching it swing back and forth with covetous eyes. She was meant to be timing the race, but she seemed far more interested in pilfering his gold watch thananything else.
“They’re a dim lot, they are. She’ll be up there with them for ages yet.” Sarah bobbed up and down on Benedict’s back. “I wish we had a bridle for him, Susannah. That would be capital, wouldn’t it?”
“Abridle!You do realize I’m not actually a horse, don’t you, Sarah?” Good Lord. Georgiana had warned him not to spoil these girls. Perhaps he should have listened to her.
“’Course I do,” Sarah scoffed. “YerLord Benedict.”
That wasn’t quite right either, but Benedict spent so much time at the school the girls, who’d come to look on him as a sort of benevolent uncle, had given up on calling him Lord Haslemere. They’d settled instead on Lord Benedict, a moniker that never failed tomake him smile.
