Page 98 of Rakes & Reticules
He nodded. “Utterly and irrevocably.”
“It felt that way.” She cleared her throat. “Does this mean I have been compromised?”
He cast her a rakish grin. “Yes.”
“Do this also mean you intend to do the honorable thing and marry me?”
Dear heaven.
She dared not breathe.
He nodded. “If you will have me, Amelia. Yes, I wish to marry you. I am desperately and hopelessly in love with you.”
More gasps came from the onlookers.
Not even the king’s army could pry them away from the doorway now.
But her attention was entirely on her handsome duke.
She was afraid this was all a dream and she would wake up. “Truly? You love me? But should you not be more cautious? You’ve only known me for the length of this house party weekend.”
“I’ve known you for months, watched you since you made your debut.”
“My disastrous debut,” she muttered.
He arched an eyebrow. “You caught my attention, so it was not quite as disastrous as you imagined. I also noticed you at the Royal Society lectures. You are the prettiest thing ever to grace their stodgy halls. Your aunt has known my feelings about you almost from the first.”
Rosie now nodded. “I was afraid to say anything because I did not want to see you hurt if it came to naught.”
Lord Danvers stepped forward. “I hope you take those love notes in your reticule a little more kindly now. Your aunt thought to spur the two of you to action. My nephew is always so cautious to act, but I saw the way his eyes lit up around you. Those notes were meant to give him a kick in the pants and declare himself to you before someone else came along to claim your heart.”
Her Aunt Rosie nodded. “I also wanted you to feel desired, as you deserved to be. We never meant to hurt you, Amelia. In truth, we were all holding our breath in the hope this weekend would be the spur to finally get something started.”
James nodded. “My uncle and your aunt brought me in on their love note scheme only yesterday when they asked me to plant that second note in your reticule. I agreed because I’d seen the way my brother looked at you. He is in agony over you.”
Amelia laughed. “How can you tell? He reveals nothing in his expression.”
“He is quite closed off around others, but not around me,” James said, his grin quite broad. “I am his brother and he trusts me. I saw how he inhaled you with his eyes. It came as no surprise to me when he sought you out as his partner through every activity this weekend. And now he is teaching you to dance. Do you think it is only because you are a challenge?”
Rosie’s eyes were now tearing up. “He wanted to open tonight’s party with you by his side because he meant to propose to you tonight. Seems we’ve forced his hand and made him rush the announcement a bit, but he was ready. Is that not so, dear boy?”
There was nothing of the boy about this gorgeously daunting man, except in the heartwarming and genuinely affectionate smile with which he now graced her. “It is quite so. I love you, Amelia. Will you do me the honor of opening the dance with me tonight?”
“Yes, for I shall gladly make a fool of myself over love.”
He laughed. “I have not given up on your dancing skills yet. We shall resume our lessons after breakfast and a round of champagne to toast our betrothal. But to be clear, ours will be a love match. I enter into this betrothal with the woman who will not only be my wife, but my one true love to the end of my days.”
“As you shall always be mine,” she said, her heart overflowing with joy.
He invited everyone into the dining room where the breakfast salvers had been laid out across the long buffet to await them. Within moments, footmen carried in trays of glasses filled with champagne.
Callum raised his glass in a toast to her.
Amelia could not contain her happiness.
Even Dorothea and her followers raised their glasses in cheer, for they were suddenly her best friends. Not that she would ever consider them as such, but this was not a moment to hold grudges.
In truth, she sincerely hoped they all would find similar joy in their matches.
