Page 39 of Lover
“Improper?” I halted and looked at her with playful disbelief, trying to lighten my mood. “Should I show you what’s improper?”
I made a swipe for her, and she dodged, which encouraged me to chase. The little game of cat and mouse was just the thing I needed to bolster my courage, and by the time I caught her, I was prepared to make the leap.
“I’m my best self with you, Millie,” I said, and she looked up at me with such adoration I wondered if perhaps she remembered the love we shared, in her own way. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable withimproperbehavior, such as traveling together as mere lovers.”
I produced the ring. Her ring.
“Marry me, Millicent Foxboro,” I said.
“Marry,” she echoed, staring as though I’d grown another head on my shoulders.
“Will you?” I asked, pulse jumping.
Then she was wrapped around me in a joyful embrace that was all the answer I needed.
“Yes!” she cried. “I will!”
“We leave tonight.”
“Tonight? That’s so soon.”
“Not soon enough, my love. We’ll apply for a marriage license tomorrow morning in Boston. Everything can be supplied onvery short notice there. We need only ourselves and a judge. After that, we’ll leave for Europe.”
She seemed stunned, reserved. It was too much all at once, and my explanation for haste was a thin one, holes easily made.
“Are you happy?” I asked.
My question drew her back to me.
“Terribly,” she said, then lifted her head to be kissed again.
“Congratulations are in order.” Rodney’s condescending voice cut through our happy moment like the point of a trowel.
I looked up, irritation making it impossible to hide my contempt. He made no effort to hide his own.
“They are. We thank you. Willowfield will have a new mistress come tomorrow,” I said pointedly.
“Blessings to you both,” he sneered. “May Willowfield bring more joy to you than it has done.”
He left as quickly as he’d appeared, leaving only a cloud of scorn in his wake. Millie looked flabbergasted, likely having never seen even a shadow cross Rodney’s face.
“Why in the world would he act like that?” she asked, watching after him.
I let her know, in no unclear terms, exactly the reason.
She seemed unwilling at first to believe it, and I read in the way she blushed that she’d possibly once considered him a candidate for her love. The thought riled me in several ways.
Noticing that I was bothered, she leaned into me. “Let’s not think about those things right now,” she said.
“What shall we do instead?” I asked, my desire ignited for the second time that morning by the impish gleam in her eye.
She took my hand, leading me toward the ruins of the greenhouse.
“We’ll think of something,” she replied.
CHAPTER 22
STILL ADJUSTING OUR clothes and grinning at each other like besotted lovebirds, we emerged from the greenhouse to find a darkening gray sky. A storm was approaching. Let it come. By the time the rain arrived, Millie and I would already be heading to Boston, ready to welcome the next chapter of our life together. However it may look.
