The First Proposal - Chasity Bowlin Page 0,25
truth from her sister remained to be seen, but there was enough truth in it to make her doubt. To raise a dozen questions. And to make her regret what had just occurred in his garden only moments ago.
“I’m very tired, Daphne. I believe I shall go to bed.”
“You do that, Persephone. The children have been cooped up inside all day. No doubt tomorrow they will be all the more energetic for it!” Daphne’s smile was tinged with triumph. “You’ll have your work cut out for you.”
CHAPTER NINE
Algernon entered White’s and scanned the crowd for his brother-in-law. He knew the man would be there. Burke was nothing if not a creature of habit. He’d become positively boring in that regard. Crossing the room, he made his way to the other man’s table and, without waiting for an invitation, seated himself and reached for the decanter of brandy and a glass from the tray.
“I don’t recall asking you to join me. Did hell freeze over when I wasn’t looking?” Burke demanded.
Algernon didn’t hesitate when he replied. “It certainly did. I allowed you to marry my sister, after all.”
Burke leaned back in his chair and crossed one booted foot over her knee. “No one allows Olivia to do anything… or do you not recall uttering those very words to me at this exact table just over a year ago?”
Algernon grinned. “I might have. But I’m not here to fight with you. I’m here, God help me, as a friend, or rather, as a man in need of one.”
“You should certainly look elsewhere.”
“I’ll go away sooner if you cooperate,” he pointed out.
Burke tossed his hands up. “By all means, then. Whatever it takes to be done with you!”
“How did you know that you loved Olivia?”
Burke, who’d been in the process of pouring himself another drink, stopped and looked at him. “We’re not getting an annulment. Additionally, you’ll be an uncle soon, so it’s impossible.”
Algernon paused with his glass halfway to his mouth. “Oh. Well, I wasn’t suggesting an annulment, and under the circumstances, no, it definitely wouldn’t be appropriate. Congratulations.”
“So why the question?”
Algernon took a deep breath. “You’d known her for the entirety of her life almost and one day you just looked at her and thought ‘I love her’. How? What prompted it?”
“Are you well? I don’t ask out of any personal concern, but if you’re about to have apoplexy it could be very upsetting for Olivia,” Burke remarked.
“Just answer the question, dammit.”
Burke sighed, leaned forward, placed his hands on the table and said. “I knew her, but I never saw her. When she was a child, I didn’t think of her as anything but a nuisance honestly. And then one day, she was walking down the stairs, I turned to look at her, and she wasn’t a child anymore. She took my breath away. My heart beat so fast and so loud I thought for certain she would hear… or that you would and challenge me on the spot. And then, from that moment forward, there was simply an awareness of her. If she walked into this room right now, not that it would ever be permitted, I would feel her presence before I ever laid eyes on her.”
Algernon nodded. “And there was a sense of rightness about… that when you looked at her, you just simply knew it was… well, destined… for lack of a better word.”
Burke’s brows furrowed. “Exactly. Don’t tell me that you, Algernon Dunne, the great doubter of love and all matters of the heart, have finally been struck a fatal blow from cupid’s arrow!”
“I fear that I have.”
“And it’s this Miss Blake?” Burke demanded.
“Keep your voice down! I won’t have all of society gossiping about her!”
Burke laughed then. He laughed long and hard. “Damn my eyes. You have actually fallen in love. I thought it was just an infatuation or some sort of scheme. Hell, I even thought it might be a bet or a joke when you demanded we send them invitations to the ball. But you have actually gone and done it! You’ve fallen in love!”
Algernon had known Burke wouldn’t exactly be helpful. But he hadn’t imagined the man would express such obvious glee at his current state. “I mean to ask for her hand at the ball. And to announce the engagement if she agrees, assuming I have your permission to do so.”
“I hope she turns you down flat,” Burke said. “Not forever. But you ought to have to wait for a while