being honest. I love you. I began to love you the tiniest little bit when you raised your hand to me from your bedchamber window. I have loved you a little more each day, but thought the ache around my heart was from something I ate or the land that I wanted to have back so desperately.”
She relaxed the littlest bit. That, more than the smile, gave him hope. He went on, praying she was one step closer to accepting him.
“I thought a flirtation was just what you needed and all I could offer. It would prepare you for the less honorable gentlemen who would as soon seduce you as dance with you.
“It wasn’t until the other day when you so sweetly welcomed my kiss that I knew I did not want another man to dance with you, much less kiss you.”
“Are you proposing to me, Jess?”
“I was rather hoping you might propose to me, since then I would know you are in no way forced to accept me.”
“I would marry you in an instant if I thought there was no way you were being forced to marry me.”
“How can we convince each other that there is no puppet master pulling strings?”
“How did you convince Papa?”
“I made him a business offer he could not refuse.”
“Really? That was very clever of you, my lord.” Finally animation lit her voice.
“I think there is one more way we can convince each other.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her. Nothing existed beyond the two of them and the way they became one.
It was a sweet kiss. They both knew it was wiser to keep it at that.
“Why do I feel no doubt at all when we are together like this?” Beatrice mused.
“I wish I knew. All my much-discussed experience did not prepare me for this. When it comes to loving someone, you and I start as equals.”
They kissed again, not as a test but because they wanted to, and when that kiss ended, they both knew the answer.
“Because I love you. That’s what makes all the doubts disappear.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “Because it is right.”
“My lord?” Beatrice began and cleared her throat before the next phrase. “Will you marry me?”
“If you will marry me,” Jess said, and they melted into each other’s arms to seal their commitment with a kiss that carried their hopes and their future in one sweet caress.
Epilogue
THE WEATHER WAS atrocious. Wind-driven rain made travel so hideous it was just as well that all the guests for Jess and Beatrice’s wedding had arrived at Pennford Castle earlier in the week.
But while the weather might be miserable, it was the only thing that was. The duke’s salon overflowed with the Pennistan family—men, women, and children—as well as the bride’s family and some close friends.
Lynford Pennistan, the fifth Duke of Meryon, grinned at his wife. “Having Jess here makes us a family again. Having everyone here for his wedding to Beatrice completes us.”
“Yes, Lyn, dearest, and your happiness has given us all permission to relax and enjoy every moment.” Elena took his arm. “You will notice that all of us, including your son and heir, are decidedly not on our best behavior.”
Rexton, the next Duke of Meryon, was teasing one of his girl cousins. At his young age that consisted of racing around her and trying to make her dizzy. The girl, one of Gabriel’s brood, would have no part of it. She plopped herself on the floor and buried her face in the neck of the cat that she always had with her.
“Do you think it wise of Lynette to allow Marie to have that cat with her all the time?” Elena asked her husband.
“My dear duchess, that is not our problem. We have our three to worry about and that is quite enough.” He gazed at the rest of Gabriel and Lynette’s brood.
“Who would have thought that the two of them would take to parenting so happily?”
Or marriage, Lyn thought. He knew how brutal Lynette’s first marriage had been, and it was a testament to the power of love that she and Gabriel were as one in almost all things from their work to raising their children.
Gabriel came up to them, a cherubic boy tucked under his arm like a sack of grain and a girl of six or so at his side. “Do you need another boy to work in the garden, Your Grace? Owen can crawl with amazing agility and find all the lowest-hanging fruits