On this day that was supposed to be happy, she felt so left out. She reached for her stomacher and plastered it against her front, beginning to fasten the tabs. When would her turn come? Never, if Kit didn’t show up to marry her—
“Edmund is thrilled,” Judith gushed. “What did Rand say?”
“I haven’t told him yet.” Lily hugged herself round the middle as though she were protecting her child. “I wanted to be sure. We’ve been disappointed before—”
“Oh, heavens,” Judith said. “You’ve been wed just two months. You must tell him. If he’s half as happy as Edmund, you’ll end up spending a night that makes you wonder if you could possibly conceive a second child when you’re already increasing with the first—”
She clapped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks looking like she’d used a whole booklet of Spanish paper.
Lily laughed. “I’ll tell him today.”
“Tell who what?” came a voice from the doorway.
Kit.
Rose’s heart thundered beneath her laces.
“Never mind,” Lily blurted.
Kit locked his gaze on Rose, but she couldn’t read his face. “You’re not supposed to see me before the wedding,” she said inanely. “It’s bad luck.”
“I’ll risk it. I need to talk to you.”
He looked so serious. The little breakfast she’d managed to choke down this morning was threatening to come back up.
“Well…we’ll leave,” Lily said.
“Excellent idea.” He waited by the door while the other three women scurried out, then shut it decisively behind them. “Do you need help with that?” he asked, indicating Rose’s half-attached stomacher.
“No.” Her fingers began moving again, albeit shakily. He was walking closer. “Kit—”
Her sentence was cut off when his mouth crushed down on hers. He kissed her with such heat and urgency that her knees threatened to buckle. By the time he broke contact, she was gasping for air, reeling with the sudden reversal of worry to elation.
He kissed her chin, her throat, her collar bone above her dangling stomacher. “I love you so much,” he murmured against her skin. Closing his eyes, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I cannot wait for tonight.”
A delicious shiver traveled through her body, even as she felt the itch of tears behind her eyes. “I was so afraid you’d hate me.”
“Hate you?” Straightening, he lifted her chin until her gaze was forced to his. His incredible eyes searched hers. “Why?”
”For meddling in your affairs. I only wanted your happiness…”
“Did you think I didn’t know that? Did you think I wouldn’t fall in love with you all over again when I realized you were willing to give up your inheritance to bring me and my sister together? What sort of fellow do you think I am?”
She’d known what sort of fellow he was—and she suspected she was falling in love all over again, too. “You didn’t answer my letter.”
“What letter?” His thumb moved from her chin, skimming tenderly over her cheek. “I never received any letter.”
“I left it propped on your washstand.”
He shrugged. “No one’s ever done anything that touched me the way you have. Hang it all, sweetheart, when I went to give Ellen her dowry and she told me—”
“What?” She forgot about the missing letter as her hand flew up to grasp his wrist. “You gave Ellen her dowry?”
“I tried to,” he said with a wry grin. “She told me you already had.” His gaze softened. “However was I lucky enough to win a girl as special as you?”
Rose’s throat tightened. No one had ever called her special. “I should have known you would do the right thing.”
He kissed her again, more gently this time, a tender kiss that brought her tears to the fore. No matter what he said, she knew she was the lucky one—lucky he hadn’t given up at the start, when she’d pushed him away for all the wrong reasons.
And she was well aware she had her mother to thank for that gift.
“No crying on your wedding day,” he said, wiping a rogue tear off her cheek with a warm thumb. “I’m sure that’s worse luck than having me see you before the ceremony.”
She managed a watery chuckle.
His hands went to finish attaching her stomacher. “You look beautiful.”
“You look better,” she said, her pulse thumping madly under his fingers. He wore a deep green velvet suit with silver braid trim on the long waistcoat and the surcoat that went over it. Just enough lace fell from beneath his cuffs, and a tasteful diamond pin winked from the folds of his cravat.
Perfect. If she’d noticed how he was dressed when he first appeared in her doorway, she could have spared herself a few anguished seconds of worry. No one would take him for anything but a groom.
A heart-stoppingly handsome one.
His fingers traced the pearl scrollwork on her stomacher. “I have something for you.” He pulled a small wooden box from his pocket. “I wasn’t sure what color you’d be wearing, but I think they will match.”
She opened the lid to find an exquisite pair of earrings, two teardrop pearls swinging from clustered diamond tops. “They must have cost a fortune,” she gasped. She’d never seen such enormous pearls.
He smiled as he took them from the box and moved closer to fasten them on her ears. “I may not be titled, but I’m hardly a pauper.”
“I’m not wearing any earrings. I didn’t have any I wanted to wear.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” he said, kissing a bare lobe before he decorated it. “I don’t ever want to see you wearing that deuced duke’s jewels again. In fact, I think you should pawn them. Permanently. I just happen to know of a pawnshop.”
She laughed as he attached the second earring. When he was finished, he drew her close, running his hands over her back and down to her waist. She thrilled at the sensation of his hands on her.
“I love you,” he said.
She’d never tire of hearing those three words. “I love you, too.”
“I love you in
