‘There are plenty of children out there in need of one. I thought on my way here that first time, before I had even met you, there are so many runaways without a frantic uncle on their tails desperate to see them safe and happy. We can adopt a few of them in time and offer sanctuary to more, but for now I would be content for it to be you and me and Juno until we can relax into love and be ready for our children to find us.’
‘No. We are not going to be together, so how can they, my lord?’ she said, almost more cross with herself for persisting in her doubts than she was with him for being high-handed.
‘Now that is just plain selfish of you, Mrs Turner. Think of all the urchins who will never have you for a mother and don’t you pity them for having just me instead? I will make a poor fist of things without you to put me right—just look at the mistakes I made with Juno.’
‘You really mean to do this, then? Are you sure it is not a scheme you thought up to make me feel better about marrying you since I probably cannot have children?’
‘Of course I do—did you ever know me to sit on my hands and only think about doing something that was crying out to be done?’
‘Well, no, but I have only known you for a while.’
‘It only took me a day and a half to wake up and see you were the only woman I have ever met I truly want to spend the rest of my life with.’
‘So you thought up your idea for adopting orphans on the way here and made up your mind you were going to marry me when you were lying in bed battered and bruised and out of your senses? It sounds like a fairy story to me.’
‘Yes. I wanted you from the moment I first set eyes on you, Marianne Turner, and at least landing on my head that day must have knocked some sense in because I know this is real and unique and true, even if you are being your usual stubborn and impatient self and are refusing to believe me.’
‘And given how impatient you are...’ She let her voice trail off suggestively, hoping it would suggest he got on with seducing her so she could find a way to persuade him being his mistress would be enough for her. Then maybe she could convince herself because hope was tugging away at her stubborn certainty she would not be enough for him as soon as the glow of loving passionately and even wildly wore off.
‘I have been learning patience from the first moment I set eyes on you, so that fish won’t bite,’ he warned her with too much knowledge of what she had been planning in his mocking smile. ‘I am a fully mature male, Mrs Turner, not a rampant boy to be led around by his cock.’
‘As if I would and I hope you will never say such things in front of Juno.’
‘Of course not and, before you ask, I will not be so forthright in front of the children either. I shall save that for you, my stubborn and unruly lady.’
‘I have not said I will marry you.’
‘Not yet.’
‘Not at all.’
‘Not yet,’ he insisted with such intent in his eyes she did not need to see the colour of them, just the glint of stubborn determination and rampant need in them even in the dark. The ‘yes’ he seemed to want so badly trembled on her lips.
‘Can you actually see any flowers in all this gloom, Mrs Turner?’ Miss Donne’s voice called out to remind her the rest of the world was still turning.
‘You can carry one of the vases as a punishment for distracting me when I ought to have been helping,’ Marianne murmured with a secret sigh of relief.
‘For you, my love, anything and please do not think you have put me off with your brusque orders and severe looks because I rather like them now I know how much spice and sensuality is hidden underneath them. This is only the beginning and I will convince you I will only ever marry you. Even if I have to camp out on Miss Donne’s doorstep and make you a scandal and a hissing in the town until you agree to marry me just to make me go away, I will do it.’
He would as well, she decided with a smile for the picture he had painted her and the heady hope love might truly be enough for a viscount and a widow if they believed in it enough. ‘We shall see’ was all she said to let him know how tempted she was to simply give in and enjoy them for the rest of her life.
For the rest of the evening they both tried to behave like polite acquaintances and eat their dinner because Miss Donne and Bet had gone to so much trouble to welcome them home. She could not have said what they ate if the fate of nations depended on it, though.
‘Goodnight, sweet princess,’ Alaric whispered in her ear as Miss Donne ordered Marianne to show him out while she resolved some mythical crisis in the kitchen so they could whisper at her front door once again and what a matchmaker outwardly prim and proper Miss Donne really was.
‘Go away, you annoying viscount, you,’ she told him as the feel of his mouth so close to her ear sent shivers of sensuous anticipation through her and made her ravenous for more. He was going to kiss it, on Miss Donne’s doorstep with glimmers of light all around the square to make them visible to her neighbours. Ah, no, he was not going to kiss her. Disappointment ran a race with that fire inside her and
