Page 13 of Her Honorable Viscount (Noble Pursuits #3)

CHAPTER 13

S he hadn’t come to see him.

Why hadn’t she come?

Because the kiss that had meant everything to him meant nothing to her.

Because she was convinced that the divide between them was too great.

Because she realized she didn’t want to be with a man like him.

Edward had come up with several reasons, but he knew there was only one way to discover the truth. Ask her himself.

He prepared himself to leave, had just donned his hat and put his hand on the door handle, when a knock sounded.

He opened the door to find, to his surprise and gladness, Dot and Lady Fitzroy – Dot’s sister-in-law, not her mother – standing there.

“Oh, dear, you are on your way out,” Dot said, her face falling, but he removed his hat and took a step backward, ushering them in.

“I was actually on my way to see you,” he said. “Please, do come in.”

“You know Lady Fitzroy?” Dot asked, gesturing to Eliza. “She has accompanied me as my chaperone. As requested.”

“As requested?” he said, furrowing his brow before remembering his note. “Oh, yes. I did request you bring a chaperone, although it has been some time since I sent that note. It was before…”

He had no idea how to finish that sentence, and Dot, the little minx, smiled innocently up at him as she waited for him to devise a way to describe what had happened between them.

Warmth stole up his neck as he searched for the words to describe their encounter, especially with Lady Fitzroy present.

Fortunately, Lady Fitzroy took pity on him.

“Before you saw one another at the dinner?” she suggested, although not without a knowing smile.

“Yes,” he said gratefully.

“Well, if it helps, I do not hold the best credentials for a chaperone. I am not only younger than Dot but also far less respectable. I just happen to be married. Silly, isn’t it?” She looked over at Dot, who didn’t seem entirely pleased with her explanation.

“Not that Dot is considerably older than me,” she finished, biting her lip, and Edward decided to return the favor and help her out this time.

“Do come in,” he said before turning to Dot as the women passed their outerwear to the waiting butler.

“Is this a social visit or are you here to see Adelaide?” he asked Dot as he led them into the drawing room.

“Both,” she said. “Perhaps I could see Adelaide first, and then I would like to discuss another matter with you.”

“Of course,” he said with a glance at Lady Fitzroy, wondering if he would have to entertain her in the meantime.

“Do not worry about me,” she said, waving him away as she sat in the overstuffed chair in the corner, reached into her reticule, and took out a book she had brought. “I can entertain myself.”

“I shall have tea brought in for you,” he said, and she nodded in agreement.

“That would be wonderful.”

“I will show you to Adelaide’s room,” Edward told Dot, wishing he could reach out and take her in his arms but knowing he was in no position to do so.

“How is she?” Dot asked, and he looked at her from the side of his eyes as undeniable energy crackled between them.

“Physically, she seems fine, although you would be the best judge of that. As for her emotional state, I am not the one she would bring any concerns to, but she does not appear particularly happy if I am being honest.”

“I am sorry to hear it,” Dot murmured. “She is seeing lots of change in her life, I imagine.”

“Very much so,” he agreed before knocking on her bedchamber door. He looked at Dot, his voice still low. “She has preferred to remain in her bedroom the past few days.”

“Who is it?” came a muffled voice from within.

Dot answered before Edward could.

“It is Dot, the midwife,” she said, and moments later, the door swung open to reveal Adelaide, wearing a wrapper despite it being mid-day, her hair down around her shoulders and dark circles under her eyes.

“Come in,” she said to Dot, ignoring Edward.

“I will await you in my study,” he told Dot. “Please ask any of the servants where to find me.”

He checked in on Lady Fitzroy, who waved him away, telling him that she was more than content with a tea tray in front of her and a scone in her mouth, and he retreated to his office to await Dot.

He didn’t have to wait long.

When she knocked on the door, he couldn’t deny how his heart surged toward her. She was a vision even when she had not attempted to prepare herself for the day.

“Lord Mandrake?” she said, and he waved her in as he stood from his desk and crossed around it to lead her over to the side of the room where a pair of chairs sat around a low circular table intended for meetings.

“If you wouldn’t mind… I would be pleased to have you call me Edward,” he said gruffly, and she smiled in response.

“I would love that.”

“Very good,” he said. “Edward, it is. How was Adelaide?”

Dot’s face fell. “You were correct in your assessment. Physically, she is fine. She is, however, lonely. She is used to being around people, not sitting alone in a house all day. Yet to go out with Michael means to appear among the ton . To go home would mean to admit defeat to her brother. She is caught between two worlds.”

“I can understand that,” he said. “It is why it is difficult for classes to cross. I do not judge anyone who decides to marry from another station of life. It is more difficult than most believe for reasons like this.”

“Perhaps,” she said, wondering if she had been wrong in the past, thinking that she could easily move among any area of London, acting as a midwife for women who needed her aid, regardless of their station. “I have told her that I would be happy to help her with anything she needed and have suggested that she could come to spend a day with my sisters and me some time.”

“That is very kind,” he said. “How will you explain your association?”

“Well,” she said slowly, looking down at her hands folded in her lap. Her cheeks were stained pink, her fingers folded over one another, and when she returned her eyes to him, she was biting her lip so hard that he was worried she was going to hurt herself. “That is what I wanted to speak with you about.”

“Very well,” he said, waiting for her as he was uncertain how he would broach the topic of their relationship.

“I…” She opened and closed her mouth a couple of times as though searching for the right words before a small smile crossed her face, one that warmed his entire body, emanating from his heart. “I would like to marry you.”

Relief, gratefulness, and absolute elation washed through him at her words, even as he sat in surprise, momentarily wondering if he had heard her correctly.

“You… you would?”

“I would,” she said, a smile forming and disappearing over and again as though she was uncertain of how he would take the news. Little did she know that it was with absolute elation, even if he didn’t know how to display it. “I know you are likely concerned about my occupation. It is what is keeping us apart. However, I have come to a decision. I will give up my practice for our marriage. As long as you understand that I must see some of my patients through to their births, for Magda will not be able to take all of them on.”

He blinked. It was the best scenario he could ever have imagined, yet a small piece of him hesitated. Why? He wanted this woman more than he had ever wanted anything before, and this was exactly what he had been waiting to hear.

“Are you certain?” he said.

“Well, yes, if you still want to marry me,” she said, looking down, and he thought he now understood her hesitation.

She didn’t know if his feelings were the same.

“Dot,” he said, leaning forward and taking her hands, his large hands engulfing her much smaller ones. “I would like nothing more than to marry you. In fact, that is what I was on my way to tell you.”

“Truly?” she said, her eyes glinting.

“Yes, truly,” he said. “I knew as soon as I contemplated marriage that it had to be to you. The more I have come to know you, the surer that I am. Nothing has changed.”

“Oh, Edward,” she said, wiping away a tear that had begun to form in her eye. “I am so happy to hear that.”

He moved from his chair, kneeling before her as he kept her hands clasped between his and looked up at her in supplication.

“Would you marry me, Dot? Would you be my wife?”

“Yes,” she whispered, blinking away the tears she could no longer keep away. “Over and over, yes.”

He stood from his crouch, reaching out and wrapping his arms around her before drawing her up from the chair. He leaned down, capturing her lips, not hesitating this time, for this woman was his. She had declared herself to him, and he would make sure she never forgot who she belonged to.

Nor that he belonged to her in equal measure.

His lips moved over hers as he allowed all of the desire and emotion he held for her to come pouring out into the kiss. His lips moved over hers as he tasted her, and when her lips parted with a moan, he stroked his tongue inside her mouth, causing her to clutch his shoulders as she held him against her.

Her body was pressed against his, her breasts on his chest, and he decided right there that he didn’t want a long engagement.

He was ready for his wedding, and she had only just agreed to marry him moments ago.

When they finally broke apart, she was breathless, her eyes as watery as they had been before the kiss, only now they shone with desire more than any other emotion.

“When do you want to marry?” he asked urgently, and she laughed, leaning her head against him.

“I suppose we must allow for the usual reading of the banns?” she suggested.

“A month, then?”

“That should give my mother enough time to prepare,” she agreed. “I will be her first daughter to wed, so I am sure she will have an extraordinary amount planned.”

“Very good,” he said with a large smile as he held her in his arms. “Honestly, Dot, I cannot wait.”

“Neither can I,” she said before sobering. “I must ask, Edward, are you sure you would like to marry me, knowing that Lady Carroway holds my secret over me? She is blackmailing me in an attempt to control my brother, but if she knows that we are to be married, I do not want to think about what she might want from you.”

“Do not concern yourself with that,” he said with more confidence than he felt. “I will take care of it.”

“Are you certain? This is not your fault, and it has nothing to do with you. I do not want to see you hurt by my secret.”

“Dot, what is yours is mine to take on now,” he said firmly. “The good and the bad. I will ensure that nothing happens to you, do you understand?”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding her close against him, still astonished that he could do this. “Now, we best plan for me to officially ask your brother for your hand. I do not imagine he will be pleased about it.”

She waved her hand at him. “His happiness to see me married will overcome his uncertainty about you. Besides, he agreed that you could court me if I chose it. I am sure the two of you will come to an understanding that will work for both of you. Fitz can be stubborn, yes, but he can also occasionally be reasonable. Also, he will do anything to make Eliza happy. If she believes we should be married, then we will be fine.”

“And does she believe it?”

He saw the hesitation cross over Dot’s face before she smiled up at him. “She said that she will support whatever makes me happy. And you, Edward, make me happy.”

He kissed her firmly one more time to remind her of that before he held out his arm to lead her from the study to greet her sister-in-law.

And start the rest of their lives together.