Page 108 of Keeping Kate

“Eating chocolate,” Rosie said. “Uncle Wattie made a thick chocolate sauce for dipping the liver in, but we do not like liver with chocolate. So we made something else.”

“Wedding chocolate,” Lily said proudly.

Alec tapped one of the molds with a finger. Instead of oozing over the side, it was hard to the touch. His fingertip cracked through the thin shell, and a fragrant whiff came through—lemon custard.

He frowned, puzzled. “What did you do?”

“We added sugar to the chocolate, because we like it that way, without the nasty pepper.” Lily wrinkled her nose.

“But it got too thick, so we poured it in the pudding mold,” Rosie went on, “and then put some lemon pudding in it. We did not want the liver at all, you see,” she added primly.

“I see,” he murmured. He tasted the mix of lemon pudding and chocolate shell on his finger. “That’s very good. It is excellent, in fact.” He dipped his finger into the mold again and extended his finger toward Kate. “Taste it.”

“Oh, my,” she said, “that is delicious.”

His heart was quickening, his thoughts tumbling. “Ladies, that is very good chocolate. I will recommend to Uncle Walter and Aunt Effie that you deserve a reward for discovering such an excellent thing as this.”

“Will you take us to Kilburnie with you?” Lily asked. “We would be so good.”

“Good!” Daisy fussed, holding up a hand.

Alec looked at Kate. “I suppose we could take them with us. What do you think?”

Kate smiled, her face brightening, and he saw again that golden beauty that filled the air around her like a halo at times, a brilliance of spirit.

And he knew then how much he wanted to have the children living with them too, a family at last. That was what he had wanted, so long ago, and had hardly dared dream of it. Now here it was, arrived and offered, and all he had to do was accept it.

“Very well,” he told the girls, who whooped and jumped about. “Go upstairs now, the mucky lot of you, and wake Aunt Effie just as you are. That sight will be her reward for napping while you decided to invent new treats in the kitchen.”

“And tell Aunt Effie you will need baths and fresh gowns. The bonny dresses that we had made for the wedding are ready for you upstairs. Aunt Sophie knows where they are.” Rosie and Lily giggled with delight, took Daisy’s hands, and ran for the corridor.

“Will you come too?” Rosie asked, looking back.

“Soon,” Alec answered. “I should help Aunt Katie clean up. She is covered in chocolate,” he murmured. As the children left, he took Kate by the waist.

“I am not quite covered in chocolate,” she said, laughing.

“Enough for me, and so very sweet,” he said, and kissed her, tasting her, so that she caught her breath against his mouth and cupped his face in her hands.

“Sweetness,” she murmured, “is not what I am best known for, sir.”

“I am partial to tartness as well, and spice, quite definitely,” he whispered, and his lips met hers in a deep, wild kiss.

“Alec,” she said breathlessly, moments later.

“We could go into the pantry,” he suggested, “or the storage room behind the wall.” He drew her that direction as he kissed her neck.

“But Cook will be back soon,” she said. “There is a little place out the back door, past the kitchen garden.” She took his hand, tugged. “Where the chocolate is stored, the place that is full of tins and boxes and crates.”

“Good enough,” he said, and swept her into his arms, kissing her, tasting the rich warmth of chocolate, inhaling its sweetness in her hair, upon her skin, filling his senses. “No one will come out there. They have enough cocoa in this kitchen to keep them out of the storage shed for quite a while.”

“At least until it is time to dress for our wedding,” she breathed, while he carried her through the back door.

“At least,” he agreed, stopping to capture her lips again, drawing back, carrying her down the path through the kitchen garden and toward the shed. “And when the ceremony is done, we could slip away to the storage shed again if you like.”

“I think I might go anywhere with you. Anywhere at all.”

“We can start here,” he said, reaching out a hand to open the shed door.