Page 48 of Road Trip With a Rogue (Her Majesty’s Rebels #3)

The brigand’s lips opened to show a flash of white teeth and Daisy’s heart began to pound in reckless anticipation.

Lucien—it was definitely him—dismounted from his midnight-black horse with the easy grace she’d come to recognize. He removed his hat and swept her an extravagant bow in the middle of the road.

“Well-met by moonlight, Miss Hamilton.”

Daisy put her hands on her hips, and slanted a censorious look at his two fellow highwaymen, Justin and Harry, for their collaboration. Then she turned and glared up at the driver, and received a mocking tip of the hat from a grinning Finch up on the box.

So. A full-blown conspiracy.

“It’s ill met by moonlight,” she countered, just to be perverse. “If we’re quoting from A Midsummer Night’s Dream . And you, sir, are in danger of meeting the sharp end of my knife.”

Behind her, she heard both Tess and Ellie giggle as they leaned out of the open carriage door and recognized the shadowy forms of their own husbands. All three men must have gone to the stables almost immediately after Tess told them they were leaving.

Lucien shook his head. “You’re very argumentative for someone who’s being held up by merciless highwaymen. You’re supposed to be terrified. Cooperative. Compliant.”

Daisy bit back a smile. “You’ve chosen the wrong target. I’ve crossed paths with highwaymen before, and I’m sorry to say it didn’t end well for them.”

“I’m shaking in my boots,” Lucien drawled.

Daisy spread her hands wide, mocking his earlier bow. “My apologies. I’m sure you’re a very competent footpad. What are your demands?”

His lips twitched at her pert answer. “The usual, of course. Your money or your life.”

Daisy raised her brows, but her heart was beating against her ribs. “I don’t have any money, I’m afraid. Not on me, at any rate.” She held up her bare hands. “In fact, I don’t even have any trinkets. Not even an engagement ring.”

His teeth flashed at her pointed reminder. “That is disappointing. Ladies are expected to be dripping with jewels.”

He took a step closer, deliciously menacing, and her breath caught as she inhaled his midnight-forest scent. He reached into the pocket of his greatcoat and withdrew a necklace that he held up before her. Icy diamonds and midnight-blue sapphires glittered in the moonlight.

“Perhaps this would do?”

She forced herself not to reach for it, even though it was breathtaking. “I take it back. You’re a terrible highwayman. You’re supposed to take my valuables, not give me yours.”

He ignored her sarcasm and reached forward to fasten the ravishing thing around her throat. Daisy suppressed a shiver as his gloved fingers brushed her nape. The stones were cool and heavy against her skin, and she knew it would match her outfit to perfection.

“Much better,” he said, stepping back. “But you’re still missing something.”

He reached into his pocket again and produced a ring, a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. He removed his gloves with his teeth, and Daisy’s pulse gave a joyous little leap as he took her hand in his.

He slid the ring onto the fourth finger of her left hand, then tilted her chin up so she met his eyes.

“If you don’t have any money, it will have to be your life. With me. By my side. As my wife.” His fingers tightened before she could reply. “It has come to my attention that I haven’t asked you to marry me.”

“That’s true,” she managed breathlessly.

“You once told me that you’d only accept the proposal of a man who loved you.”

“Also true.”

“In that case,” he said, “I should tell you that your ‘experiment’ back at Wansford was fatally flawed. If you want to know what it’s like to sleep with someone who doesn’t love you, you’re going to have to find another man. Because I love you, Daisy Hamilton. Body and soul.”

His greatcoat billowed around him as he sank to one knee in the road. “Will you marry me?”

Daisy’s blood was rushing in her ears, hope and excitement throbbing in her chest, but she still held herself back. As much as she wanted to throw herself into his arms, he deserved complete honesty from her.

She reached out and touched his jaw. “I’m scared.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Scared you’ll lose interest in me. Scared you’ll stop loving me.”

His eyes bored into hers, but a faint exasperated smile lurked at the corner of his mouth.

“Don’t you think I’m scared of the same thing?

” He took her left hand and laced their fingers together.

“Everything’s a risk, Daisy. One of us could be hit by a carriage tomorrow.

Or get shot by highwaymen. Not starting something because you’re afraid it might end one day is stupid. ”

He paused, probably realizing he’d just called the woman he was proposing to stupid , and tried a different tack.

“Think of all the things you’d miss out on between now and some unknown future end point if you didn’t take a chance.

” He shook his head. “God, if we all knew how much time we had left, we’d live our lives completely differently.

But we don’t. We just have to stumble through each day and hope for the best. We have to make plans that might never come to fruition.

But we’ll do it together, and we’ll enjoy whatever time we’re given. ”

He turned his jaw and pressed a kiss to her palm, and her heart melted even more. She’d never imagined she’d see him on his knees before her, nor hear such words from his lips. If she was dreaming, she never wanted to wake up.

“I love you,” he said again, his voice low and rough with emotion.

“And if you don’t love me now—which I can completely understand because I’m a bossy, selfish bastard—then I swear I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to earn your love.

I’ll keep asking you, every week for the next fifty or so years.

There’s no expiry date on a special license. ”

Elation spread like a warm ball in her chest, and Daisy threw caution to the wind. “You don’t need to keep asking me.”

“You’re saying yes?”

“Yes.” She tugged him to his feet and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’ll marry you. Because I love you too.”

Relief and satisfaction flashed in his eyes. He bent down and picked her up so her face was level with his and kissed her, right there in the road.

Daisy closed her eyes and kissed him back with all the passion in her heart.

A cacophony of whistles, cheers, and applause broke them apart and she turned to grin at Tess and Ellie as Lucien lowered her reluctantly to the ground. She’d forgotten they had an audience.

“About bloody time!” Justin drawled, striding forward and clapping Lucien on the shoulder. “Congratulations.”

Tess and Ellie leapt down from the coach and launched themselves at Daisy, enfolding her in a euphoric, sweetly scented hug.

“You’re getting married!” Tess squealed, for all the world like the ten-year-old hellion who’d fallen out of Daisy’s apple tree and not the socially revered duchess known to the ton.

“You’re going to be a duchess!” Ellie laughed, squeezing Daisy’s shoulders in delight. “I knew it!”

Daisy gently disengaged herself from their arms and glanced, blushing, at Lucien. She was almost too embarrassed to look at him, but he reached out, caught her wrist, and dragged her into his side.

“I hope you didn’t have your heart set on a long engagement, because I happen to know there’s a chapel in the grounds of Kenwood House, a special license signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in my pocket, and a clergyman by the name of Reverend Morris who is ready and willing to marry us.”

Daisy gaped up at him. “You had this all planned?”

His smile was every inch the arrogant scoundrel she loved. “The chapel, yes. But not galloping after you on horseback like Dick Turpin. Tess and Ellie were supposed to bring you out into the gardens, to me, so I could propose there, but you decided to leave before they got the chance.”

Daisy sent an open-mouthed look at her two best friends. “You knew?”

Tess grinned back from where she’d gone to stand by Justin. “We did. Lucien called on us a couple of days ago and asked us to decorate the chapel.”

Ellie nodded. “I’ve made you the most beautiful bouquet of lilies and white roses.”

Daisy shook her head in disbelief as Justin said, “Mrs. Ward has sent your favorite lemon cake down from Wansford.”

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at the impressive levels of subterfuge from all five of you.” Daisy sighed. She found Lucien’s hand in the folds of his coat and took it. “Let’s go.”

Lucien’s eyes were brimming with dark promise as he tugged her over to his horse. He released her only for as long as it took him to take the saddle, then he reached down and pulled her up to sit in front of him, astride, just as he’d done when he’d rescued her near Gretna.

Her full skirts billowed out on either side of the horse’s neck, the little pearls flashing in the moonlight, but the handsome animal was evidently well trained, because it barely moved a muscle.

Daisy’s stomach somersaulted as Lucien pulled her back against his chest and wrapped his arms around her. His lips brushed her ear.

“I didn’t mean what I said about finding someone who doesn’t love you to experiment on,” he growled. “I won’t share you with anyone. You’re mine.”

Daisy gripped the horse’s mane and turned so her lips just brushed the corner of his own. His breath hitched in the most satisfying manner.

“Same goes for you, Your Grace,” she whispered. “You’re mine. Now and forever. And if you so much as look at another woman, you’ll be getting another scar to add to your collection.”

“Duly noted,” he said, covering her mouth with his.

His right hand slid down her thigh as he kissed her, deeply, hungrily, and Daisy smiled inwardly as he found the lump of her holster beneath her skirts.

He rocked his hips against her bottom, and she squirmed against his gratifyingly hard erection.

“The fact that you’ll be armed at our wedding should not make me so hard,” he groaned, kissing her again. “But then, everything you do puts me in this state. You, Daisy Hamilton, are a bloody menace.”

Someone—Harry—pointedly cleared his throat and Daisy suppressed a groan of her own at the interruption.

“God, you’re as bad as Perry and Violet. If you two lovebirds wouldn’t mind waiting until after the ceremony…” Harry grinned.

Finch had expertly turned the carriage in the narrow lane, so Ellie and Tess both climbed back inside.

“Back to the chapel, then,” Finch announced to nobody in particular.

Ellie stuck her head out of the carriage window and sent Daisy a gleeful wave. “You know what I’ve just realized? That hermit at Vauxhall was right!”

“What hermit?” Lucien muttered.

Daisy suppressed a laugh. “Oh, nothing. Just a silly fortune-teller we met at Vauxhall Gardens years ago. He predicted I’d meet my match on a dark highway.”

“And so you have,” Lucien said. “Twice, in fact.”

“Are you disappointed I’m not going to marry you wearing my breeches?” she teased.

His arms tightened around her as he urged the horse to follow the carriage. “I don’t care what you wear, as long as you say I do. You’re going to make a sensational duchess.”