Page 98 of Road Trip With a Rogue
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 smilelurked 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.Notstarting 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 tostupid, 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 toearnyour 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 herarms 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 theton.
“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 sheloved. “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.”