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“She did, on the Pettypont Bridge, become greatly excited and emotional,” he continued, “but I swear to you, Mrs. Sebastian, the embrace Harker saw was no more mutual than when Bash falls upon Poppet and kisses him before the poor dog can wriggle free.”

“You’re a deal stronger than Poppet,” said Sarah dryly, though inwardly her heart floated with joy.

“So I am,” he agreed, “and had I made use of that greater strength, I could have lifted Mary overhead and flung her in the River Cherwell, but I hope you will agree that would have created another whole set of problems.”

As her former fears evaporated and her spirits rose to dizzying heights, a laugh escaped her, causing his own to ring out in turn.

“Hush, Mr. Langworthy,” Sarah bid him, still giggling. “Such a bellow will bring the innkeeper at a run.”

“Then come here,” he replied. Releasing her skirts, he made use of his vaunted strength to seize her by the arms and transfer her to his lap.

“What are you doing?” she protested, still laughing but turning to slap at his hands. “Suppose someone comes in, sir!”

“Then he too will hear the second conclusion Miss Pence and I arrived at in our talk,” he said, gathering her still closer to his chest.

“Which was…?”

“Which was, that I would marry you, if you would have me. Look at me, Sarah. I asked you once before and deserved the answer I got. I asked you flippantly, in bitterness of spirit, without any effort to court or win you. But God bless you, my love, for though I remained in Iffley vowing revenge on you for your rejection, you overcame my misplaced rancor with your kindness and honesty. I ask you again now, beloved Sarah, will you be my wife? If this time I lay at your feet my heart, my person, and all that I have or will ever have to give in this world?”

She said Yes.

Of course she said Yes, even if she could not say it in words. She gave her consent with smiles and tears, and when he urged, “Then kiss me, Sarah,” she gave her consent again by lifting her lips to his.

It was an hour they would recall with sighs and with longing, the many months they were apart, an hour they would occasionally be blessed to return to in dreams.

The relentless mantel clock ticked away their time, however, and the hour could not all be given to embracing (although a shocking portion of it was).

“You will write to me, Sarah?” he murmured, his lips at her ear.

“Because I don’t know when we will see each other again, much less marry.

Ah, marriage!” This drew a frustrated groan.

“I would need to get very lucky with prizes or we could never afford to until I made post captain. It might be years.”

Or never.

A shiver passed through her when she remembered how Sebastian had sailed away from her that final time, never to return.

“Of course I will write to you,” she promised.

“But Horace—if you do return to Portsmouth and are given shore leave, what will we do? You will not have time to come all the way to Iffley—oh, good heavens!” Suddenly, she remembered her mother-in-law’s request and blushed to think what had driven it so far from her mind.

“Dearest, I entirely forgot to tell you that Mrs. Gordon Barstow had a message for you.”

When it was told, it only made her love him more to see the tears stand in his eyes. “Bless her. I’ve never had a mother—that I could remember. You saw what sort of house my uncle’s is. Tell her—and I will tell her again when I write to her—that I will come to Iffley every chance I have.”

“But Horace,” Sarah said again, “if you must travel to Iffley whenever you have leave, it will cut fearfully into your time—into our time together.”

“But how could I ask you and Bash and the Barstows to meet me in Portsmouth? It would be expensive and very hard on you all to travel and to find temporary lodgings whenever I knew I would be ashore, and the precise days and times can never be depended upon.”

“Perhaps if Mrs. Barstow and I came and left Bash in Iffley…?”

But he shook his head decisively at this.

“Absolutely not. If I am to be the boy’s new father one day, I must be given the opportunities to win him.

” Grinning, he took her hand and rubbed it against his jaw.

“I may even have to grow a fine set of ‘ooskers,’ so that usurpers like Rearden don’t presume upon my place. ”

(Further embracing, but more hurried this time.)

“If we will have so little time together, you must have your likeness taken and sent to me,” she insisted, pulling away again.

“And you must give me something of yours. This lock of hair? I have kissed it enough that by rights it belongs to me now.”

The hands of the clock were flying now.

“Horace,” she ventured, driven to boldness by him reluctantly setting her on her feet again and rising to straighten his uniform, “you know our expenses are low in Iffley—the baron is so kind. Do you suppose, now that you are receiving your full pay again, and I can continue to economize and remain where I have been, that we might not wait so very many years to marry, even if there is no prize money or promotion?”

“Darling girl!” He kissed her again on her lips and her brow. “Don’t you want me to be a rich admiral one day?”

“I don’t care about that, except for your sake.

If you want it, I mean. If you want it, I will want it for you.

But then maybe when you are wealthy and have made post-captain, you might think it would have been wiser to choose a young lady who would aid your career through her connections or fortune. ”

Such a statement could not go unchallenged, and Langworthy defied it in the most satisfying manner possible.

“But perhaps you will be the one to be disappointed, Sarah,” he rejoined a few minutes onward. “Because suppose I meet with ill luck—”

“Hush! Don’t say that, Horace—”

“No, sweeting, don’t look like that! I didn’t mean that sort of ill luck. I meant ill luck like I experienced before: capture, imprisonment, no chance of prize money or promotion—”

“I don’t care! I wouldn’t care!” she vowed. “Only promise me you will come back to me alive.”

“Alive, yes, as much as it is in my power. But what if I had to invalid out? Or had a leg blown to bits like Mary’s Captain Colley?”

“Just so you are alive,” she insisted.

“Would you still like me, though, if I didn’t have this very handsome uniform and had to turn schoolmaster?”

“I liked you well enough when you were hardly more than an idler in Iffley.”

“‘Idler,’ indeed! I ought to punish you for that, and so I will.”

But when the punishments had been administered he said, “Did you know, the baron tried to persuade me into the schoolmaster line permanently?”

“I wish he had succeeded, then,” Sarah declared. “If he had, we might marry next month and be always together.”

As it was, far too soon the moment of parting was upon them.

In truth, he should have gone ten minutes earlier, and as it was he prayed Stolles had succeeded in getting Harry to the boat which would row them out to Spithead.

“For if he didn’t, it’s too late now, and you will have to take the boy back with you to Iffley, heaven help you. ”

There was no time for more.

He left her at the door with one final, lingering look.

Then they parted, as miserable as it was possible for two blissful, avowed lovers to be.