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M ary Kate could not feel the top of her head.

She had so much she wanted to say to Flaherty—questions to ask—but each and every last thought in her brainbox just melted away when he kissed her.

Every bit of her, between her nose and her toes, positively tingled when his lips molded to hers, coaxing her to acquiesce to whatever he’d said.

While they waited for her ladyship to pen a note to Lady Aurelia, she listened as Flaherty spoke of the changes that would have to be made after they wed. She understood all that he said and agreed—up until he mentioned her leaving Lady Calliope’s employ.

“No.”

Flaherty’s hand froze with a lemon scone a fraction of a hair from his distractingly sculpted lips. “What did ye say, lass?”

“I said no. Is it a word you haven’t ever heard before, Flaherty?”

“Ye cannot think to continue to work for Lady Calliope and be married and living with me at Lippincott Manor, lass. I do not see how it would be possible.”

She fisted her hands in her lap as her mood plummeted. Elation was quickly replaced by irritation. Would the rest of their lives be like this, whenever she said no? “I cannot leave her ladyship. She depends on me.”

“She’ll get used to your replacement, lass.”

Mary Kate rose from her seat and walked to the door. Hand to the doorknob, she was surprised when a large hand appeared on the door in front of her face, holding it shut.

“Did yer ma not raise ye any better than to walk away from a conversation without a by yer leave?”

She spun around and glared at him. “Did your mum let you have your way all of your life?”

“Lass, ye have to understand—”

“You are the one who needs to understand,” she countered.

“’Twould be difficult enough the traveling back and forth with someone to guard ye,” Flaherty told her. “And ye aren’t going to be spending the night in any other bed than mine once we’re wed.”

Lord, was the man deliberately trying to provoke her temper? “What if I do not wish to spend every night in your bed?”

He was silent for long enough that she worried she had pushed him too far, too quickly. “Is that how ye were raised? With yer ma and da sleeping in separate rooms?”

“Of course not. What ever gave you that idea?”

“Yer comment. And for that matter, why would ye not want to spend every night in me bed if we’re wed? ’Tis what husbands and wives do.”

“Before I worked for Lady Kittrick, I was employed by another member of the ton , and I can tell you that neither the lord nor the lady of the house shared a bedchamber. There were a number of ‘guests’ that spent the night. But the master and mistress never spent it together.”

“I’ll not spend the rest of me life wondering where me wife is sleeping!”

Did he just insinuate that she would sleep with someone else when married to him?

Aghast at the implication, Mary Kate did what one of the footman taught her to do after a guest of Lady Kittrick’s cornered her: she kicked Flaherty in the shins and shoved against his shoulders.

Momentarily shocked, he released his hold on the door.

She opened it and raced down the hallway.

She was hurt and so angry, she could not see straight!

Mary Kate was halfway up the servants’ staircase when she heard heavy footsteps close behind her. She lifted her skirts higher to avoid tripping, and made it to the top step, only to be hauled back against an all-too-familiar, rock-hard chest. “Let me go!”

Flaherty spun her around, demanding, “Are ye daft? Did ye fall down recently and land on yer hard head?”

Incensed that he would ask such a question, she struggled against his hold, but it was no use—he was stronger. “Donovans never give up! Never give in!”

Instead of temper, she heard his deep snort of laughter.

“God, ye’re the only woman for me. Yer hair matches yer temper, and that’s no lie.

I expected ye’d be pitting yer will against me own—and look forward to it—but not quite so quickly, and not over sharing me bed.

Why does me not wanting to wonder what bed yer sleeping in anger ye?

I’m the one who’s angry at the thought that ye’d be sleeping in the servants’ quarters here at Chattsworth instead of our bed at Lippincott Manor. ”

It hit her then…she had jumped to the wrong conclusion! “You weren’t suggesting that I’d find someone else…” Her words trailed off as the idiocy of what she assumed he’d meant filled her. Flaherty would never cast aspersions on anyone’s honor…especially hers.

He tilted back his head and stared at the ceiling for a few moments before lowering it to stare into her eyes. “ Somewhere else…not someone else. I’d never think that of ye, lass.”

“But you believed I was in love with Garahan, when all of this time I have been in love with you !”

His bright blue eyes narrowed, skewering her with their desire-wrapped intensity.

“Have ye now?” One moment they were standing in the middle of the top step, the next he had her pinned her against the wall of the enclosed staircase.

“Why would I ask yer permission—and that of the viscount, whom ye work for, and the earl, whom I work for—if I wasn’t half in love with ye when I asked? ”

When she did not answer, he murmured, “Yer declaration of love boggles the mind, lass. For if I’d known ye felt that way, I wouldn’t have waited so long to ask for yer hand.”

His mouth was a fraction away from hers when she turned her head to the side, and his kiss landed on her cheek. “It all comes back to you not trusting me.”

“I could say the same for yerself.”

She turned back to search his gaze for a hint of what he was really thinking. “I would not have rushed over once I heard you’d been shot, Seamus, nor would I have stayed with you once you fell unconscious with fever for nearly a sennight, if I did not love you.”

“I would not have asked to court ye if I did not love ye, lass. I’m thinking what we have here is a lack of understanding and trust. We cannot expect to live the rest of our lives together if we don’t have that. Can we?”

She shook her head. “What do you suggest?”

He shrugged, the movement calling attention to his broad shoulders and the impressive width of his chest. “We start over and agree to trust one another.”

“I might, if you would consider my request to stay with Lady Calliope.”

“Lass, can ye not see that she’d be needing ye at all hours of the day? Haven’t I heard ye mention that ye spend part of the night caring for their son? How can ye do that and expect me to be lying awake, wanting ye, needing ye?”

Well, that was blunt, and had her stammering, “Are you s-s-saying that you’d want to…spend time doing…things?”

He chuckled. “Aye, lass. It has been a trial not thinking about it.”

“Well, how long could it possibly take to consummate our marriage? Furthermore, how often would ye expect to—” She felt her face flame as her throat tightened with emotion.

“Can ye not say the words, lass? Making love is what we’d be doing. As often as possible.”

“I see,” she rasped. “But Lady Calliope needs me.”

“I need ye too, lass. Why don’t we speak to Lady Calliope and ask if she’d be willing to have ye as her lady’s maid during the day, but ye’d be home in time to have yer evening meal with me.”

Mary Kate stared up into the deep blue of Seamus’s eyes.

The stark need swirling inside of her was reflected back at her.

He wanted this to work and had made a viable suggestion.

She would be foolish not to consider it.

“If Lady Calliope agrees, would you be willing to allow me to stay the night, when needed? Under special circumstances?”

“Such as?”

“If little William is ill. He trusts me, and it may take some time for him to become used to someone else caring for him in the middle of the night.”

“Does he wake up that often in the night?”

She paused to think about it. “No, not now that he isn’t teething.”

“Well then, I can agree to special circumstances, lass.” He leaned in close, his intentions clear by the desire swirling in his eyes.

“Kiss me back, Mary Kate.” His lips commanded a response from her, and she willingly gave it with all of the pent-up desire and emotion that had been simmering beneath her surface calm.

She did love this irritating man, and did not want to think of spending her life without him.

“We’d best be going back down to the sitting room before the viscount sends one of me cousins searching for me and banishes me from Chattsworth…right before he has me dragged back to Lippincott Manor!”

She leaned against Seamus’s strength, reveling in the fact that he had been thinking of her as often as she had been thinking of him.

If only she had come to her senses and realized that her thoughtlessness regarding Garahan’s rescuing her had damaged two relationships: the one she had with Melinda, and the one with Seamus.

The door at the base of the stairs opened and O’Malley filled the doorway. “For feck’s sake, Flaherty! Can ye not wait until tomorrow to lock lips with yer bride-to-be? Think of Mary Kate’s reputation!”

“We had a misunderstanding,” Flaherty grumbled. “And watch yer language around me bride. No bloody cursing!”

“She’s not yer bride yet,” O’Malley reminded him.

“Well, she will be by this time tomorrow.”

“Only if ye don’t feck it up.”

“Shut yer gob, O’Malley.”

His cousin chuckled. “Her ladyship is waiting for the two of ye in the sitting room. Don’t be worrying her.”

Flaherty laced his fingers with Mary Kate’s once more and gave a slight tug, urging her to follow him. “We’d best be ready to apologize to her ladyship, lass.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Ye can go first.”

Lady Calliope did look worried when they arrived in the sitting room. “There you are. Where did you two go off to?”

Mary Kate did not want her ladyship to think ill of her. It was best to tell her the truth. “I misunderstood something Flaherty said and let my temper get the better of me. I stormed off and was nearly at the top of the servants’ staircase when he caught up to me.”

“The lass thought I said something that impugned her honor.” He frowned and added, “As if I would.”

Lady Calliope’s expression was one of disbelief.

Before she could respond, Flaherty continued, “Faith, ’tis the same reaction I had.

Why would the lass think I’d do anything like that?

But the fact that she reacted that way was the reason I chased after her.

” He sighed when he confessed, “’Tis her red head. ”

The viscountess slowly smiled. “She does have a bit of a temper, doesn’t she?”

Mary Kate wasn’t sure if the subject of her having a bit of a temper would be in her favor when she and Flaherty asked their question of her future position within Chattsworth Manor’s staff.

Best not put it off any longer. “Lady Calliope, Seamus and I did smooth things out between us, but we still have an issue that may prevent me from marrying him.”

The viscountess frowned. “I cannot think of anything that would.”

“He wants me to leave my position,” Mary Kate explained.

“Oh… Oh! I never thought of that.” Meeting Mary Kate’s gaze and then Flaherty’s, Lady Calliope admitted, “I honestly do not know what I would do without you, Mary Kate.”

“I had an idea, if ye don’t mind me making a suggestion,” Flaherty said.

“Not at all,” the viscountess replied. “What is it?”

“Mary Kate would of course be living with me over at Lippincott Manor, as the earl—and His Grace—depend upon me as part of his guard.”

“Without question,” Lady Calliope replied.

“One of us could drop Mary Kate off here in the morning—after we share our first meal of the day together. And I could return and fetch her before the evening meal.”

The viscountess did not answer right away, and Mary Kate wondered if she would refuse. Worry had her head feeling light again. She wished she could control her riotous emotions.

“MacReady mentioned the vicar has been trying to find a position for one of the young women in the village,” Calliope said. “But he hasn’t found one yet.”

“Does she have any experience as a lady’s maid?

” Mary Kate did not want her ladyship to have to train someone all over again.

Especially when she remembered how tired Lady Calliope had been as of late.

“If she could come here for part of my shift, I would be happy to show her all that I have been doing for you.”

The viscountess nodded. “A sound idea. I am quite sure William will agree to that suggestion. Far be it from either one of us to come between the two of you. Where would I be without you and Flaherty in our lives? Who knows what would have happened the day of the carriage incident or, for that matter, the morning of the duel!”

Mary Kate rushed to Calliope’s side and hugged her. Calliope smiled and hugged her back. “I want you and Flaherty to be as happy as William and I are.”

“Thank ye, yer ladyship. I plan to do me best to make her happy.” Flaherty’s smile belied the wicked glint in his eyes. Just when Mary Kate wondered what he was thinking, he added, “But I’m thinking ye’d want me to wait until we’re wed before I do.”

Calliope’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment at his suggestion. “I believe that would be best.” She picked the sealed note up off the table and handed it to him. “Please deliver this to Aurelia. And Flaherty?”

“Aye, yer ladyship?”

“Trust, compromise, and a willingness to listen are key in forming the foundation of your marriage.”

“’Tis what the lass and I were discussing before O’Malley interrupted.”

“We shall see you tomorrow before the evening meal,” the viscountess said. “I have outlined my plans in my note to Aurelia. We’ll have the vicar marry you here, as this is where the bride-to-be is currently living. William will give her away.”

“As long as we are wed on the morrow, yer ladyship, the place matters not to me.”

The viscountess beamed at him. “Wonderful. Until tomorrow, then, Flaherty.”

He walked toward Mary Kate and took her hand. Lifting it to his lips, he brushed a kiss to the back of it. “Until tomorrow, lass.”

Mary Kate sighed, promising, “Tomorrow.”