Page 43 of To Tempt Lady (Victorian Outcasts #10)

One year later

Marcus went through the house designs again, walking across the open construction site.

The house would be fully detached but not particularly large, at least not as big as Hart House. Emma was used to wide rooms and plenty of space. The house where they would live once married was more modest but made with the finest materials he could find, and it would be warm and comfortable.

“...and the kitchen has been planned as well, sir,” Edward, Marcus’s foreman, said. “As you can see, we’re on time. Unless your bride-to-be has changed her mind again and wishes to speed things up?” A note of panic quivered in his voice.

He smiled. “No, she hasn’t. We agreed to get married as soon as the house is completed.”

Edward sighed. “Good to know.”

Speaking of which, a carriage stopped at the rough drive, and Emma jumped out of it to run to him.

He hurried to take her hand, lest she trip on the discarded building material cramming the drive.

“So? How are we doing?” Her smile dropped when she tilted her head up and looked at the skeleton of the house and the scaffolding. “It’s the same as it was two weeks ago. I don’t see any difference.”

He kissed her hand. “Trust me, we made a lot of progress. Invisible progress to the untrained eye. We finished the foundations, the connection to the main sewer, and the plumbing. Those are the most complicated structures to build.”

She stuck out her bottom lip. “What about the walls and windows?”

“They are next.”

“I’ve already chosen the tiles and the furniture. Can’t we speed up the construction?”

Edward focused on a wooden beam in the room that would be the drawing room and pretended not to hear her.

Marcus shook his head. “Always so impatient.”

“I want to marry you.” She hooked her arm through his. “As soon as possible. I had to wait a whole year already, and with Trevor seeing Ophelia again, I want to get married soon so I can help her organise their wedding.”

“We waited a year because I needed to rebuild my company.” And he couldn’t have done it without Trevor’s help.

Surprisingly, even Lady Beaumont offered her help, and the new construction company, Kingston Trevor wanted it to slow down.

Marcus, instead, was happy.

Whatever happened, however it went, he had everything he’d wanted or needed right in that room.

He and Emma had built the most beautiful life ever.