She reached for him as he reached for her. He pulled her into his lap, which was just as sturdy and comfortable as she’d always dreamed. Her tears were cool against his temple. And they just held on to each other. Lulled and enchanted by the very fact of each other, by the gentle sway of each other’s breathing. Like ships finally at harbor. Dumbstruck by their luck. Awestruck that they were loved by each other.
“You will marry me?” she murmured.
“Sweetheart, I will marry you.”
“I want to live in New York with you.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want to lose my family... I don’t want to hurt them...” She swiped her tears. “I love them so. But...”
“You never will lose them. And we’ll have a family of our own.”
“...but I want to love and be loved. Fiercely. Forever.”
“I know exactly how to do that.”
There was no doubt in her mind.
“I want to see and do and feel new things and create a new life in a new place. I want two boys and two girls. I want you. I needyou.”
“I’m yours. Forever,” he murmured. He kissed her nearly senseless.
Against her lips he paused to whisper, “You are sure? You’re not scared?”
“So scared. And so sure.”
“We are going to have a wonderful life, Lillias. And we are going to soar so high.”
“Oh, Iknow,” she said.
They were luxuriating in slow, slow kisses, made possible by the fact that they now had all the time in the world to indulge in such things, so they didn’t hear the approaching footsteps. First on marble, then muffled by Axminster.
Which is how the Earl of Vaughn discovered not young Bankham waiting for him, but his daughter in Hugh Cassidy’s lap.
The earl threw an arm up over his eyes.
“Arrgh! Dear God... what on...again?”
They didn’t fly apart from each other. They did stop kissing. They looked at him, expressions glazed with wonderment and happiness.
“No, no, don’t get up on my account,” the earl said acerbically.
But Lillias gracefully and unapologetically slid from Cassidy’s lap, gave her skirts a shake. And then Hugh stood.
Cassidy looked like he hadn’t slept in two nights, which was more or less true.
“Papa... I’m going to marry Hugh,” she said calmly.
The earl had no words.
Hugh reached for her hand, and gently, inexorably as a vow, they laced their fingers together.
They were already a united front. They might have been married for years. He knew what he was witnessing.
And while this was almost precisely what he’d thought would happen when he’d told young Giles to wait a few days to speak to her, the earl also sensed what Lillias was about to say next. He felt every muscle in his body bracing for it.
“And I am going to live in New York with him,” she said gently.