after the briefest of knocks, holding aloft the tray with the decanter and glasses. ‘And in future, would you please knock and wait before entering any room in which Lady Georgianna and I are alone together?’ he added, his gaze remaining intent upon Georgianna.
‘Certainly, your Grace.’ The butler placed the tray upon the side table. ‘Will that be all, your Grace?’
Zachary barely resisted the impulse to tell the man to go to the devil, wishing to be alone again with Georgianna, to continue their conversation. To hear her repeat that she had fallen in love with him.
Something he hardly dared to believe.
‘You may retire for the night, Hinds,’ Zachary dismissed distractedly. ‘And thank you.’
His butler gave him another startled glance before gathering himself and leaving the room. As evidence perhaps that Zachary’s temper had been less than pleasant this past few days?
As no doubt it had, caught up in the pained whirlpool of his uncertainty in his own emotions, as he had surely been.
‘Is that not a strange request to make of your butler, when there is no reason to suppose that the two of us might ever be alone together in a room in this house again?’ Georgianna queried huskily.
Zachary stepped out from behind his desk. ‘There is every reason to suppose it, Georgianna.’ He strode purposefully towards her before grasping both of her hands in his. ‘Believe me, when I tell you, that these past three weeks I have come to love and admire you beyond anything and anyone else in this world.’
‘Zachary?’ she choked out emotionally.
‘Georgia, will you please, I beg of you, consent to becoming my wife?’
Georgianna stared up at him wonderingly, sure Zachary could not truly have told her that he loved her, too. That he had begged her to marry him?
His hands tightened about hers as he obviously mistook her silence for hesitation. ‘And not because of any ridiculous clause in my father’s will, either. Indeed, if you require it as proof of the sincerity of my feelings for you, I will give away half of the Hawksmere fortune to my cousin Rufus forthwith, as my father’s will decrees if I do not have an heir by my thirty fifth birthday. Anything, if you will consent to become my wife immediately.’
Georgianna’s mouth felt very dry, and after its wild pounding earlier she was sure her heart had now ceased to beat altogether. ‘Is your cousin in need of half the Hawksmere fortune?’
‘Thanks to Rufus’s business acumen, he is already one of the richest men in London.’ Zachary bared his teeth in a brief smile before just as quickly sobering. ‘Nevertheless, I will happily give him the money, if it will ensure that you believe I am sincere in my declaration of love for you. If you will only consent to become my wife as soon as it can be arranged?’
Georgianna had no idea what she had expected the outcome of her visit here this evening to be, but she knew she had certainly never expected it to be the complete and utter happiness of hearing Hawksmere declare his love for her and his asking her to marry him.
Her vision was blurred by those tears of happiness. ‘You truly love me?’
‘To the point of madness,’ Zachary assured fervently. ‘Indeed, I believe I have been half-insane with the emotion these past few days.’ The intensity of his gaze held her. ‘I love you so very much, Georgianna Rose Lancaster.’
‘As I love you, Zachary Richard Edward Black,’ she answered him huskily. ‘Completely. And always.’
His face lit up. ‘Then put all of the past behind us and consent to marry me.’
She swallowed. ‘Are you absolutely sure that is what you want, Zachary? My reappearance in society is still tenuous.’
‘What are you suggesting, Georgianna?’ Zachary demanded. ‘That I should make you my mistress rather than marry you? That I should hide you away somewhere?’
‘I am something of a novelty in society just now, Zachary, but if anyone should ever learn of my elopement with André...’
‘They will not discover it,’ Zachary announced arrogantly. ‘And even if they did, none would dare to question the reputation of the Duchess of Hawksmere.’
It was a name, a title, when used in connection to herself, that had once filled Georgianna with such dread. Now it only filled her with a happiness that threatened to overwhelm her. ‘I am so in love with you, Zachary. So very, very much, my darling. And if you are serious in your proposal of marriage...?’
‘I will accept nothing less,’ he assured firmly.
She glowed up at him. ‘Then I believe I should much prefer that you keep the Hawksmere fortune intact for our children, when they are born.’
‘Georgianna?’ Zachary had almost been afraid to hope, to dream, that Georgianna would ever accept his proposal. ‘You truly will consent to become my wife?’ His fingers tightened painfully about hers. ‘You will marry me as soon as a special licence can be arranged?’
She nodded happily. ‘And Jeffrey shall give me away and one of your friends, Wolfingham, perhaps, shall stand up with you. Oh, yes, I will marry you, Zachary. Yes, yes, please, yes.’ She launched herself into his arms as his mouth swooped down to once again claim hers.
* * *
‘You were very brave to come here alone this evening, my love,’ Zachary murmured admiringly some time later, Georgianna’s head resting on his chest as the two of them lay on the chaise in his study together. He played with her curls, having once again released her hair so that it cascaded loosely down her back.
She laughed softly, contentedly, the two of them having professed their love for each other over and over again this past hour or more. ‘To confront the fierce lion in his den?’
‘To have completely tamed the lion in his den,’ Zachary corrected with humour. ‘Indeed, I find I am so much in love with you I very much doubt I shall ever be able to deny you anything in future, love.’
Georgianna hesitated, knowing that there was still one thing that she had not confessed to her beloved. The last confession.
When she first returned to England she had been too angry at Hawksmere’s incarceration of her, to talk of such things, and since then there had been no right time, no opportunity, for her to do so.
‘What is it, Georgia?’ Zachary sat up slightly as he sensed her sudden tension. His hands gently cupped either side of her face as he looked down at her searchingly. ‘Tell me, my love.’
She chewed on her bottom lip. ‘I— It is only— A lady should not talk of such things,’ she choked out emotionally.
‘Now you are seriously worrying me, love.’ Zachary frowned. ‘We have talked about so much this past hour. The past, the now, our future together. What on earth is there that still bothers you so much that you look as if you are about to cry?’
Georgianna felt as if she were about to cry. It was all too embarrassing. Too humiliating.
Her gaze dropped from his as she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. ‘When I eloped
