Bridal Favors - Engaged in Wickedness (17 page)

"I've had all the champagne I need for the moment," she said by way of dismissal. It was another automatic response because her heart was beating so fast. She had no idea what he wanted and she had no wish to descend into tears. It would be too humiliating. "Really, Sir Edward, I believe there are servants for that sort of thing."

"Yes, there are," he said, as he elbowed the last of her admirers away. Then he continued the motion by passing the tray over to the very same young man. "Be a good gent and find a footman for this please?"

The man looked like he would object, but Connie rose from her seat beside Gwen. "Don't bother objecting. He's quite determined. I've seen that expression before. Here, I'll help you." And then she lifted the tray—and the gentleman's arm—and began walking away. But not before giving her brother a warm smile.

Gwen was just thinking about that smile and wondering what it meant when Robert came to stand behind her.

"Is there something amiss?" he asked. He rested his hand lightly on her shoulder, and she smiled, feeling in accord with her brother for the first time in ages. He was here beside her, supporting her if she needed it. That was a wonderful thing. Plus it gave her the strength to face whatever it was that Edward wanted to say.

"Everything's fine," she murmured, her attention completely focused on Edward as he gave her brother a nod. It was a simple gesture of respect, the kind exchanged between men who knew something she did not. "But I'm beginning to feel a little closed in," she said, as she started to rise to her feet.

"I first saw you at the Edgemont ball," said Edward before she could do more than shift her feet. "You wore a gown of shimmering blue, like a waterfall, and I couldn't stop watching you. You were laughing and dancing. And you were so alive."

She frowned, her mind spinning back. "But that was the first ball of the Season. We didn't meet for weeks."

He lifted his hands in a useless gesture. "I was a country baronet with a bad haircut and a worse tailor. You never saw me."

The idea was preposterous. She was always so aware of him, where he stood, what he looked like. She remembered the very day he got his hair cut from the barber her brother recommended. It was after he'd returned from taking his family home. Now his curls fell artfully across his brows rather than seeming to fight for space on his head. And she knew the day she'd mentioned a tailor to Debra to pass on to him. In fact, he was wearing a suit made by that excellent man right now. She remembered these things because she'd been extraordinarily conscious of his every action. So the idea that she'd missed him for weeks of the Season seemed ridiculous.

"I always see you," she said firmly and with quite a bit of irritation.

"Not at first," he said.

"He's right," said Debra as she came to the side. "He asked me your name, and we watched as you went into dinner on Lord Benson's arm. He managed an introduction to you the very next night."

Gwen shook her head. "I am not so much of a ninny as to forget—"

"I believe you were distracted that night," Edwards said gently. "Your mother was playing chaperone and you kept looking at her."

"Oh.
That
night." Yes, she'd spent the entire evening wondering if the social whirl was too much for her mother. By the end of the evening, she was the one who had decided to go home. The anxiety had given her a raging headache.

While she was thinking, Edward sunk down to one knee before her. The movement was both so smooth and so startling that she could only stare while her pulse leapt in her throat.

"I spent the next weeks watching you, amazed by you. You dazzled everyone, not just me. I had to know you. And so I hatched a plan."

"The lemonade," she whispered.

"That was only the beginning. There were many more schemes after that to keep your attention."

She nodded. She had seen some of them.

"But they all added up to one thing." He pulled a ring from his pocket and held it out before him. It was a modest ring of his family's crest, made for a woman's hand. "My family is not so exalted as yours. In truth, nothing about me is nearly as wonderful as you. But I love you, and I have from the very beginning. I will do anything, hatch any plan, manage any stratagem if it means you will be mine. Please, Lady Gwendolyn, will you do me the greatest honor and be my wife?"

She gasped as she looked not at the ring but at the pure honesty in his eyes. How had he known that she would want a proposal in front of her family? How had he known that she needed to hear the why of all his elaborate plans? And how had he come to be the most perfect man right here before her with his heart in his eyes and a ring held up to her?

She didn't know how this was possible, and yet here he was.

"How could I not have seen you from that very first day?" she whispered.

"Because you shine so bright, all the rest of us pale."

She shook her head, her eyes blurring with tears. "If I shine, it is because I am standing with you. Because I love you."

His eyes widened and he jerked slightly forward, but caught himself. "So, is that... yes?"

She laughed. "Yes, I will marry you." She was already stripping off her glove so that he could slip the most wonderful ring in the world onto her finger.

"If you want a different ring," he began, but she cut him off.

"It's perfect. You are perfect."

He kissed her. It wasn't the thing to do in public. Certainly not with the passion that she felt simmering right beneath the surface. And certainly not the way she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he lifted her out of her seat.

But they were in love and she had never done things exactly the way they ought to be done. Fortunately he had more sense than she. He was pulling away even as he steadied her until she found her feet. Around them, everyone was clapping, even her admirers as they turned their attention to the other young ladies. Her brother was there to kiss her cheek and gravely shake Edward's hand. And Debra with Sir Henry were the very next to congratulate her.

"This is the best day of my life," whispered Debra as she gave Gwen a hug.

Gwen was thinking the exact same thing as Connie pushed her way forward.

"Could you get married in town? At the beginning of next season? We could rent rooms early and get gowns and do all the preparations together. And then I will be out and you will be married and it will be the most perfect Season ever!"

Gwen looked at Edward who shrugged. "I don't care about the details so long as it is soon and you do not change your mind."

She wouldn't. She couldn't. She loved him too much. "That sounds like a perfect plan. A wedding to mark the beginning of the Season." She glanced at Connie. "We shall plan your coming out then, and you..." She turned a fierce eye on her brother. "You will be at home with me until I say 'I do.'"

Robert groaned, but it was a weak protest. "I shall do whatever is required so long as at the end of the event, you are someone else's responsibility." He gave Edward a narrowed look. "Are you sure you want her?"

Edward grinned. "I have been scheming every moment of the last six weeks for that very thing." As he spoke, he handed Gwen another page of notes.

She looked down, scanning it with surprise. "You intended to abduct me to Scotland?"

"My dear, I would go to the ends of the Earth for you."

"No need," she said as she looked up into his dark and hungry eyes. "I am right here. I love you."

"And I love you."

Their kiss was going on much too long when her brother finally tapped her on the shoulder. "This is all very well and happy, Gwen, but try not to lose your head. We are in public, you know."

Gwen laughed though her cheeks were heating in embarrassment. "But isn't that the point of being in love?" she asked. "Losing one's head?"

Robert gave an exaggerated shudder. "Only for women," he said dryly.

Edward just shook his head, clearly refusing to argue with his future brother-in-law. And in that moment, she realized that Robert really did believe what he said. He thought love should be managed neatly and in a proper, very earl-like manner.

"I am very much looking forward to the woman who makes you absolutely insane," she said.

He gaped at her in horror. "That will never happen. Mark my words, sister dear. When I chose my wife, it will be a calm, rational courtship to a very proper woman."

Gwen started to laugh. Indeed, the laughter bubbled out of her like a fountain overflowing. She was that happy. "Care to make a wager on it, brother dear? I bet that you shall fall head over heels in love with someone who drives you more mad than I."

Her brother actually shuddered. "Why would you wish such a harpy on me? I swear, Gwen, you are the most madness I can handle."

She shook her head. "I shall be someone else's problem, as you so elegantly put it. And you, brother dear, would be bored to tears with a proper, rational courtship."

He snorted. "I accept your wager, Gwen. And it shall be the easiest bet I have ever won."

The End