“Yes.”
He laughed and kissed her. “Do you want to know why I think you’re amazing?”
She nodded.
“Did you look back at the room as we walked out? Did you see our families sitting together, listening together? You brought them together, Josie. Just like you climbed into my window and brought us together.”
“Oh, I think you had a part in that, too.”
“A small one,” he admitted. He opened his arms to her, and she went into his inviting embrace, kissed his generous lips, pressed against his welcoming body.
“You’re an adventure, Josephine Hale,” he whispered. “My adventure. What will I do when you tire of me and go in search of more fascinating voyages?”
“I’ll never tire of you,” she promised, looking into his eyes. “And I have a feeling our adventures are far from over.”
There was a knock on the door, and before they could separate, Josie’s mother burst in. “There you are! Josephine, we’ve been looking all over. Madeleine and Ashley are missing. No one has seen them for above an hour and a quarter at least. We must find them.”
When Josie and Stephen didn’t move, she threw her hands up and ran back out the door. “Madeleine! Ashley!” she cried. The shouts were soon echoed by others.
Josie turned to Westman. “Ready for another adventure?”
He dipped his head to kiss her. “Always.”
Read the next book in the Misadventures in Matrimony series. Enjoy an excerpt from Blackthorne’s Bride below.
“Lady Madeleine, I simply must have you. I must. May I call you darling?”
Maddie gave Sir Alphonse Pennebacker a shove, thrusting him back far enough that she could catch a breath of fresh air before his perfumed stench invaded her nostrils again. “No, you may not call me darling. In fact, Sir Alphonse, I asked you not to call on me ever again.”
Sir Alphonse smiled. “But, my lady, that is the beauty of our present circumstance. I am here. You are here. We are fated to be together.”
“I hardly think fate played a role,” Maddie said, scooting along the bookshelf in the Westmans’ library. If she could reach the end, she might have a chance to dart out the door and escape Sir Alphonse. “You knew I would attend my cousin’s wedding breakfast. My entire family is in attendance.”
Maddie inched past a volume of Shakespeare and several books of poetry. A section of essays remained and then she would be free. Well, as free as she could be in a house brimming with her meddlesome family.
“The question,” Maddie said, eyeing the essays, “is why you are in attendance.”
“Distant relation,” Sir Alphonse said with a wave of one lace-bedecked sleeve. He edged closer, and Maddie could not help but stare at the beauty mark above his lip. It was obviously painted on. No less obvious was the copious rouge he used to redden his cheeks.
Maddie moved imperceptibly nearer to the volumes of essays. “Distant relation of whom? The bride or groom?”
The edge of her dress brushed the volumes in question, and Maddie prepared to make her move when Sir Alphonse pounced, cornering her, and suffocating her with the overwhelming stench of roses.
“What does it matter, my dear lady? I am here. You are here. Say yes, my darling. Consent to be my wife.”
Maddie tried to force the words out without taking a breath. “I cannot, sir. I do not love you.”
He stepped back, hand to his heart as though mortally wounded. Maddie almost felt sorry for him. She would have, had she not seen the same reaction from him seven times before.
“You wound me, my lady. I love you.”
“No, you do not,” Maddie said levelly. “You love my money, and you love my father’s title. You do not love me.”
“There you are wrong,” Sir Alphonse said firmly. “That may be true of your other suitors, but not I. Tell me, my sweet, what can I do to prove my love?”
He leaned closer, and Maddie felt faint from the lack of fresh air. She could not back up any farther. The spine of a book dug into her shoulder.
“Shall I climb a mountain for you? Write you a hundred love songs? Quote poetry to you all night long?”
