She laughed. “Well, at least you’re dressed this time. Mostly, anyway.”
He was moving before she’d even finished speaking, tossing aside the towel and taking the few quick steps to bridge the distance between them. “My God,” he muttered, sliding his hands up and down her arms to be sure she was real. “My God. What are you doing here?”
She bit her lip, giving him a look of pity. “Don’t you know by now how much I hate being left behind?”
He began to laugh, joy welling up inside his chest. Incredulous, still stunned, he hauled her into his arms. “Marjorie, my darling. My mad, wild, crazy ginger.”
He kissed her with each word, her mouth, her nose, her cheeks, her hair, and then her mouth again. “How did you get here? Do you have luggage? Are you real?”
“Very real,” she assured him and proved it by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. “As for how I got here, you’ll be happy to know my chaperones brought me.”
“Poor chaperones, indeed,” he replied, slipping his arms around her waist, “if they let you do something like this.”
“Well, I did promise them that we would get married. In fact, Clara said if we’re off to Gibraltar together, you’d better marry me, or she’d come find you and shoot you.”
Given that Clara had been making that threat ever since he’d been old enough to annoy her, he might have been amused, but Marjorie’s mention of marriage shredded any notions of humor, and he drew back a little, looking into her eyes. “You want to marry me? You’re sure?”
“Yes, Jonathan. I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”
She sounded sure, but he wasn’t ready to dance a jig about it. “You weren’t last night. As I recall, you never did give me an answer. And this morning, when I told you my plans, you were dead set against ever marrying me.”
“I wouldn’t quite say that. I admit,” she went on as he raised a skeptical eyebrow, “I wasn’t sure last night, but before the night was over, you managed to change my mind.”
“And change it back. Or have you forgotten our quarrel this morning?”
“No, but your news was like a lightning bolt. One minute, you were showing me that lovely house you’d bought for us, and the next minute, you were telling me you were leaving. I felt as if everything I’d ever wanted had just been dangled in front of me and then snatched away. It all happened so fast, and I had no time to think.”
“Believe me, manipulating you or rushing you were not at all what I’d intended. Quite the opposite, in fact. Before you came to my room last night, I was readying myself for a long courtship. I thought you might need months or even a year or two to make up your mind about me. I thought you’d want to do the season, meet other men before you decide, and if that was going to be the case, I knew I’d have to have an occupation, or I’d go mad. When I met with Kayne, and we discussed making the deal, I knew at once it was the right thing for me, but I knew to persuade you would take time. When Kayne suggested I be the one to go to Gibraltar, I agreed, thinking it a good move on my part.”
“A good move to leave me? I like that!”
He smiled a little. “Call it a strategic withdrawal. I thought it would give you the opportunity to consider my plan. And I hoped,” he added, pulling her closer, “it might make you miss me a little. Realize you couldn’t live without me.”
“Oh, how conceited men are!” she cried.
“I was far too unsure of your feelings to be conceited. When you came to my room last night, I should have booted you out straightaway, because in the back of my mind, I knew it wasn’t fair play otherwise, but I just couldn’t do it. I’m weak as water where you’re concerned. What can I say? And then, later, when I had all your clothes off and you still wouldn’t agree to marry me... well, by then, I knew you loved me, so there was no way I was letting you go.”
“I didn’t want to let you go either, obviously,” she whispered, blushing a little, her arms tightening around his neck as she rose on her toes and kissed him.
“I’m glad, but this morning, it made telling you my plans so much harder. When I showed you the house, I knew I had to tell you what I’d agreed to take on, but it kept getting more difficult to say, and finally, I just blurted it out. And then, well, everything rather went to hell.”
He bent his head and kissed her. “This morning, I accused you of being afraid, but the truth is, I was afraid, too, Marjorie. I was afraid I’d ruined everything. I thought about not going, about backing out of the deal, but Kayne and I had already made an agreement, and if I failed to honor that, how could I ever expect you to count on me?”
She nodded. “I see that now, but this morning, I was just so shocked. But after I had time to think it over, I realized you were right, that I was clinging to old fears and other people’s ideas. And I didn’t want to do that anymore, not after what the baroness had said to me.”
He groaned. “That woman.”
“Well, you should thank her because what she said was what sent me to your room last night, and what made me realize I was in love with you, and what changed my mind this afternoon. She said life isn’t perfect, and things don’t always go according to plan—”
“Tell me about it,” he murmured, earning himself a punch in the arm. “Ouch.”
“She also said that life would be very dull if we never took any risks. And today, after I got over the initial shock of your news, I remembered her words, and I realized that if I refused you out of fear and the need to feel safe, I’d regret it forever. After all, my dull, risk-free life was the reason I jumped on a ship and followed you in the first place.”
“And despite all my efforts to see you properly looked after, here you are again.”
“Well, yes. You see...” She paused, smiling. “I got this smashing field camera as a birthday present. And I decided,” she added as he laughed, “the best way to put it to good use was by coming with you. Which reminds me... you’ve told me your career plans, but you haven’t heard mine.”
He blinked, taken aback. “You want a career?”
