She didn’t need to ask which night,for she knew.
She looked down at her hand on his chest and nodded. “I know what you were saying. I am not the woman you have sought to marry. Pray, do not say it again.” She closed her eyes, not wanting to hear the words.
“That’s not what I was trying to say. Well, I have always been known for fumbling my words around you. One argument leads to the next, and before I know it, my original point is quite lost, so it should hardly surprise me that I couldn’t get my words out that night either.” Stephen’s voice deepened. “I feared that you would not want to be my Duchess, Dorotheo.”
Once more, his use of her nickname didn’t feel like an insult.
It feels… intimate.
Dorothy opened her eyes and looked up at him. There was an expression on his face she didn’t understand, with that intensity of his gaze softening and a gentle smile caressing the usually firm line of his lips.
“You wanted a partner in crime, did you not? Someone who would take you places, offer you freedom. Yet, what I can offer you is not completely that.” He grimaced. “Oh, believe me, I’m happy to offer you adventure, take you places we have never been. In fact, if you accept my proposal now, I’ll take you to France—”
“What did you say? A proposal?”
No, she was certain she had misheard him. It was not possible that Stephen was even thinking of asking her to marry him, surely?
“Yet, there are difficulties here, too.” He bent his head a little toward her as he stepped closer to her. This time, she didn’t back up, so they drew close. “As my Duchess, you would be responsible for the tenants as well. I want you to consider all of that when I ask what I am about to ask you, for I do not want to be the man who trapped you into a life that you did not want. You should be like this, always.”
He smiled and nodded at her. “Wild in your beauty, unbidden, and absolutely covered in dirt.” He chuckled warmly, and she suddenly smiled, too, quite baffled by his declaration.
“This is not possible,” she whispered, shaking her head. “You cannot mean to offer marriage to me.”
“But that is exactly what I intend to do.” He suddenly got down to one knee. His trousers became even dirtier than before, as he happened to kneel in a particularly filthy puddle.
She raised her eyebrows at what he was doing, and he simply smiled in return.
“You are not doing this because of…” Her stomach churned. “Because of the scandal,” she muttered warily.
“No.” He shook his head, and her anxiety eased. “Though I admit, pointing this out to your brother might have helped encourage his blessing, but otherwise, no. I think I knew I didn’t want anyone else to marry you the moment I heard Lord Chilmond demand your hand. It was as if I saw all our previous years together in a new light.”
“All our arguing?” she murmured.
“Yes, all of it. All the bickering, all the laughter, all the sitting beside one another just so we could continue jibing at each other. I loved it all,” he admitted, his voice growing deeper still. “I love you, Dorotheo.”
Her breath hitched in her throat. How was this possible? After all this time, when being certain she had given her heart to the wrong man, could it have been the right man, after all?
“Marry me, Dorothy,” he pleaded. He lifted her hand from his chest and kissed the back of it again.
Dorothy inhaled deeply, struggling to control her heartbeat, thanks to his words and the feeling of his lips across the back of her hand.
I would be a duchess…
She considered it, making the choice he had asked her to make. She would be responsible for the tenants and the running of the estate alongside him, but for some reason, that didn’t frighten her in the slightest. Far from it, all that filled her was a thrill—a thrill of knowing that she would be by Stephen’s side, always.
“Does this mean I’d have to agree with everything you say?” she asked in a challenge.
He lifted his lips from her hand and shook his head. “You wouldn’t be able to agree with me on everything anyway.” He chuckled. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Life would be too dull, otherwise.”
“What if I embarrass you?” She gestured toward her gown and the dirt on it. “Would that matter?”
“It never has,” he said, his voice deep. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been quite willing to make a fool of myself right now just to ask you this question.”
“But your father…”
She didn’t know how to put this into words. What about his father’s expectations? All the wishes for a perfect, proper duke, with the perfectly proper duchess?
“He’s not here to see what choices I make,” Stephen said firmly. “And even if he were, I would make this decision, regardless.” His eyes met hers. “I’d rather be happy than proper. Wouldn’t you?”
