“No. I said four.” He shook his head, halting her attempt to bring the date forward with a clear decision on his part. “If we were to marry, I should like to have Mrs. Hawthorne attend our wedding celebrations. We will delay to give the widow time to grieve before we ask her to be happy for us. She wanted so much to attend your wedding.”
“That is very considerate of you.” She should have thought of that herself. “I just want us to be together. You’ll stay with me in Mayfair when I return to Town.”
“Not a chance.” Jeremy looked down upon her, his expression serious. “I’ll stay where the duke suggests I should stay and visit you every day. I am, as ever, at your complete disposal.”
Fanny wasn’t sure if Jeremy’s reliance on Father’s opinion was in her best interests or not but if she could see Jeremy every day, Fanny could still do her work and have time to enjoy introducing him to her friends. Jeremy was worth the effort of making an agreement that he was comfortable with. “Agreed, and when I need to travel, you will accompany me.”
“Along with a suitable chaperone to protect you from any gossip,” he added with a smile.
A chaperone would seriously impede any encounters of a romantic nature between them. But if Fanny chose a chaperone from among her most liberal-minded widowed friends, she was sure she and Jeremy could meet under the sheets as often as she wished during any house party they might attend together. The appearance of respectability was all that really mattered to society. When they married—and she couldn’t imagine he’d change her mind now—she would have Jeremy all to herself. “Daily meetings, three months of courtship, and marriage by banns on,” she did a quick calculation in her head adding in the period for the reading of the banns, “approximately the twenty-first of November. It’s a deal,” she said, putting her hand out.
“Let’s not put that in writing this time.” Jeremy sighed as they shook. He held her hand and brought her closer to him. When he leaned down, it was just like the first time, when he’d almost kissed her. “You love me,” he whispered.
“Deeply.” Her eyes dropped to his lips, where a smile lingered.
“It’s a
bout time.” His eyes lifted to hers and then he smiled somewhat shyly. “I have loved you from the moment I met you. I tried so hard to master my role of a smitten suitor in a bid to impress you that I never was acting the part. But I never imagined you’d come to care for me as well.”
Fanny pushed herself against his body and rejoiced when his arms encircled her waist finally. “You love me. Say it again.”
His lips twitched as he lowered them inches from hers, “You love me.”
She laughed softly. “Deeply and forever.”
Jeremy cupped her face, tilting her lips up to his so they hovered on the verge of a kiss. He caught her gaze, holding her stare a long moment. “People will talk.”
“People always do. Some will declare that I’ve finally been tamed.”
“My dear lady, taming you is the last thing on my mind.”
And then like any great romantic hero of the stage, he tipped her backward over his arm and kissed her soundly. For a moment, Fanny could swear she heard the sound of distant applause.
Epilogue
Mayfair, London
14 February, 1820
Jeremy flicked through the stack of letters he’d been handed with a severe frown as he stood in the dim hall of Fanny’s exquisite Mayfair home. He marched into the adjoining room. “Fenton, has my wife not seen the mail yet?”
Fenton didn’t rise as usual, but the evil goose at his feet did. Jeremy had learned to keep clear of the pair.
“Not as yet, Mr. Dawes. She’s still in her meeting with Mr. Danvers.”
Even before their marriage, Fanny and Jeremy had got their heads together and decided the faithful Stapleton steward needed a change of scenery. Fenton’s health had been causing concern. He was cross with everyone, until Fanny had tricked a confession out of him. Gout.
Fanny, a favorite, had stolen Fenton away from her father’s employ for an easier occupation with them. His job was to sit about with his stick and glare at anyone who sought to impose themselves on Fanny when Jeremy was not around and take care of the evil goose roaming the house. “I did hear voices raised earlier, sir, but it’s become quite again for the last half hour.”
Jeremy looked at him sharply. “Did you interrupt like I asked you to?”
“Of course. I had a pair of our largest footmen carry the tea tray and dole out the cups very slowly. That seemed to calm things down. The door was left open after that, and they remain outside in full view of her visitor even now.”
Jeremy glanced toward her study to see for himself. “Good.”
Fanny had been in the meeting when he’d gone out to meet members of her family for a ride in Hyde Park hours ago. He hoped things were going her way at last. This particular transaction, the sale of Cedar Mill, had been keeping her awake at night in recent weeks. He didn’t like it when she tossed and turned. It wasn’t good for her health or his plans.
It had been weeks since she’d spent a whole day with him. He hoped she’d be finished soon because since it was Valentine’s Day and he wanted to entice her to forget her worries with serious idleness and indulgence.