He took in the bevy of lovely ladies before him. The lovely brunette, Vanessa, was Adrian’s wife and had once been a famous actress. Serenity, the blond countess, had been an upstairs maid for the Earl of Winters. And fiery redheaded Fiona, who ran the Brookhaven Orphanage, was now married to Morgan.
Quinn knew he had far more in common with these women than he did with Allison and her brothers, and their welcoming smiles acknowledged that. If this invitation meant what he was cautiously hopeful it did, perhaps he would have some allies as he negotiated these completely foreign waters. It also gave him comfort to know that all three of these women had somehow managed to adjust.
“Good evening, ladies,” he said warmly. “It’s nice of you to have invited me, Countess.”
The minute he said it, he suddenly worried that it had been wrong. Was he allowed to call her Countess? Should he have called her Lady Serenity instead? Lady Hawkesmere?
She merely smiled with no hint of censure. “We are happy to have you here, Inspector. You’re very special to Allison, and therefore, to us.”
Allison beamed quietly at Serenity’s words and squeezed Quinn’s hand tighter before leading him over to where her brothers clustered together near the fire, each with a half-empty glass of whisky.
“Good evening, Inspector,” the earl said graciously. “Thank you for accepting our invitation. We’re glad to have you.”
Adrian and Morgan watched him over the rims of their glasses, their body language giving nothing away. But no one seemed angry, and he supposed he should be grateful for that. Whether it had been Allison who’d come to him or not, he’d still been foolish enough to be caught in public with her, and by rights, any of the three of them could have called him out.
Luckily, they seemed to care more about their sister than their own foolish pride.
“Would you like some whisky?” Morgan asked politely.
“Yes, please,” Quinn said gratefully, feeling as though he needed a little liquid fortification to get through whatever the next few hours held.
Morgan went to the sideboard and poured him a glass, which was, of course, crystal.
Quinn took a bracing swallow, then forced himself to meet Hawkesmere’s gaze. “Would it be possible for me to have a few moments alone with Lady Allison? I think we have a few things to discuss.” His request was probably highly irregular, shocking perhaps, but he couldn’t make polite small talk until he knew exactly what was going on.
Hawkesmere smiled, and something in his gaze made Quinn relax a bit. “Of course. It will be half an hour before dinner.”
“Come with me,” Allison said softly, taking his hand and pulling him out of the room and down the wide hall to something he guessed was probably called the music room since it was filled with instruments of all kinds.
The minute Allison closed the door behind them, he took her in his arms and hugged her tightly. “Why am I here, Allison? I don’t understand.”
She hugged him back, her vanilla and cinnamon scent filling his senses. “I hoped it would be obvious.”
He took a deep breath, then forced himself to pull away a bit and look down into her lovely face. “I need you to say the words, princess. I need you to tell me exactly what you want from me.”
Standing on her tiptoes, she pressed her lips tenderly to his. “You told me I must make a choice. Either marry you or never see you again. As you can see, I could not bear to let you go.”
“Allison...” He sighed and stepped back, running his hand through his hair in dismay. “I don’t want you to marry me if you don’t want to. I don’t want you to feel pressured into becoming my wife for any reason. If we marry, I want it to be because you want to.”
Her face fell. “Don’t you want to marry me?”
A pained laugh escaped him. “It doesn’t matter what I want. Since we met, you’ve been telling me that the last thing you want is to be anyone’s wife. I think if we do this, you’ll quickly come to resent me. A lady like you was never meant to be a police inspector’s wife.”
A bullheaded look came over her lovely features. “You’re right. I’ve been adamant about never marrying. A part of me is still terrified. But I was afraid of a husband who gambled away all my money or kept me from doing the things I love. I don’t fear those things with you, Quinn. And the passion and friendship you’ve brought into my life are things that I can’t bear to lose.”
Passion and friendship. She represented all of that to him and more. But what about love? She’d said nothing of that, but why would she? Women of her class didn’t marry for love. Perhaps he was foolish for wanting more, for wanting her to care about him as much as he cared for her.
“I can’t bear to lose you either,” he told her, instead of voicing all the fears and doubts swirling around in his head. He’d told her that if her choice was to marry him, then he would do it. He couldn’t very well back out now, even if he feared that a marriage between them would probably be disastrous. “If you’re certain this is what you want, then I would be proud to be your husband, Lady Allison.”
With a squeal of delight, Allison threw herself into his arms once more, hugging him tightly and then pressing her mouth to his in a searing kiss. As always, the passion between them erupted, and for long moments, he simply kissed her back, realizing that despite everything that could go wrong, a union between them would always include this.
When she finally broke away, her eyes were shining. “I know that we have a lot to work out. I know that a marriage between us won’t always be easy. But I want to try, Quinn. I think we can do this, don’t you?”
How could he resist such beautiful enthusiasm? “I’m certain that good marriages have been built on far less than passion and friendship. I’m willing to try if you are.”
She gave him a sweet smile, stood on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to his once more. “Good. Then it’s settled. Let’s go share the good news with my family.”
And just like that, the son of Irish immigrants found himself engaged to the daughter of an earl.