Behind Clementine’s head, her oldest sister smiled broadly and Roman caught Duke’s eye as he gave an approving nod. Blast him.
“I’m not the cleverest of men,” he confessed.
“That’s not true.”
“I struggle with reading,” he told her, his heart thudding hard against his chest. “The words…sometimes they seem…muddled. Writing a mere letter takes me an eternity.” He leaned in. “Were it not for Duke I would never have completed my education.”
“I’ve heard of such a phenomenon.” She glanced down. “Well, read about it anyway. I do not think it is to do with a person’s intellect, so why do you tell me this?”
“Well, because I want there to be no secrets between us.” He lifted a shoulder. “And perhaps to explain quite why I behaved the way I did.” Roman shook his head. “If I was clever, I would have kept you at my side and let you do whatever the hell you like with the letter.”
“It was your letter, and I should have let you burn it but the letter was never the problem.”
“No. It was our differing views.” He set his hand to her waist. “But I need your viewpoint, Musgrave. I need you.”
“I need you too,” she admitted huskily. “Even if you are occasionally exceedingly foolish.”
“Think you can spend the rest of your days with just one husband?”
She nodded, looped her arm around his neck, ignoring the protest of nearby dancers as they disrupted the line. “Think you can spend the rest of your days with a scandalous Musgrave?”
Pulling her so hard into him she gasped, he used his free hand to cup her face. There were gasps and even the startled shriek of a nearby and no doubt exceedingly scandalized woman. Roman didn’t care. If he had Clementine in his arms, the rest of the world didn’t matter. He could lose his title, his lands, his very name and it wouldn’t matter if she was his.
Instead of answering with words, he touched his lips to hers and took her mouth in a long searing kiss.
“About damned time,” one of Clementine’s sisters muttered.
“Aboutdarnedtime,” they both said when they came up for air.
Epilogue
“Think you can survive here without the diversions of Bath?”
Roman looped his arms around Clem’s waist and she didn’t bother holding back a sigh of contentment as she leaned against the solid breadth of his chest. She peered out at the wild landscape from the window of the bedroom. The lands around Roman’s family seat offered dramatic rolling hills, long lines of trees following the lengthy driveway to the house, and upon one of the hills, a ruined castle—all of their own. Her lips twitched. If she’d known he owned a castle, she might have married him sooner.
“I think there is more than enough to keep me occupied here.” She turned in his arms and gestured about the room that had already been furnished with her in mind, with a pretty mix of blues and two of her favorite paintings from home—a wedding gift from her parents. “And the house shall no doubt keep me extremely busy.”
“So long as you are not bored already.” He said it with a slight smile, but she saw the concern in his eyes. Her new husband was worried for her, and she rather liked that.
“Believe it or not, Roman, I am entirely capable of occupying myself. Besides, I have a husband to look after now...”
“I hardly need looking af—” He stopped when she gave a wicked grin. “Ah, that sort of looking after.” He chuckled. “I had wondered quite what had happened to my rebellious wife for a moment there.”
She rose on tiptoes and pressed a soft kiss to his mouth. “We shall look after each other,” she murmured against his mouth. “Maybe now?”
He groaned. “Have you not been looked after enough this morning?”
She gasped. “Are you denying me my wifely rights?”
“I’m reminding you that your family is visiting within the hour and as much as I would like to leave them standing outside whilst I...keep you occupied...I do not think it is quite appropriate for their first visit here.”
Clem pursed her lips. “I suppose you are correct.”
“I shall remember that.”
She leaned back in his hold to peer at him. “Remember what?”
“The one time my wife told me I was right. I shall write it in my diary somewhere.”