It Takes a Lady
Page 15
Nick wore a nervous smile when he returned to the drawing room, where Lizzie was just pouring herself more coffee. She held the pot up. “More coffee, Nick, or must you be leaving right away?”
“No hurry,” he said, and took his cup up from the side table to hand to her. When it was full, he set it down and took up a seat beside her on the sofa. “Are you not curious about my private conversation with your aunt?” he asked.
“Certainly I am, but I hope I am not so vulgar as to ask, when it was obviously something you did not wish me to hear.”
“Vulgar? No, you are never that. Headstrong, conniving, managing, stubborn —”
“Goodness, you will be relieved to see the back of me, now that we have got Tommy straightened out. I think Miss Cousens will do very well for him.”
“Better than Miss Warwick?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. “You expressed some interest in marrying him yourself.”
“So I did — and you did not add loyal to my list of qualities,” she said with an air of mock pique.
“Was that the only reason —”
“Oh no! I am not such a gudgeon as to marry a man I don’t like.”
“Is not ‘love’ the more usual word when young ladies are discussing their future husband?”
She thought for a moment, then said, “I expect that would have come in time. These mad love affairs are often of short duration, whereas a liking grows into love.”
Nick was finding this philosophical discussion difficult to steer towards what he wanted to say. He didn’t usually have any trouble when he was with a beautiful lady. It was her mood, and the importance of the question that deterred him. What if she said, “Marry you? Certainly not,” in that forthright way of hers?
“Yes, finding love can take time,” he said, peering to see if this gave her a hint of his feelings. She nodded. “Years and years, sometimes.” Oh lord, Just say it! Ask her.
“What a waste,” she said, shaking her head. She turned to him and saw him gazing intensely at her with what certainly looked like love glowing in his eyes. A warmth began building in her, her heart began beating more quickly, her breaths coming more rapid and shallow. Headstrong, he had called her. She would not be the first one to give words to what hovered in the air between them this time.
“Too long, Lizzie,” he said, taking her hand in his. When she didn’t withdraw it, he pulled her into his arms, and after a little hesitation, she went willingly. When his lips sought hers, she turned her head aside.
“Say it, damn you,” she whispered in his ear, and was answered by a low chuckle before hearing the fateful words.
“Miss Warwick, will you do me the honour of marrying me?”
“Not that!” she said with a little tsk of anger, or disappointment.
He pulled back, confused and frustrated — stung by her words. Then he looked at her eager face, and without further words kissed her long and very thoroughly indeed. “I love you, Lizzie Warwick,” he said in a ragged voice, when he stopped to draw breath.
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” she sighed. “You never said it before when we were — I mean —”
“I know what you mean.” He kissed her again, till she felt she would burst with joy. The trite old words, ‘the fullness of love,’ that she had often read took on new meaning. That’s how she felt — full to the brim with love and happiness and a golden glory.
“I love you too, Nick,” she said softly when she could stand it no more. “Do you really think we can live together?”
“We’ll have to. I can’t live without you.”
Sensible Elizabeth Warwick had no quarrel with this exaggeration. “What happened to us, all those years ago, Nick? Were we just too young?”
“Perhaps you were too young, and Lady Gertrude was too eager and I was too callow and stupid to appreciate you. I’m wiser now. I appreciate your rare qualities.”
“I shall have to curb my work, of course, but I cannot give it up.” She looked at him uncertainly.
“I don’t expect you to. In fact, I fully expect you and Lady Gertrude will co-opt me for all manner of lowly jobs.”
“Lowly jobs for higher ends. But that’s not what we should be talking about tonight,” she said, and went again into his arms.
“Strange,” he said some time later, “that it took a stolen necklace and that rapscallion of a Tommy to bring us together again.”
“And the rubies weren’t even genuine,” she said, laughing.
“What! You mean that old phony of a Lady Belmont wore paste stones?”
“I just found out today from Sara. I do remember, though, how Perkins, that jeweler we asked about them, asked if it was the genuine necklace that had been stolen.”
“Tommy mentioned he thought they looked like glass too.”
“We have decided not to tell Tommy. One never knows what he might do. I wonder how he will react to our news?”
“I have no idea, nor do I care. I have put Tommy’s interest before my own for too long.”
“What do you mean? You haven’t been much involved with him till the last few days.”
“A few days can seem like a long time. I wanted to ask you to marry me earlier, but feared you were in love with him.”
“It was never like that between us.”
Before more could be said, Lady Gertrude came rustling in. Nicholas detached his arm from around Lizzie’s waist and they drew apart. “I feel a bit of a fool, busting in on you like this,” she said, but she was smiling from ear to ear.
“That’s quite all right, Auntie,” Lizzie said. “We’re engaged.”
“Congratulations, best wishes and all that. So am I.” They stared at her in confusion. “Engaged,” she added. “To Doctor Tom. I wanted to get your reaction, Lizzie, before bringing him in to meet Carbury. I daresay you think this is pretty sudden, but it has been at the back of my mind for some time that he would be better off here than in those dismal rooms he hires, with only a daily woman to look after him. Such a good man, he deserves a better home. That doesn’t sound very romantic, does it?” she said with a laugh. “But I like him too. Very much. So you don’t mind, Lizzie?”
“That’s wonderful,” Lizzie said.
“I thought it a sensible decision, now that you will be leaving.”
“Well, this has been quite a night,” Nick said, rising to give her a hug. “Three engagements. A new love — Tommy and Laura. A rekindled love — Lizzie and myself — and an old — er — and another new love.”
“Let us say, a middle-aged love,” Lady Gertrude said. “We are not too old to feel a spark. I’ll fetch Tom. He’s a little shy, so don’t say anything to embarrass him.” She darted off.
“We’d best hustle down to St. George’s tomorrow morning,” Nick said. “It is going to be busy this season. I would like us to be the first in line. We’ve waited longer than the others. You agree?”
“You can stop at the jewelry shop en route and cancel that order for your diamond cravat pin,” she said with a mock innocent smile.
“That matter has already been settled. I shan’t be buying any more cravat pins. I suspect all my spare cash will find its way to the Dials.”
As he reached to draw her back into his arms they heard footsteps approaching the doorway. She drew back. “This won’t take long,” she promised.
“It better not, Lizzie. I am fed up with waiting.”
“But it was worth waiting for,” she said, and composed a face to greet Doctor Tom.
Copyright © 2016 by Joan Smith
Electronically published in 2016 by Belgrave House/Regency Reads (ISBN 9781610849739)
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.