Page 95 of Scandalous Heiress
“Now.I’ve pondered how to do this.I thought bad poetry might help.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head.If this was what she thought it was, then bad poetry might be the worst thing to do.
He cleared his throat and took on the persona of an actor upon the boards.“Because of you, I will be true, to vows I’ll make in earnest.”
“Oh, thatispoor.”She giggled.
He smirked at her.“But if you’ll love me evermore and marry, we can furnish—”
She burst out laughing.Then twirled her finger in the air.“Do continue.”
“A house for two—”
“Or four—”
“Or more!”
“And then,” she said, “we’ll never perish.”
He fixed her with feigned dismay.“And I thought I was bad.”
She curled her hands around his neck and ran her fingers up into his marvelous thick hair.“I like your curls,” she said and grabbed a handful of them.“You smell marvelous too.Bergamot?”
“Lemon.Lime.”
She pressed the tip of her nose to his.His proposal was delicious and she savored every word.“I think the other night I recognized you by your cologne.I’m so sorry this is what we must face now.I’ve done this to you and now you must endure it.”
He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips to kiss.“Darling, you are not responsible for what Richard did.”
“No, I know.What I meant was that if I hadn’t encouraged you then he wouldn’t have taken me and you wouldn’t have had to save me from him.”
He kissed her knuckles.“Did you not want to ‘encourage me’?”
She brushed her mouth over his.“Oh, I did.”
He gave her a lopsided grin.“That’s what I thought.I wanted to encourage you too.I saw you with my daughters that first day and thought the one he intended to marry was you.Not Ezzie.I wanted to save you from him then.But I wanted to do more than save you, I wanted you for myself.I want to marry you, darling.This is sooner than I would have liked to ask.I wanted so much settled about my future before I dare ask for you.I never want to force you to do something.Not to go abroad with me if you really don’t want it.But now, we cannot wait.I have a special license.And your father approves of the match.”
Her heart pounded.She stared at his handsome face, his concern for her written in every debonair feature.
“Will you marry me?”
She hugged him fiercely close, her face nestled in the crook of his shoulder.And then she began to cry.
He stiffened.“If this is not what you wish, then you must tell me.I know it’s not ideal.”
She pulled back to stare up at him.Did he not realize what was missing from his proposal?
He fished a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbed at her tears.“If you don’t want me, if you’d rather go home to America, then—”
“No.”He thought she didn’t want him?Oh, she did.She wanted him.Every bit of him.His humor and laughter.His sorrow and pain.His ambition and his success.Even his failures.She wanted all he was, all they could become together.She loved him.But he had no words of love for her.Duty.Honor.Those were his concerns.She was proud of him, this man who had saved her from real ruin.She would be proud to be his wife…but her heart was breaking for what he did not grant her.“I won’t return to New York.That’s not my home.Not anymore.And I won’t run away.”
“You are brave, Ada Hanniford.”
To marry a man who does not love me?To marry because the world demands it?“Not at all.”
“Will you marry me?”He sounded desperate.“I will never be a duke.I will never be a millionaire.I will never be prime minister.But I will give you a good life, Ada.I know not yet whether that will be here or in Shanghai.But I’ll be the finest husband to you, my darling.Loyal, wise as I can be, honest, affectionate.Say you will have me, please.”
“If you promise always to recite bad poetry.”She sniffed and surrendered to the necessity of it all.“And to kiss me as you once did at your parents’ home.”
