Page 123 of Marry in Secret
“Light blue—like a summer sky, like your eyes.” He moved in for a kiss.
She held him back. “And her little girl, what color was she wearing?”
He frowned. “How do you know there was a little girl?”
“Of course there was a little girl. What color was her dress?”
“Pink,” he said, baffled.
“Oh, that’s perfect. And then what happened?”
“You don’t want me to describe what Jemmy was wearing?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. So when they met...”
“They kissed, and he whirled her around and then they kissed again, and, well, you get the idea.”
“No, you’ll have to show me later.”
His eyes glinted. “If I must.”
“And when the little girl met her daddy?”
He grinned. “You should have seen her, Rose. First she hid behind her mother’s skirts, peeping out at him from time to time, but every time Jemmy tried to talk to her, she hid again. And then he sat down on the ground—in his brand-new clothes—are you sure you don’t want to know about his new clothes? Because they were very smart.”
“No. He sat down and...?”
“Pretended not to look at her, and she crept out and just looked at him, right up close as if he were some insect she’d just found. Then she reached out and shoved at him—quite a hefty push for a little fairylike creature—and he rolled right over and fell back on the grass as if he were dead.”
She sniffled. “Oh, he sounds lovely. Jenny Pendell was weeping by this time, I take it.”
“Yes, just like you are now.” He passed her his handkerchief. “Then the little girl came and tried to wake him up. She pushed at his face and pulled his hair and poked him on the nose and he didn’t move a muscle. She stood there frowning down at him for ages and he didn’t stir, not so much as a flicker of an eyelid. And then, you’ll never guess what she did next.”
“She kissed him, and like Sleeping Beauty he woke up?”
He stared at her in amazement. “How do you know these things?”
Her mouth curved in a mysterious smile. “I’m a woman.”
He looked down at her. “You certainly are...” And he bent to make sure of it.
“You’re going to give Jemmy a job here on the estate, aren’t you?” she said after a while. “Because there’s nothing for that family in that little village.”
“How did you—? Never mind. Yes, we arranged it on the trip up from Southampton. There’s a spare cottage with plenty of room for him and his wife and daughter and—”
“And his grandfather.”
“His grandfather?”
“Yes, I want to employ him to build me a rose garden.”
“Do you now?”
“Any objection?”
He laughed. “Would it do me any good if I did?”
“It might. It depends.”
