Page 55 of A Duke's Overlooked Spinster
Robert gazed into her eyes. She stared back at him. He reached out slowly, tentatively. He tucked a strand of her soft chestnut hair behind her one ear, where it had come loose from the bun that held it. She sighed and reached up to touch his hand.
A small bark from the floor made Robert look down. Buttons, evidently confused by the lack of talking, was pawing at Miss Brooke’s dress, making small urgent sounds. Miss Brooke’s face lit with a grin.
“Buttons! I am sorry. I ignored you. Henry?”
Robert blushed. He had almost forgotten that his son was in the room. He turned around to see Henry standing on the bed, watching them with a rapt expression on his face. Robert flushed. He had meant to tell his feelings to Miss Brooke. He had not intended to confess them to his son. Henry was watching them fixedly and Robert cleared his throat, feeling self-conscious.
“Henry?” he said cautiously. “Is it...acceptable to you? What we have said, I mean?” He had not thought too far about the ramifications for his son. Would Henry accept Miss Brooke as occupying the position that his mother once occupied? He clearly loved Miss Brooke, but that was a big step for a child, and Robert had intended to discuss it with him before letting him know. His son gazed at him.
“You’re not doing it properly. You should kiss her!”
Robert gaped at his son. He looked over at Miss Brooke, but she was staring at Henry in open-mouthed surprise. Robert chuckled, and then Miss Brooke burst out into peals of delighted laughter.
“You’re right, Henry,” Robert said with a chuckle.
He leaned forward, gazing into Miss Brooke’s eyes. She stared back. Then he put his hands on her shoulders, leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. Miss Brooke’s eyes widened in astonishment and Robert wrapped his arms around her, leaning back and gazing at her with love undisguised in his stare.
“I love you, Miss Brooke,” he said with a grin.
“I love you, too.”
“Hooray!” said Henry.
Buttons barked.
Their world was full of joy.
***
Later, Robert walked around the grounds with Miss Brooke. Mrs. Wellman had returned from the breakfast room with food for Henry, and then all of them—Mrs. Wellman, Buttons and Henry—had followed Robert and Miss Brooke down to the garden for a stroll. Mrs. Wellman kept an eye on the little boy and the small puppy as they gamboled on the lawn. Robert took the chance for a moment alone with Miss Brooke and guided herdown the path towards the bench that overlooked the distant landscape.
“I have wanted to tell you for a long while how I feel,” he confessed as they walked side-by-side together. “I think that, from the moment I saw you, I knew there was something special about you. I wanted to know you better.”
Beside him, Miss Brooke blushed. “As did I, Your Grace.”
Robert stopped. He had been walking at her side, but he turned to look at her, holding her gaze firmly with his own.
“Robert,” he said levelly. “Please. Call me by my Christian name.”
Miss Brooke inclined her head. “Robert,” she said in a soft, musical way that set him on fire. “But,” she added, tilting her head teasingly to one side. “You will have to do me the like favour. Please call me likewise by my name.”
“Sarah,” he breathed. In that one word was all the longing, all the love he had kept hidden for so long.
She blushed.
“Robert,” she repeated, and giggled. “It feels so pleasant to use your name.”
“I am of the like opinion,” he said with a grin. Sarah smiled up at him.
“It is a very fine, upstanding name,” she told him. He chuckled.
“Thank you. You have a lovely name, too. All the more beautiful for being unusual.”
She smiled. “Thank you.”
Robert stood opposite her, gazing into her eyes. “I am more grateful than I can say that I heard you talking to Henry. If I had not, you might have run away this very morning.”
Sarah shook her head a little sadly. “It was foolish of me,” she murmured. “But your mama...and the whole of society,too...What they thought of it, of me was something I could not face. I could not bear to hurt Henry like that.”
