Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Green Park
Summer in London wasn’t so bad, thought Jacob. Not when you had completed a task to your satisfaction, outwitted a wily enemy, fulfilled your obligation to an old friend and, best of all, were strolling in the sunshine with your lady on your arm in one of the capital’s parks.
‘There truly are cows?’ said Dora, wrinkling her nose.
‘Yes, very pretty ones with matching milkmaids.’
The trees rustled in the breeze, the leaves waving their encouragement. He should speak his piece.
‘Dora, I have been thinking.’
She smiled at him, the sun gilding her beautiful cheeks, her curling hair. Lord, he couldn’t give her up!
‘Go on,’ she encouraged. ‘I’m a captive audience. The only competition is milking time, and you win hands down.’
He smiled at her wit. ‘Your song – at the concert.’
‘Which one?’
‘“Oh, the broom.”’
‘Pretty, isn’t it?’ She began humming it again.
‘Did you mean it?’
‘Mean it in what way?’
‘Mean it as a message to me, that you miss where you came from?’
She stopped and pulled him into a little arbour in the shrubbery.
‘What bolt has got loose in your noggin? I can hear it rattling around in there.’ She tapped his head.
‘I sang that song because it was a good choice for the company. I had more to think about than sending opaque messages to my lover, if you recall. We were trying to unmask a killer.’
He let out a huge sigh of relief. ‘Good. Excellent.’
She cocked her head. ‘You’ve been worrying about that all night, haven’t you? I thought you were acting strangely.’
‘I don’t want you to feel trapped into marrying me because Ruby blurted it before the world. I want you to want to marry me as much as I want to marry you.’
Dora squeezed his fingers in hers. ‘I understand, but you’ve forgotten an essential element.’
‘I have?’
‘You asked me, and I told you, on several occasions since, that I am thinking about it.’
‘Yes, I remember words to that effect.’ He grimaced. ‘I’ve been on tenterhooks.’
‘Well, I have been thinking about it. I even took advice from Madame Catalani who reminded me that some decisions in life are really quite simple and are nothing to do with anyone else. You said the same to me too. I did listen. I can’t be ruled by Ruby; I must be ruled by my heart. I now have an answer.’
His own heart began to race. ‘And?’
She shook her head. ‘Not like that. Ask me again. I recently came to see that a second proposal is always much more romantic than a first.’
He cast his eyes heavenward. ‘It’s that damn book again, isn’t it? You haven’t stopped thinking about it.’
‘Is that really what you should be worrying about? Besides, it isn’t a damn book; it is a wonderful, heavenly study of a person of wit and intelligence marrying … a lot of money.’ She smirked at that description, then leaned forward. ‘You have to read it to get the joke.’
‘I will, I will.’ He looked about him, not that he minded if anyone saw, but some things were better without an audience. The path was clear. ‘Dora Fitz-Pennington.’ He went down on one knee. ‘Light of my life and friend of my heart, will you do me the very great honour of marrying me?’
She looked down at him for a second, keeping him in suspense, until she leaned down and said:
‘Yes.’