Chapter 37- Margaret #2
Margaret swallowed down the fear in her stomach that perhaps she’d completely misjudged Callum. She was putting her reputation at risk—hers and her sisters’. Would Callum catch her, or would she fall?
Margaret met Callum’s eyes. She couldn’t read his guarded expression. Even so, she made her decision. She nodded. “I was.”
An intense emotion—triumph, perhaps—flared in Callum’s eyes.
For good or ill, Margaret had just handed him all the power. If Callum refused to come to her defense, if he’d rethought his declaration of love, or if his ego had been bruised enough to make him seek revenge upon her, this moment offered the perfect opportunity.
“And where, pray tell, was your chaperone?” Lady Burnett demanded, rounding on Margaret.
Margaret lifted her chin and told the truth, even as her pulse thundered in her ears. “She was in the ballroom.”
“Forgive me, ladies, but it’s commonplace to request a private audience when one is proposing, is it not?” Callum’s deep voice had never sounded more beautiful to Margaret than it did speaking those words.
Margaret’s heart soared; she smiled at Callum, too breathless to speak.
Lady Blythe pressed a hand to the jewels draped over her bodice. “Is this true?”
Callum came to Margaret’s side and threaded his fingers with hers. “Indeed. Miss Knope fell into the bush just before we came to a pleasant agreement.”
Daisy was still struggling to get out of the bush, leaves snarled in her hair. She looked back and forth between Margaret and Callum wide-eyed, as if all her dreams were slipping from her fingers.
Margaret did her very best not to blush when Callum looked down at her and smiled gently.
By the feel of her cheeks, she hadn’t succeeded in the least. She barely noted the gasps and murmurs of the other ladies as she met Callum’s deep-hazel eyes.
There was joy in his gaze. That, and so much love that Margaret fought the urge to squirm.
“Propose?” Daisy squawked, floundering in the bush and trying to stand. “You’re proposing? To her?”
Callum nodded. “Unfortunately, you interrupted us before I could ask. But since the secret has been ruined, I suppose I should rectify that now.”
Callum dropped to one knee in the gravel. Lady Burnett and Lady Blythe gasped again. Margaret tried to press her lips together to maintain her decorum. It didn’t work—soon she was grinning. Daisy spluttered as if she were choking.
Margaret hardly noticed anyone but Callum. She felt swallowed by the care with which Callum held her fingers, the tender emotion in his gaze.
“Margaret,” he began. “Though this evening has taken a great many turns I didn’t plan, I want you to know that I always intended to get down on my knee and beg you, most sincerely, to make me the happiest man in the entire world.
Please, my darling Margaret, be my wife.
You are my very best friend, the sunshine on every cloudy day.
You are the most beautiful and the most sincerely good lady I have ever known.
I love you now, and I promise I will love and cherish you until my very last breath. ”
When had she started crying? Margaret didn’t care—her tears had to roll over cheeks rounded in a grin. “Of course I’ll marry you, Callum. For I love you, too.”
His smile matched her own. He stood and gathered her in his arms. Despite the small flutter of an outcry amongst the onlookers, Callum dipped Margaret and kissed her firmly on the lips.
It was only a very short kiss—both of them were aware they were still being watched. Even so, it made Margaret’s head swim with warm affection, made her heart pound with the thrill of being clasped in his arms. Callum broke the kiss while he still held her perpendicular to the ground.
She blinked up at him, eyes round. “You’re very strong.”
Callum laughed and set her back on her feet.
There was a whistle and a smattering of applause from the far side of the garden room. It was Ellis and several of his friends.
“I came to rescue you,” he said. “How delightful to find you didn’t need it. Your lady had already come to your aid.”
“Indeed she had,” Callum murmured, gazing down at Margaret.
In the background of their happy tableau, Daisy departed in a flurry of fluttering ribbons, spots of pink high upon her cheeks. Margaret was too busy smiling at her betrothed to truly notice.
“I beg of you ladies,” Callum said, bowing toward Lady Blythe and Lady Burnett. “I fear I’ve been overcome with my emotion and have done this all backwards. Please, will you keep our secret until tomorrow afternoon so that I might have time to speak with Lord Cavendish?”
Apparently, it wasn’t only the young ladies who were susceptible to Callum’s charms. Both ladies fluttered and preened and agreed to his request.
Lady Burnett even went so far as to simper, “How romantic” as they exited along the garden path.
Ellis strode over and shook Callum’s hand. Then he took Margaret by the shoulders and grinned down at her. “I’m so happy for you both. You must satisfy my curiosity—which was more convincing, his words or mine?”
Margaret gave a rueful laugh. “It’s truly hard to tell. Though you must know I agree with you—Callum is the best man I’ve ever known, too.”
Callum cocked his head at his cousin. “You said that about me?”
Ellis held up his hands as if to defend himself. “It was in service of your happiness. You mustn’t read too much into it.”
“He brought me your journal,” Margaret admitted.
She secretly loved the fact that Callum hadn’t released her since their kiss. He’d put an arm protectively around her waist and hadn’t let go, not even when Ellis had grasped her by the shoulders.
Callum blinked for a second as if stunned. “I suppose it’s only fair,” he finally said.
“Exactly what I thought,” Ellis said. “May I assume this happy event changes our travel plans?”
“Of course. It delays our leaving until Margaret and I are married, at least.”
Margaret wasn’t sure why the word sent a thrill of expectation through her—everyone knew that marriage came after an engagement. Callum smiled down at her as if he’d felt the same emotion, however.
“Then it’s a good thing I ordered that new suit after all.” Ellis cuffed Callum on the shoulder. “Farewell for the evening, Cousin.”
“You’re leaving?” Callum frowned.
“Now that I’ve seen you happily settled, I’m heading to the White Raven. I never wanted to come to this ball tonight, anyway.” He punctuated his exit with a wink at Margaret.
The garden, which only a quarter of an hour earlier had seemed fraught with potential danger and rejection, now looked magical to Margaret’s eyes.
“Now you have to marry me.” Callum grinned down at her. “We’ve kissed.”
“I put up an admirable resistance,” she argued, eyes wide.
“What, by leaning forward?” he teased.
Margaret pinched him in the side and he chuckled.
“Yet I feel as if I’ve cheated us both,” he finally said.
“How so?” Margaret frowned slightly. “You don’t regret it, do you? Our engagement? I didn’t see how you were to escape the circumstances without becoming engaged to either Daisy or myself. I sincerely hope that you believe I was the better option.”
He chuckled at the sparkle of mischief in her eyes. “Marginally.”
“Truly, Callum. I never meant to entrap you.”
Callum chuckled. “No one who’s paid the slightest attention to our courtship would ever think so.
Though the circumstances of our engagement were certainly different than I’d planned, the resolution was just as delightful.
” He turned to her. “You did accept me out of more than necessity, didn’t you? ”
“Of course. I want to marry you, Callum.” She grinned. “If I didn’t, I would have let Daisy have you.”
He chuckled. “Then the only thing I regret about this evening so far is how long it took you to find me in our game of hide and seek.”
“Pardon?” Margaret blinked.
“Truly, your seeking skills are abysmal.” He shook his head in mock censure. “Your inability to find me in the ballroom was what made me come out to the gardens in the first place—I thought you might have better luck without so many people around.”
“You were hiding from me?” she said, her eyes wide.
He gave an impudent grin. “It seemed only fair that you chase me this time.”
Margaret laughed. “Where on earth were you?”
“Behind the pillars, mostly. Though it was difficult to hide with several of those misses about.”
She shook her head. “We both almost lost that particular game.”
“Yes, which is why that’s my one regret from this evening. That, and the kiss.”
“Oh.” Margaret pressed her lips together and she felt a dimple form between her eyebrows.
Truthfully, she’d found the kiss wonderful. Margaret had never imagined one could be in two places at the same time, but that’s certainly what it had felt like. She’d been here in the garden with all those people, yet at the same time, she and Callum had been somewhere else, all alone.
“Of all that happened,” he explained, his eyes gentle, “the kiss was the only thing I faked. For if we had been alone, I would have done this…”
Callum took Margaret’s face carefully in his hands and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, the tip of her nose, then her chin. Finally, he sighed her name and pressed his lips to hers.
Margaret had thought that the chaste press of his lips she’d experienced earlier had been the heights of rapture. Now Callum proved her wrong. She felt a thrill of danger paired with the absolute security of being held in his arms.
His lips moved gently, then more urgently against her own. It was like a dance Margaret had never practiced but somehow knew all the steps to. When they finally broke apart, her eyes were bright and she was surprised to realize her fingers were curled into his shirt.
Callum smiled. “I love you, Margaret.”
“And I love you.”