“You’re mad. You’re quite mad.”
“Will you?”
“I’m already betrothed.”
“Will you?”
“Will you let me go if I say yes?”
“No.”
“Joshua!”
“Will you?”
“Oh, yes, then,” she said. “For this moment of madness, yes, Joshua. But you know we must return to sanity when we get back to the house.”
He was grinning at her and she reached up to place a finger against his dimple.
“Not very manly, is it?” he said.
“It has always turned me weak at the knees,” she said. And she looked into his laughing face and smiled slowly at him. “Joshua, you know we can’t do this.”
“Anyone who fought with the Duke of Wellington doesn’t know the meaning of can’t,” he said. “You wait and see. And before guilt starts to hit at you, do you want to hear something interesting?”
She looked at him dubiously.
“I’ll wager our betrothal won’t be the only one to be announced next week,” he said. “I think Justin’s will be, too.”
She frowned at him in puzzlement.
“To,Rosamund,” he said.
She stared at him mutely.
“You wait and see,” he said. He took her by the hand and turned her back toward the house,
“But Joshua,” she said, “that is preposterous.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” he said, lacing his fingers with hers. “As preposterous as my proposing to you the day your betrothal to someone else is to be officially announced—and being accepted.”
They walked on in silence for a few minutes.
“Joshua,” she said at last, “you are serious about all this, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling down at her.
“My stomach is doing somersaults,” she said, “and I don’t think my legs will bear me up much longer. Is it true? Really true? You are not just doing it because you think I will be unhappy with Justin?”
“All hell is about to break loose,” he said. “I would face that for only one reason, my dear girl: I love you.”
“Well, then,” she said, drawing a deep breath and letting it out rather raggedly, “I am not going to hide in my room, Joshua. I am going to face hell with you.”
“Are you?” he said, grinning.
“Yes,” she said.
“Your grandparents? Your parents? Justin? All of them?”
