Page 58 of A Day for Love

He looked over his shoulder at her. “You can if you wish, Claire,” he said. “If you wish, we can share the terror—and the exhilaration. You can be a duchess if you wish.Myduchess. You can discover all you have missed in the last ten years, good and bad. You can have children if you wish and nature cooperates— my children. You can be my valentine for a lifetime if you choose. Will you?”

She merely stared at him. Somehow reality and fantasy had got all mixed up in her head and she was paralyzed with the confusion of it all.

“It is not quite the fairytale situation that many might imagine it to be, Claire,” he said. “I have not lived a good life. I have a deservedly bad reputation and would not be received in any reputable home if it were not for my exalted title. I am almost estranged from the family that sustained me and loved me through my formative years. And I draw revenue from my estates without putting anything into them in exchange. I rarely even visit them. I know nothing about love and tenderness. I know nothing about making myself worthy of a gentle and virtuous woman. When I talk about wanting to step out into the unknown, you see, I speak nothing but the stark truth. For I want to change everything, Claire. But only if you are with me. I am not sure I would have the courage or the sense of purpose otherwise. Will you stoop to my level to raise me up to yours?”

Fantasy had the agonizing ring of truth. She bit her lip and felt pain. “Gerard,” she said. “I am twenty-eight years old. I know nothing. I have been nowhere. I am dreadfully dull.”

“You are beautiful and sweet and wonderful,” he said. “If you are dull, Claire, then it is dullness that I crave. Will you marry me? Please?”

“Oh,” she said.

“Now does that mean yes?” he asked. “May I smile and relax—and kiss you, Claire? I have the blessing of your brother and sister-in-law, you know. More than a blessing from your sister-in-law, in fact. I would not have been surprised to see her eyes pop right out of their sockets. Both she and your brother were very ready to poker up when they knew I had come from Florence’s. I made haste to explain who I was. Your brother, to give him his due, was not satisfied with that alone. He seemed to feel it necessary to have me assure him that I could make you happy or that at least I was eager to try. I believe he is very fond of you, Claire. And rightly so.”

Her eyes had widened. “You have been to see Roderick and Myrtle?”

“This morning,” he said. “Did you think I had abandoned you, my valentine, on the very day when we should most be together?”

She hesitated. “Yes,” she said. “I thought you had taken me in disgust last night.”

“If you only knew how I wanted you last night,” he said, his eyes kindling. “But it has to be in a marriage bed with you, Claire. Please don’t try seducing me again tonight. Promise? We will be together for the first time in our marriage bed, my love. If there is to be a marriage bed, that is. Is there?”

She felt herself flushing and bit her lip again. And then he moved resolutely closer, set one arm about her shoulders, tipped up her chin with his other hand, and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

“Will you marry me?” he asked. “Say yes, Claire. I shall keep on kissing you until you do. I have decided after all not to play fair. Say yes, my valentine. My love.”

“Yes,” she said.

He drew back his head and grinned at her. “Are you as terrified as I am?” he asked her.

“Yes.”

“Well,” he said, “I think perhaps we had better go in search of Florence’s picnic, don’t you, Claire? For two particular reasons. If we do not, I may be trying to seduce you here or you may be trying to seduce me within the next few minutes. And I am quite determined to hold out until our wedding night, which I insist will be not a moment longer than it takes for the banns to be read and our considerable families to be gathered. And secondly, I have an overwhelming urge to shout out our news to the world. The world not being available at the moment, Florence and the others will have to do.”

“Oh,” she said as he drew her to her feet and kissed her soundly again, “think of the strange chance that has led us to this, Gerard. If that other guest had not become sick, I would not have been invited. And if you had not picked up my valentine by the merest chance, I would be with someone else and so would you.”

“I’ll grant you the first,” he said. “But not the second, Claire. I chose you quite deliberately, my love. I knew your valentine would be at the left-hand corner of the table. Florence had arranged it that way. There was no chance for me in that lottery. No chance at all, in fact, to take the pun to its conclusion.”

“You chose me deliberately?” she asked, amazed. “You did, Gerard? Over all the other ladies? Before you even knew me? But why?”

“I am really not sure,” he said, circling her waist loosely with his arms and gazing down into her eyes, his smile gone. “I rather suspect, Claire, that without anyone’s having noticed it, there must have been a fat and naked little cherub hiding up on the chandelier, a bow and arrow in his hands. And his arrow must have pierced my heart right through the center. He was taking quite a chance. Rumor has had it for several years past that I have no heart at all.”

She smiled slowly at him and he smiled back until for no apparent reason they were touching foreheads and both laughing. And hugging. And kissing. And assuring each other that yes, in just a minute’s time they really would go in search of Lady Florence’s picnic.