Lord Thorpe suddenly took Serenity’s hand. “Come with me,” he said.
The feel of her hand in his was thrilling as she did not wear her gloves, and of course she would follow him anywhere at all.
He led her to the windows overlooking the square and pulled back the curtains. “It was just there, on a snowy night, that I looked out my window at the glories of a snowfall. It was there that I first saw Lady Serenity Nicolet. It was breathtaking.”
Serenity felt the water make its reliable trip to her eyes. Such was the sentiment that there was not much of a chance of making it retreat.
“I think you know what I will say,” Lord Thorpe said. “But before I do, I have a confession to make.”
Serenity gripped his hand tighter. A confession? Surely not. Surely he could not have done anything that required a confession.
“I am not wholly the man you think you know.”
Serenity felt as if her heart had stopped. She did not know what terrible secret Lord Thorpe harbored, but she was shocked that she had not sensed it. Of everyone in her family, she was the most sensitive. She could perceive things others could not. Howhad he hidden something from her? He could not have. She was very sure of who he was.
The silence in the room felt like a heavy thing. Finally, he said, “I’ll just come out with it. I might seem like the emotionless and reserved lord, but the truth is, I have a rather sentimental temperament. I regularly ride to the park to shout into the wind to relieve my feelings. Not the sort of thing one might expect from a marquess.”
Serenity could only be vastly relieved that no crime had been described. She found herself not at all opposed to hear of such passion. Shouting into the wind sounded rather romantic. It was poetic in some way. However, it did remind her that she had her own temperament to explain.
“You are shocked,” Lord Thorpe said.
“I am not,” Serenity said. “I am approving of the idea of shouting into the wind. It is just that I have to confess something myself. Shouting into the wind might be one thing, but I am quite another. I was planning to tell you all along. At the right time. The truth is, I weep over…most anything really. The sunrise, the sunset, anything beautiful, anything sad, anything that might turn out to be sad, sometimes just because a good cry is a good cry…”
“If you are not put off by my shouting into the wind, I am not put off by weeping,” Lord Thorpe said.
“That is not the worst of it, though,” Serenity whispered. “I have a box. A crypt. Of dead bees.”
As she had thought it would, this did seem to take Lord Thorpe aback. “Bees?”
Serenity nodded and poured out the story of killing a bee through its sting when she’d been very young. “So now, I go looking for them,” she said. “When I find one, I dry its poor little body in ash and put it in the crypt with the other dead bees.”
As she said it, it sounded even worse than when she’d only thought about it. In truth, it sounded as if she was not in her right mind. She sounded macabre and deranged.
“And that’s it? A box of dead bees?”
Serenity nodded. She was surprised when Lord Thorpe laughed. “We are a pair, then.”
He leaned down and kissed her. His lips were firm and soft and perfect and she felt as if the bones in her body were melting as he held her upright. It was magnificent. He was magnificent. Tears streamed down Serenity’s cheeks and he kissed them away.
Lord Thorpe pulled back. “This needs to be done properly. Lady Serenity Nicolet, will you consent to wedding me?”
“Yes, I will,” she whispered.
“I brought you something,” Lord Thorpe said, reaching into his coat pocket, “which is rather more prescient than I had imagined.”
He opened a small velvet box to reveal the most darling gold and pearl pin, fashioned as a bee. This was too hard on Serenity’s feelings and she wept with gusto as he pinned it on her bodice.
There was a sudden banging on the doors. “What are you doing in there? You should leave the doors open!”
It was Valor, ever working to stop a proposal.
“Come away, Val,” Serenity heard Winsome say.
Rather than do as she was told, Valor burst through the doors. “It’s so dark in here! What are you doing in here? Why are you making Serenity cry?”
“Look, Valor, Lord Thorpe has given me a pin—it’s a bee. You know how I love bees.”
“Oh no,” Valor muttered. “It’s happened again.”
