Page 50 of The Pleasure in Persuasion

Lily shot her sister a frown. “He is more than his reputation, Rose. He’s a good man.” Her gaze dropped to the table. “He…says he loves me. He wants to marry me.”

Rose gasped. “Have you accepted him? Are you betrothed?”

She shook her head. “He asked me just yesterday, moments before you arrived. There was no time to answer him, and honestly, I was so stunned, I have no idea what I would have said. And then your carriage arrived, and he left.”

Do try to remember to give my offer some consideration.

I’ve been waiting all my life to find you, Lily.

I want to spend my life with you. Wherever you might be.

His words rushed through her brain again, as they’d done a hundred times since he’d said them, and pleasure pulsed through her, intertwined with a thread of uncertainty she had been unable to shake.

“Have you decided yet what you will say?” Rose asked.

Lily turned and leaned her back against the table, crossing her arms over her chest. “Frederick is...” She pursed her lips. “I’ve never met anyone like him. He is charming, but he’s also artless and caring and kind. He’s so much more than he appears to be. And he makes me smile.”

Rose leaned against the table beside her, and bumped Lily’s shoulder with hers. “Sounds to me like you love him, too,” she said softly.

Lily nodded. “I think I might. But I thought I loved Stephen, and I thought he loved me, and look what happened. He chose someone else.” She swallowed hard and met her sister’s gaze. “What if that happens again, Rose? He’s younger than I am, and he’s used to life in London. What if he regrets marrying me? What if he ends up wishing he’d married someone younger and prettier, someone who doesn’t run a country inn?”

Rose was silent for a long moment, considering her response, and then she simply said, “Do you believe he would do that?”

Lily sighed. “My heart says he wouldn’t, but what is that worth? My heart has been wrong before. How do I know it will steer me true this time?”

“You don’t. You either take a chance and choose to trust it or”—she shrugged—”you choose not to.”

A frown furrowed Lily’s brow. “That is supremely unhelpful.”

“I’m sorry,” Rose said with a small smile. “I wish I knew what you should do.”

“That makes two of us.”