Page 50 of Bella Darcy is on the Run

Bella drew back enough to look up at him. "And when we return home, I will attend my lessons properly."

His brows lifted so sharply that Bella laughed gaily. "I mean it," she said. "I will attend. There is no manner of estate business that will escape my undivided attention."

"I shall remind you of those words when Samuels produces the quarterly accounts."

Bella made a face. "I said I would attend, Papa. I did not say I would enjoy them."

That finally brought a smile to his face. "There you are. That sounds rather more like my daughter."

Her father released her and turned towards George, who had remained respectfully apart while they spoke. For a moment Bella wondered whether he meant to say something further, but instead he held out his hand. George took it at once, looking more relieved than Bella had seen him since he climbed through her window and landed on her bedroom floor.

"I look forward to learning more about you, Captain," her father said. "And I hope, in time, you will give me no cause to regret my decision."

"I shall do my very best, sir."

"That is all any of us can promise where Bella is concerned."

"Papa," Bella protested, although she could not help smiling as George's deep dimple appeared.

Her mother rose and declared that they had endured enough serious conversation for one evening and that she would ring for tea. George began to protest that it was late and he should probably take his leave, but Bella caught his sleeve before he could go anywhere.

"You scaled a building to see me. You may at least stay for tea." The moment the words left her mouth, Bella clapped a hand over it.

Her father looked from her to George. "Scaled a building? This building?"

George's colour rose. "I climbed the drainpipe, sir."

Bella's mother gave a startled laugh, while her father continued to stare at George with a mixture of disbelief and resignation.

"You climbed to my daughter's bedchamber by way of a drainpipe?"

George shifted beside her. "Yes, sir. Though I can assure you nothing improper occurred."

Bella winced. "In fairness, Papa, I did let him in, so that fault lies as much with me."

Her father closed his eyes for a moment. "I do not think that improves matters, sweetheart."

Her mother was still laughing softly as she reached for the bell. "Tea, I think. Before we discover any further breaches of propriety and good sense."

Chapter Twenty-Four

Two months later

George walked hand in hand with Bella along a pale strip of coast beneath a cloudless blue sky. It was early in the day and the August heat had not yet reached its full strength, while the breeze coming in off the sea cooled the air and made for a pleasant stroll. There was no one around and he revelled in the freedom to take Bella's hand in his own and feel her fingers curled through his. It was only in the last couple of weeks that her father had consented to their taking short walks unchaperoned. George could have kissed the man full on the lips when he made the announcement, and they had taken full advantage of the freedom, going for long walks and enjoying stolen kisses in the shadow of the tall cliffs while the sea sparkled beyond them.

Today, Bella swung their hands between them as she talked of everything and nothing, stopping occasionally to examine a pretty shell or stone half hidden in the sand. The last two months had been some of the happiest George could remember, not only because he had been able to deepen his relationship with Bella, who was now not only the keeper of his heart but his dearest friend in the world, but because he had been welcomed into the exuberant Darcy family, including its rather more reserved patriarch. He had come to love the simple affection of noisy meals and impromptu dances in the parlour, Elizabeth's lively conversation and the squabbling and teasing of Bella's younger sisters. It had been so long since he had been part of any sort of family at all that he had not realised how desperately he had missed it.

However, yesterday he had sat with Mr Darcy in his study, the easy companionship of the previous weeks forgotten as George nervously asked the man a question he had been turning over in his mind almost from the first moment his lips had touched Bella's. Now, with her father's approval secured, there remained only Bella herself to convince of his suit.

She released his hand and skipped happily towards the shifting line where the sea met the shore, bending to pull a pretty silver shell from the wet sand. She turned back to him, smiling broadly, her dark hair being tugged free from its pins by the wind and lit from behind by the morning sun. George's heart gave the familiar painful squeeze it always seemed to suffer when she looked at him like that.

"Isn't this lovely, George? Look at the markings here." She held out the shell as she came towards him.

George examined it gravely. "It is very lovely, Princess, but do you not have a hundred more just like it?"

"Oh, George." She closed her fingers protectively around her treasure. "That is not the point. They are all unique in their own way. Clara is forever grumbling that if she has to find one more bowl to store my seaside rubbish, she is going to empty the whole lot into the dustbin."

"She would never dare."