Page 79 of A Bloom for a Blacksmith

“All right,” he replied, loving how she practically bounced on the balls of her feet. He desperately hoped she would always be this happy, especially when he came home from work.

Glancing towards the back of the bookshop, he was reminded of practical matters. “I think before I go upstairs, I need to speak with the stable boy at the end of the mews. Discover if he has a stall for the horse and can see to it the phaeton is hitched up and ready to go at half past three in the morning.”

“You’re giving me a ride to the market?” she asked. “Again?”

“Well, of course. I won’t have you walking all the way to Covent Garden that time of the morning,” he admonished. “Or taking a hackney.”

“What will you do for the four hours until you’re due at Agremon House?” she asked.

“Sleep in your flower stall?” he teased, before shaking his head. “I’ll probably go to Agremon House. Continue my work on that Swedish iron. I need the forge to be extra hot to make more chisels.” He dipped his head. “Once they’re done, perhaps Mr. Agremon will allow me some time to move my things. There’s a bed and some furniture,” he said. “Dishes and such. It’s all of… good quality.”

“A bed?” she repeated. “Large enough for two?”

He nodded and then smiled when he saw her impish grin. “Now you have me forgetting everything I need to do,” he accused.

She pointed to the door. “Valise. Phaeton and horse to the stable. I’ll unlock the back door for you. Then we’re going upstairs.”

Tipping his cap, he said, “Yes, miss.”

While he saw to matters of transportation, Iris finished updating the receipt book and collected that day’s receipts into a small leather bag. She hid it in a drawer in Stella’s desk.

When Angus entered the shop from the alley, he announced all was arranged with the stable boy.

“What will you do for a horse?” she asked. “Don’t you have to give this one back to that other mews behind your house?”

He nodded. “I do, but the stable boy said there is one here I’ll be able to hire,” he replied. “That reminds me. I’ll need to give notice to my landlord.”

He retrieved his valise and the drapery rods from near the front door and double-checked the lock. “I am ready to see what the Benedetto brothers have done.”

Giggling, Iris lit a lantern, grabbed the bag of tools, and carried them and the lantern as she led him up the stairs. “If the odor is too much, we can move the cots down to this floor,” she suggested, when they emerged onto the second floor.

“I hardly notice it now,” he said, lifting his shoulder in a shrug.

“I do have to be sure to move things aways from the walls on this floor before we retire for the night.”

“Why?” he asked.

“The Benedetto brothers are returning tomorrow to paint this room,” she said. “Mrs. Agremon was so pleased with their work upstairs, she agreed to let them continue.”

He chuckled. “Sounds as if someone was bamboozled.”

“Oh, is that what you think?” she teased, leading him up to the third floor, the lantern casting shadows around them in the narrow confines of the stairwell. “Well, I dare you to say it again after you see what they’ve accomplished with only a few colors of paint.”

Even before he was halfway up the stairs, Angus knew the painters had done far more than paint the room in a pale yellow. “Is this…?”

“The same room? Yes,” she replied, grinning in delight as she held the light close to the wall to illuminate it. “Isn’t it elegant? I can hardly wait for daylight so you can see it. And I can hardly wait to see how the drapery rods look over the windows.”

Awestruck, Angus took the lantern from her, then stood in the center of the floor and slowly turned in a full circle. When he stopped, he grinned at Iris. “Do forget what I said about the bamboozling,” he commented, placing the drapery rods beneath the windows.

Iris joined him to set the bags of tools on the floor. “So… you like it?”

He nodded, his attention on her. “I do. You deserve this, Iris. I only hope I can give you everything you want.”

She dipped her head. “Thank you.” She glanced around the mostly empty space. “Would you like some supper? I brought some fruit and cheese from the market. I think the bread I brought from my old room is probably only fit for bread pudding.”

Although his stomach was growling, Angus was tempted to deny his hunger for food. “If I said I was hungry, but not for food, would that shock you?” he asked in a hoarse whisper. He watched as Iris’s eyes widened, and he saw how a blush colored her cheeks.

“Because… you wish to make love to me?” she asked in a whisper.