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He took a bite of the tart in front of him, realised he was starving hungry and demolished the rest. ‘That’s good. Yes—the problem is that, whatever we do or want, when you marry me all that is yours becomes mine. But if you do not own Frost’s before the wedding, then it isn’t mine.’
‘Yes, but—’
‘We have been fixated with the indisputable fact that everything that is yours on marriage becomes mine. So you set up a trust before the wedding. You put the entire business into it and you set out the terms. You, or whoever you nominate, will always have total control. There will be trustees, but you always have the casting vote. The profits all go back into the trust to be spent on the business. And you will nominate your successor or successors.
‘I have never heard of a woman doing that, but I think we can organise it so that you can dissolve the trust and settle the business on a child, or children, of yours when they are ready. The lawyers I spoke to in London thought it should be possible, but there is the question of Portuguese law. But we can make it safe, keep it as you want it, even if it stays in trust for ever.’
Her face lit up as she worked it out. ‘It would be difficult managing from England, but we can do it,’ Gabrielle said. ‘Oh, Gray, it is perfect.’
‘I was thinking about the distances, too. There are times you would want to be in Portugal and times I need to be in Yorkshire, or in London. But I spent a lot of time talking to Henry, once we’d picked each other up off the carpet and started seeing sense. He knows enough to convince me that, if we don’t mind travelling, we can divide our time between both countries.’
‘You would be willing to do that?’
Gray nodded. For Gabrielle he would travel across the Atlantic and back regularly, let alone the Bay of Biscay. ‘With peace in Europe, travel will become easier every year. There will be steam ships making the journey soon, I wouldn’t be surprised.’
‘But that is brilliant. Of course it would work—why did we never think of it before?’ Gabrielle jumped to her feet, leaned across the table, kissed him full on the mouth.
‘Because we were fixed on the fact that a woman’s property transfers to her husband on marriage. We couldn’t see past it to arranging matters so that you put the company safely aside before then.’
They sat and smiled at each other for a while as the scent of chocolate wove through the air between them.
We must look like besotted fools, he thought.
‘When did you decide you could trust me?’ he asked eventually when his heart rate had slowed to something almost normal and the urge to grin had subsided.
‘I think I always knew, it was just that, when Thomas died, protecting Frost’s became the most important thing, all that I had to hold on to of him, of my parents. Of my life. To protect it I needed a child to leave it to. And then, when I realised that the child was a reality, I saw that a business, a legacy, meant nothing. Only the baby and you mattered.
‘I love you or I would never have lain with you. I love you, so it became intolerable that I could not bring myself to let go and trust you to do the right thing. I needed a good shaking, I suspect—and suffering from morning sickness in the Bay of Biscay with one very astringent female companion was certainly that.’
She was smiling, he saw with relief. Smiling even though the tears swam in those lovely brown eyes that had ensnared him almost at first sight.
‘Where shall we be married?’ Gray asked.
‘There is an English church in Porto. We could be married there and then have a big party at the quinta.’ Gabrielle seemed to come out of a happy haze. ‘I suppose the sooner the better, before I cause a scandal with my flowing skirts to conceal my condition.’
‘I’ll send for my mother and the twins. The sooner they get to know you, and love you, the better. The children can all grow up in both countries. They will flourish on it.’
‘Shall we go and find the chaplain of the English church?’ Gabrielle looked ready to jump up and begin wedding planning that moment.
‘Later. Now, you will eat another pastry and drink your chocolate and get warm and I will find a cab. Once we’ve seen the chaplain I will take you back to your hotel and we will do soothing, restful things like making lists.’
Gabrielle laughed. ‘If you think that excited women making wedding plans is going to be soothing, you, my love, are in for a surprise.’ But she ate another tart and drained her chocolate and put her hand into his to prove that she was warm enough.
The baker took Gray’s money with a twinkle in her eye and a look of approval that had been missing before.
A romantic, Gray thought. And I am turning into a romantic, too.
‘If we go to the agent’s office I will write a letter to my mother and make sure it goes on the next ship back.’
‘Invite Henry, as well,’ Gabrielle said. ‘He can se
e something of port production first hand and he can take ship to America equally well from here.’
‘And I will signal that my suspicions were entirely unfounded?’
She looked up, an expression of total innocence on her face. ‘Oh, yes, that is a good thought.’
‘Scheming hussy,’ Gray said. My scheming hussy. He smiled to himself as he pressed her hand tighter to his side. ‘They should arrive just before Christmas.’
