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Grasping the circle between her thumb and forefinger, she withdrew it and held it under the lantern for examination.
A ring.
Not just any ring. A gold band studded with diamonds all the way round, and in the center a gemstone as big as her thumbnail. An emerald? Aquamarine? The dark made it difficult to tell.
“It’s a sapphire,” he said. “Matches your eyes.”
The breath left her lungs. “Surely you’re not saying that you... That this...”
“It is—or rather,was—meant for you. Yes.”
“Is this some sort of joke?”
“When have you ever known me to joke?”
A fair point.
Chloe struggled to wrap her mind around this situation, but failed. This was all too much to be believed. Even the ring sitting in her hand seemed an illusion. As if an especially large snowflake had drifted onto her palm, and it would melt at any moment.
“You had no idea of my attachment,” he said.
She shook her head, dazed. “None.”
“Remarkable. I thought it must be obvious.” He looked into the distance. “I suppose I flattered myself, assuming you to be paying attention.”
“Iwaspaying attention. Too much attention. All year long, I’ve worried and fretted over your opinion of me. I thought you disliked me.”
“You thought wrongly.”
“But you kept hovering about me.”
“As a moth circles a flame.”
“Scrutinizing my every word and deed.”
“Captivated. Rapt with fascination.”
“Always looking down on me.”
He threw up his hands. “I amtall.There is no other way for me to look at you, other than to look down. And I cannot help looking at you, as you’ve noticed. I find you incomparably lovely. Enticing. Bewitching. Desirable. Beautiful. Take your choice of words, it applies.”
Her cheeks flushed with heat. What did one say when an imposing, handsome earl gave her a dozen compliments all at once, thrusting them at her like a hastily assembled bouquet?
Thankfully, he did not wait on a response.
He began to pace the frozen ground, crossing back and forth before her. A half-dozen strides. Pivot. Another half-dozen strides. Pivot. Repeat. His rhythm was stiff, and he didn’t seem to know what to do with his arms. Chloe suspected earls didn’t have reason to pace very often.
She was still holding the ring in her hand. “Did you have a box for this, or...?”
“I left it at home. I didn’t want the box to—” He halted in place and laughed wryly. “I didn’t want it to ruin the waistcoat’s silhouette.”
She cringed. He trulyhadbeen expecting a different kind of celebration tonight. What on earth had given him the notion that she would be receptive to a proposal? He must be either vastly mistaken or boundlessly arrogant. Or both?
Probably both.
He resumed pacing.
“So that picnic outing last spring,” she mused aloud, “before Andrew and Rebecca’s wedding.”
