“Do you think you might—” Charles coughed, suddenly wishing he were sober, because he had a feeling his vocabulary was larger when he wasn't tipsy.

“Lord Billington?” she asked with a concerned expression.

In the end he just blurted it out. “Do you think you might marry me?”

Chapter 2

Ellie dropped him.

He landed in a tangle of arms and legs, yelping with pain as his ankle gave way beneath him.

“That was a terrible thing to say!” she cried out.

Charles scratched his head. “I thought I just asked you to marry me?”

Ellie blinked back traitorous tears. “It is a cruel thing about which to jest.”

“I wasn't jesting.”

“Of course you were,” she returned, just barely managing to resist the urge to kick him in the hip. “I have been very kind to you this afternoon.”

“Very kind,” he echoed.

“I did not have to stop and help you.”

“No,” he murmured, “you did not.”

“I'll have you know that I could be married if I so wished it. I am on the shelf by choice.”

“I wouldn't have dreamed otherwise.”

Ellie thought she heard mocking in his voice, and this time she did kick him.

“Curse it, woman!” Charles exclaimed. “What the devil was that for? I am being utterly serious.”

“You're drunk,” she accused.

“Yes,” he admitted, “but I've never asked a woman to marry me before.”

“Oh, please,” she scoffed. “If you are trying to tell me that you fell head over heels blindingly in love with me at first sight, let me tell you that it won't wash.”

“I am not trying to tell you anything of the sort,” he said. “I would never insult your intelligence in such a fashion.”

Ellie blinked, thinking that he might have just insulted some other aspect of her person, but not sure which.

“The fact of the matter is—” He stopped and cleared his throat. “Do you think we might continue this conversation elsewhere? Perhaps somewhere where I might sit in a chair rather than in the dirt.”

Ellie frowned at him for a moment before grudgingly holding out her hand. She still wasn't certain that he wasn't making sport of her, but her recent treatment of him had been less than gentle, and her conscience was nagging her. She didn't believe in kicking a man when he was down, especially when she was the one who had put him there.

He took her hand and eased himself back onto his feet. “Thank you,” he said dryly. “You are clearly a woman of great strength of character. It is why I am considering taking you to wife.”

Ellie's eyes narrowed. “If you do not cease mocking me….”

“I believe I told you I am utterly serious. I never lie.”

“Now that is a clanker if ever I heard one,” she retorted.

“Well, then, I never lie about anything important.”

Her hands found their way to her hips and she let out a loud, “Harumph.”

He exhaled in a vaguely annoyed manner. “I assure you I would never lie about something like this. And I must say, you have developed an exceedingly poor opinion of me. Why, I wonder?”