He was the most beautiful, extraordinary man I had ever met.

“You are a fool,” I told him, “and so am I.”

Launching myself across the space between us felt so natural that I should have done it weeks ago. I landed on his lap in a swirl of satin, and his lips fastened on mine, dark and intense and desperate, magical and hungry, sending a pleasure soaring through my body that felt so intense, it surely had to be unnatural…

So it was fortunate that neither of us was the sort to be bothered by a lack of Purity.

And it was a very good thing after all that there was a long way left to our carriage’s destination.

We arrived back at my cottage at least twenty-four hours before Dad could have possibly expected us. I’d been giddy with happiness almost all the way there, but as we approached and I realized how early we were, my nerves bubbled up with fresh unease.

“Do you think the Countess will be in there with him?” I peered through the darkness outside our carriage window, searching for any hint in the closed curtains of my house.

The truth was, I had finally come around to the idea of the Countess and my father. I could hardly complain about other people taking risks with their own hearts now that I had flung aside my own sensible constraints—and it was Dad’s encouragement that had sent me on this journey in the first place, pushing me into taking risks for the sake of love and happiness.

Still, I would be infinitely happier to leave any of their own private moments undisturbed.

Beside me, Leander was holding both of my hands in his. He didn’t stop playing with my fingers as he answered, stroking each of them mischievously, one at a time, in the most distracting manner. “If she is, we can break the happy news to both of them at once.”

I glanced at the ruby on my finger—not a wedding ring, not yet, but a glowing promise for the future, like the plain silver ring that he still wore on his own finger. He had refused to let me replace that one with something more elaborate and in his usual style; he’d said that this ring felt like me, and he wanted it. Now we each wore an unmistakable mark of each other’s commitment, and the reminder lifted my spirits. “As long as we don’t walk in on them doing anything too embarrassing…”

“No chance of that tonight.” Leander pointed, his eyesight sharp even in the dark. “Look, there’s doleful Uriah’s cart parked just outside. He must be making a late delivery.”

“And Dad’s trapped him in another endless chat! Poor man. Well, at least we can save him this time.” My shoulders sagged with relief as I released those last, lingering nerves about our approach.