He smiled, running his thumb over her lips as he so often did. It made her lips tingle and she moistened them with the tip of her tongue, held by his gaze as if on the brink of something momentous. “I don’t know what to do with the way you make me feel, Petra. I want to look after you, to protect you, but then your stubborn, obstinate, challenging, bristly self-assertion annoys me and I want to shake some sense into you. But you move me in a way I’ve never felt before, being with you fills me with joy, like the blackbird’s song the other night, so my question to you, Petra Rutherford, is, will you marry me?”

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen

Petra was faintly aware of the roar of the crowd somewhere in the far distance, the thunder of pounding hooves, but her world seemed to have shrunk to this encapsulated moment contained by the intense dark gaze, the fingertip warm on her lips, the soft but so momentous words in her ears. It took a long moment for the import of those words to penetrate, to fall into a sensible pattern. And as the pattern fell into shape she wondered what answer she wanted to give to his straight question.

Part of her couldn’t believe she was hesitating. What woman in her right mind would turn down such an advantageous marriage proposal? An ancient title, lands, fortune . . . her parents would be pleased. They would consider they had done very well by their daughter, who had done very well for herself.

Even as these cynical thoughts played in her head, she realized that she was trying to find a way to temper her need to fling herself into his arms, to shout her acceptance to the rooftops. Some warning niggle held her back from the unbridled joy his proposal brought her. Of course she wanted to marry him, of course she wanted to share her life with him. Of course she wanted that close, intimate partnership that Diana and Fenella had with their husbands. But was it safe to love Guy Granville?

Petra knew that she could not tolerate a marriage where there was ever the faintest suspicion of a lack of loyalty on either side. She could not commit herself if it was not completely and forever. Was that the same for Guy? His past spoke against it.

“Petra?” he prompted quietly. “Will you please say something?”

“Yes, oh, yes, I’m sorry. I was thinking.”

His finger left her lips and his smile was puzzled as he said, “I hadn’t realized my proposal would cause you so much heart searching. If you need to think further, why don’t we discuss this again in a day or two.”