“Really?”
He leaned back into the chair, remembering. “I imagined the two of us, old and gray, still sparring with each other as if no time had passed.”
“Oh, well. That wouldn’t have been so terrible, I suppose.”
“Perhaps.” He caught her gaze and held it. “But I want something else now.”
“For me to remain at Haldon until we’re old and gray, less the sparring?” she guessed.
“Yes, but not as a guest.”
She found something else in the counterpane to pick at. “However kindly you may rephrase it, I am not family.”
He leaned forward and took her hand. “You would be, if you consented to becoming my wife.”
Her mouth dropped nearly to her chin. “Your…your wife? You mean marry you?”
“That is the usual way of becoming a wife, I’m told,” he answered with a twitch of his lips.
“I don’t know what to say.” She really didn’t. It was beyond her scope. She’d thought that chance lost. How could he marry the niece of a criminal? “I…You’re asking me to marry you.”
“Not as I had planned to, but yes—”
“You’d planned to ask me?”
He shrugged and smiled. “Well, it really ought not to be something a man does on a whim.”
“No…no, it shouldn’t.” She continued to gape, feeling a little lightheaded and more than a little stupid. “I really don’t know what to say to you, Whit, I—”
“Yes would be a fine start.” His smile fell. “You’re not going to say yes, are you?”
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “I…How can you ask this? I’m the niece of a criminal.”
He frowned at her. “I told you once before—you’re not responsible for his sins.”
“Yes, but just taking me in is quite a bit different from…from…”
“Just taking you?”
“From making me the Countess of Thurston,” she corrected, slanting him an annoyed look. “There’s no guarantee my uncle’s actions won’t become public knowledge at some point. People will talk—”
“Damn the talk,” he snapped.
“How can you say that? You worked so hard securing your family’s popularity—”
She cut off at his laugh. “Mirabelle, popularity has never been a problem for the Cole family. The ton was exceedingly fond of my father.”
“But…I don’t understand.”
“He was witty and charming. He threw lavish parties, agreed to every wager tossed to him, drank with the young bucks, flirted with the old ladies—”
“You said he was a dandy and a rake,” she accused.
“And so he was. The ton loved him for it.” He shook his head when she began to argue. “But they didn’t respect him. He couldn’t be trusted—with money, with the ladies, with keeping his word. He was a favorite diversion, nothing more.”
“Oh.” Her brow furrowed in thought. “If it’s not society’s good favor you’ve been courting, then what have you been doing?”
“Behaving as a gentleman, I hope,” he said simply. “I’d have the Cole family known for their honor.”
She licked her lips. “And if marriage to me should throw that honor into question?”
He made a noise that was half sigh and half groan. “To begin with, I’ll see to it your uncle’s behavior will never become public knowledge. I’m an earl, aren’t I? And an agent of the War Department, besides. There are things I can do. Beyond that, there is nothing dishonorable in offering for an honorable woman. And you are an honorable woman—a beautiful, intelligent, and courageous woman. Anyone incapable of seeing that is an idiot. Why should I care for the good opinion of an idiot?” He drew her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Marry me, Mirabelle.”
Marry him. He truly wanted to marry her, despite everything. Her heart, so terribly heavy only an hour before, stuttered and then raced until she felt marvelously lightheaded.
“This is so…I hadn’t expected…I…Can I ask you a question?”
Whit winced and set down her hand. “When a person has to ask to ask, it’s a fairly good indicator that what is going to be asked, will be unpleasant.”
She gave herself a moment to decipher that statement. “I’m still too muzzy to even attempt responding to that. I only wanted to know…did you realize you’d have to offer for me before you…before we…?”
“Made love?” he finished for her.
“Yes.”
His brow furrowed in thought. “Realize is an odd choice of word, in this case. The wrong one, I think. I have always been aware of what is expected of a gentleman in such circumstances, but if you’re asking if I was thinking of it at the time, I’d have to answer no.” He reached out to brush the back of his fingers gently across her uninjured cheek. “I thought only of how much I wanted you.”
“Oh.”
“Does that upset you?” he asked, cocking his head at her.