“Oh, sweet.” He grinned and stroked a thumb over her cheek. “Washington is not to us what London is to your countrymen. The location means nothing. Our government can operate as well from a tavern or a plantation. Its destruction is like throwing water on a cat. It will not disable us. It will make us spitting mad.”
He obviously knew his neighbors better than she, but it seemed strange. And if strange to her, who had been living among them for months, how strange indeed it would seem to the British generals and admirals planning out their strategy.
Her arms tightened around him. “And when they come, you will not be content to run about taking people to safety or scouting their position, will you? You will fight.” And he was no general like Papa, who could avoid the front lines so that he might command others to them. Thad would go wherever he was told and do whatever must be done, no matter the danger to himself.
The familiar teeth of fear nipped at her and made her heart squeeze tight. She could lose him. In a matter of days, she could lose him, and it was not fair. She had scarcely had him. Could only by audacity call him her own, not by rights. With tears flooding her eyes, she drew in a long breath. I give him to You, my Lord and my God. I put him in the palm of Your hand. And I will climb up into Your lap and wait out the storm there, trusting You to…trusting that…just trusting.
“Gwyn.” The warm tone drew her gaze to his face again, where his eyes burned as fiercely as Washington must have in the night. He cupped her cheek. “Will you marry me?”
Her arms slid away, but only so she could settle her hands on his chest, where the reassuring, quick thump-thump of his heart could touch them. “Yes.”
He didn’t smile. “Before they come?”
“Yes.”
“Today?”
“Yes.” This time it came out on a laugh, part joy and part desperation. Yes, let it be soon, let it be now, this very minute. Let God join them together so that no man could tear them asunder.
Now he smiled, in a quiet sort of way, and looked to the others in the room. “If anyone has any objections, speak now or else get to work.”
Rosie was the first to jump into action. “A wedding dinner with only twelve hours’ notice? I had better get Emmy to help me. We have that ham, a mess of potatoes still, and those greens. Emmy can make the cake.” She paused beside them, the sparkle in her eyes belying the matter-of-fact words. Her hands settled, one on each of their arms, and gave a little squeeze. Then she bustled from the room.
“Alain?”
Arnaud was glancing around the chamber as if taking its measure. “How many do you think we can fit in here? Ah, no matter.” He grinned and sank into a chair. “I will invite all of Baltimore and let them fight out who can witness the nuptials. Although I will give them time to rise first.”
“And I will find Reverend Gruber.” Mr. Lane approached with a warm smile and reached for her hands. “Gwyneth, my dear. You know we welcome you most happily to our family. And I believe, with everything within me, that your father would approve of this.”
She nodded, those tears stinging again. “I know he would.”
Winter looked to be fighting off tears of her own. “We ought to find you a wedding gown. And send for Philly, who will never forgive us if we exclude her. Oh, how I wish there was time for Amelia to come, but she will understand.”
“She will indeed.” Thad took her hands from his father, winked, and pulled her toward the door. “Just as I am sure you all understand when I beg you to excuse us for a moment.”
A laugh stuck in her throat as he tugged her into the hall before they could object, down it and around the corner until they were out of sight, and then he lifted her enough to set her feet upon the bottom step of the stairwell, evening out their heights. “There,” he said. “Now the important part.”
“Thad, I—”
His lips silenced her, caressing hers with a warm urgency, a patient need. Once, twice, a third glorious time, and then he mumbled, “Were you saying something?”
She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him when he waited a second too long for her liking. “I cannot think what.”
He took the kiss deeper, and she held on as her knees went liquid, let herself get lost for a moment in the rush of sensation. Was it some facet of chemistry that did this to her, as Philly suggested? Some magic? Or was it, as it felt it must be, a knitting of their souls?
“Oh.” She pulled away, though not by much. A fraction of an inch, enough to fit in a smile. “I was going to say I love you.”
Thad grinned before feathering a kiss over her cheek and down to her jaw. “A good thing to say. I ought to say the same.” From jaw to lips. “In one moment.”
The moment stretched, crystallized, and only ended when Winter cleared her throat and stepped up beside Gwyneth on the stair. “We have much to do, and there will be time enough for that after the vows are exchanged,” she said, a smile in her voice.
Gwyneth smiled too and loosed her arms from their happy home around his neck. And hoped, prayed his mother was right. That there would be time enough.