as finding you have fallen in love with the very same gentleman whose hand in marriage you had once shunned so cruelly.’
Zachary rose sharply to his feet. ‘Georgianna?’ His eyes glittered as he gazed across at her uncertainly.
Her heart was now beating so erratically, so loudly in her chest, she felt sure that Zachary could not help but be aware of it, too, despite the distance between them. ‘It is the truth, Zachary.’ She forced herself to forge ahead, to not retreat or back down, now that she had come so far. ‘Since I returned to England you have shown me a side of yourself I did not know existed. That I did not even dare dream existed. On the outside you are so very much the cool and arrogant Duke of Hawksmere, so very much in control. But inwardly there is a kindness to you, one which you try to hide, but which shines through anyway.’
‘And you reached this conclusion by my having locked you in my bedchamber? By my making love to you at every opportunity?’ He raised incredulous brows.
‘I reached that conclusion by knowing that you could have been so much harsher with me, after the way I had behaved in the past. By knowing that you were complicit in protecting my reputation, despite that behaviour. By your overwhelming kindness to Jeffrey these past months. And by the realisation this evening, the certainty,’ she declared determinedly as he would have spoken, ‘that your reasons for seeing André dispatched were not, as I had supposed, because of loyalty to England, or because of a personal grudge you held against him, for having dared to elope with your future bride.’
‘Dear God, you thought that of me?’
Colour warmed the paleness of her cheeks. ‘I am ashamed to say it occurred to me those might be your reasons.’
‘I did it because of you, Georgianna. Because André had attempted to kill you.’ Zachary’s hands were clenched at his side.
It was as Georgianna had thought earlier when he’d pleaded with her so emotionally.
‘Just leave it on the side table there,’ Zachary instructed his butler harshly as the man entered after the briefest of knocks, holding aloft the tray with the decanter and glasses. ‘And in future, would you please knock and wait before entering any room in which Lady Georgianna and I are alone together?’ he added, his gaze remaining intent upon Georgianna.
‘Certainly, your Grace.’ The butler placed the tray upon the side table. ‘Will that be all, your Grace?’
Zachary barely resisted the impulse to tell the man to go to the devil, wishing to be alone again with Georgianna, to continue their conversation. To hear her repeat that she had fallen in love with him.
Something he hardly dared to believe.
‘You may retire for the night, Hinds,’ Zachary dismissed distractedly. ‘And thank you.’
His butler gave him another startled glance before gathering himself and leaving the room. As evidence perhaps that Zachary’s temper had been less than pleasant this past few days?
As no doubt it had, caught up in the pained whirlpool of his uncertainty in his own emotions, as he had surely been.
‘Is that not a strange request to make of your butler, when there is no reason to suppose that the two of us might ever be alone together in a room in this house again?’ Georgianna queried huskily.
Zachary stepped out from behind his desk. ‘There is every reason to suppose it, Georgianna.’ He strode purposefully towards her before grasping both of her hands in his. ‘Believe me, when I tell you, that these past three weeks I have come to love and admire you beyond anything and anyone else in this world.’
‘Zachary?’ she choked out emotionally.
‘Georgia, will you please, I beg of you, consent to becoming my wife?’
Georgianna stared up at him wonderingly, sure Zachary could not truly have told her that he loved her, too. That he had begged her to marry him?
His hands tightened about hers as he obviously mistook her silence for hesitation. ‘And not because of any ridiculous clause in my father’s will, either. Indeed, if you require it as proof of the sincerity of my feelings for you, I will give away half of the Hawksmere fortune to my cousin Rufus forthwith, as my father’s will decrees if I do not have an heir by my thirty fifth birthday. Anything, if you will consent to become my wife immediately.’
Georgianna’s mouth felt very dry, and after its wild pounding earlier she was sure her heart had now ceased to beat altogether. ‘Is your cousin in need of half the Hawksmere fortune?’
‘Thanks to Rufus’s business acumen, he is already one of the richest men in London.’ Zachary bared his teeth in a brief smile before just as quickly sobering. ‘Nevertheless, I will happily give him the money, if it will ensure that you believe I am sincere in my declaration of love for you. If you will only consent to become my wife as soon as it can be arranged?’
Georgianna had no idea what she had expected the outcome of her visit here this evening to be, but she knew she had certainly never expected it to be the complete and utter happiness of hearing Hawksmere declare his love for her and his asking her to marry him.
Her vision was blurred by those tears of happiness. ‘You truly love me?’
‘To the point of madness,’ Zachary assured fervently. ‘Indeed, I believe I have been half-insane with the emotion these past few days.’ The intensity of his gaze held her. ‘I love you so very much, Georgianna Rose Lancaster.’
‘As I love you, Zachary Richard Edward Black,’ she answered him huskily. ‘Completely. And always.’
His face lit up. ‘Then put all of the past behind us and consent to marry me.’
She swallowed. ‘Are you absolutely sure that is what you want, Zachary? My reappearance in society is still tenuous.’
‘What are you suggesting, Georgianna?’ Zachary demanded. ‘That I should make you my mistress rather than marry you? That I should hide you away somewhere?’
‘I am something of a novelty in society just now, Zachary, but if anyone should ever learn of my elopement with André...’
‘They will not discover it,’ Zachary announced arrogantly. ‘And even if they did, none would dare to question the reputation of the Duchess of Hawksmere.’
It was a name, a title, when used in connection to herself, that had once filled Georgianna with such dread. Now it only filled her with a happiness that threatened to overwhelm her. ‘I am so in love with you, Zachary. So very, very much, my darling. And if you are serious in your proposal of marriage...?’
‘I will accept nothing less,’ he assured firmly.
She glowed up at him. ‘Then I believe I should much prefer that you keep the Hawksmere fortune intact for our children, when they are born.’
‘Georgianna?’ Zachary had almost been afraid to hope, to dream, that Georgianna would ever accept his proposal. ‘You truly will consent to become my wife?’ His fingers tightened painfully about hers. ‘You will marry me as soon as a special licence can be arranged?’
She nodded happily. ‘And Jeffrey shall give me away and one of your friends, Wolfingham, perhaps, shall stand up with you. Oh, yes, I will marry you, Zachary. Yes, yes, please, yes.’ She launched herself into his arms as his mouth swooped down to once again claim hers.
* * *
‘You were very brave to come here alone this evening, my love,’ Zachary murmured admiringly some time later, Georgianna’s head resting on his chest as the two of them lay on the chaise in his study together. He played with her curls, having once again released her hair so that it cascaded loosely down her back.
She laughed softly, contentedly, the two of them having professed their love for each other over and over again this past hour or more. ‘To confront the fierce lion in his den?’
‘To have completely