Page 96 of Winning Her Duke

Despite his rudeness, Gia turned to him and smiled a smile that felt like it was only for him. And he wanted it to be.

“I do believe the pianoforte needs a good tuning,” she said.

“I do believe the pianoforte needs a good pianist.”

She blew out a puff of air.

“You are right. I’m miserable at it. I fear I am to be a dreadful countess.”

“Then don’t become a countess. Become a duchess instead.”

“Pardon?” She squinted at him.

“Be my wife, Gia. You are already my dearest friend and my lover. The person I most want to see when I get up each morning and the person I desperately wish could stay in my bed each night. The person I can speak to about anything without worry, and whom I want to listen to and learn about in absurd detail. You are already everything else to me. Why not be my wife as well?”

He had hoped for a joyful yes, or maybe launching herself into his arms so they might share a kiss. What he hadn’t expected when he’d finally gotten up the courage to tell the woman he loved how he truly felt about her was… nothing.

She simply blinked at him with her mouth hanging slightly open.

“Gia?” His only answer was more staring. After a moment, he reached out and gave her chin a slight push to shut her mouth.

“You wish to marry me?” She finally spoke, her voice barely a whisper.

“More than you can ever know.”

*

Gia stared at the man who had come to sit beside her on the bench in the opposite direction as she was sitting. It made it easy to look into his face and study his expression as his words absorbed into her mind.

He was proposing marriage. But…

“But you said you did not wish to marry.”

“I did not wish to marry for convenience. I did not wish to be wed to a stranger and live a cold life where my children would feel as I had. Like nothing more than an obligation to progress the line. We would not have a marriage like that, Gia.”

He was right. Their marriage would be filled with laughter and all the things they had in common. And their nights would be filled with passion. She wouldn’t need to leave him to return to her own bed. She would be welcome to stay with him even when the sun was fully up. But…

“But you do not like the country.”

He smiled and brushed a stray piece of hair from her face.

“I realized when we were at Elmhurst that I actually do enjoy the country. It’s living alone I despise. With you I would enjoy the country immensely. Especially knowing I would never be alone. I would have you and eventually our children to share the house with. There would be noise—though I pray not the noise I heard coming from this poor instrument when I arrived.”

She laughed and gave him a small shove.

“I will never need to play the pianoforte or embroider or do any of those ladylike things?”

“Never. You can stroll about the estate in your buckskins. Or nothing if it pleases you.”

She laughed again and leaned her head against his shoulder. “I feel like my every wish has come true.”

“Then will you say yes, and marry me, Gia?”

“Yes. I would like nothing more.”

He graced her with the smile she’d captured in her painting. Or had attempted to. She saw now her painting had not done him justice. He was beautiful and he was to be her husband.

Hers for the rest of their lives.