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Her own heart soared to hear it. At last, she had him for her own. He truly was hers.
He brushed a kiss over her lips. “Marry me, my dear, sweet love. And I will spend the rest of my life trying to convince you to love me.”
Tears of joy stung her eyes. “No convincing necessary, I assure you. You may have lost your heart to me, but you stole mine. I know you did it deliberately, too, you wicked fellow.” She gave a giddy laugh. “I was probably quite foolish to let you do so, but you proved a far more adept thief than Jimmy.”
She stroked his cheek. “With every kindness you showed me and my family, you stole my heart a little more, so slowly that by the time I realized you had it in your grasp, it was too late to snatch it back. So, yes, I suppose I must marry you, if only to retrieve my heart.”
“I’ll never give it back,” he warned.
“I’ll never give yours back,” she countered.
“Good,” they said in unison, then laughed.
They kissed for a long moment. Then Noel drew back with a sigh. “I suppose we still have to decide what to do about your submission.”
“Will it embarrass you too much if I brazen it out with Lady Margaret?”
“It won’t embarrass me at all. Look, I’ll admit I was utterly taken in by her ladylike demeanor and quiet ways. It never dawned on me that beneath that façade was a woman capable of such vicious behavior toward any lady who captured my attention. But apparently, that truly is her character. I wouldn’t have you harmed by her for all the gold in the Bank of England.”
“And I won’t put my second-best work in the place of my best simply so my uncle can be convinced to believe in me and Maman and Jimmy. I certainly won’t do it to avoid a confrontation with Lady Margaret.” Perhaps jealousy was riding her to do something disastrous, but she couldn’t let the woman get away with her treachery. “Still, I don’t want to hurt your mother—”
“You won’t. Mother is right. The queen has enormous respect for her. All right, dearling. We’ll do it your way. At least once we marry, I can take care of the three of you. We won’t need your uncle anyway.”
She sighed. “No, that’s not right, either. James is Papa’s rightful heir. I shall just have to convince my uncle of that. Somehow.”
“He does still seem to have soft feelings for his niece. He remembers the same tart-tongued thirteen-year-old that I do. If it weren’t for his misgivings about your stepmother and half brother, he would probably cart you off with him.”
“Speaking of my uncle,” she said, “although we could probably stay in here happily for the next hour or so, we’d best get back. Especially if my uncle is about to show up any minute.”
“True.”
And with that, they returned to the room where the competition was being held.
CHAPTER 9
When Noel and Eve emerged from the room, Noel glanced toward his mother and her stepmother and asked Eve, “Where’s James?”
Eve scanned the area near her stepmother. “I don’t see him.”
Noel gazed all around the room.
Suddenly, he noticed James near the double doors from the foyer. An older gentleman, whom Noel recognized instantly as Eve’s uncle, passed near James and then inexplicably seemed to drop his coin-heavy purse on the floor very near to James.
When Noel groaned, Eve followed his gaze to where James was picking up the purse.
“Your uncle has laid a trap for young James, I’m afraid,” Noel said.
And the lad was just a bit too far away for either of them to do anything about it, although they hastened toward him anyway.
Before they could even reach Eve’s uncle, much less James, they saw the boy tug on the older gentleman’s coat. “I beg your pardon, sir,” James said and held out the man’s purse. “But I believe you dropped this.”
Noel froze and pulled Eve to a halt beside him. Could James really be doing what Noel thought he was?
Eve’s uncle turned to stare down at James, then at the purse in James’s hand. “Why, thank you, young man. Very helpful of you.” He opened the purse, checked it thoroughly, then smiled at James. “And what is your name, lad?”
“James William Archer, sir.”
Noel’s heart swelled with pride to see young James behaving so well with a man he couldn’t possibly know.
