Gazes touching, they ducked through the archway into the rose garden.
“I don’t think she’s ever been anything else.”
He reached for Portia’s hand, twined his fingers with hers. They walked on, swiftly leaving the rose garden for the less structured gardens above the lake.
Ten minutes later, they paused where the path they’d followed crested the rise above the lake. He looked out over the water; not another soul was in sight. “Come on.” He led Portia down the narrow path and onto the wider path circling the lake.
She fell into step beside him. He kept hold of her hand; he was reasonably sure none of the others was likely to wander this way, not in the next hour.
When he led her past the front of the summerhouse, she glanced at him. He could sense her thoughts, but instead of asking where they were going, she went straight to the heart of things. “What did you want to talk about?”
Now the moment was upon him—them—although he knew what he needed to say, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. Thanks to Kitty, he hadn’t had time to plan what was, in truth, a most crucial engagement in his campaign to win Portia to wife. “I ran into Kitty after I left you this morning.” He glanced at her, met her widening eyes. “She’s guessed, more or less correctly.”
She grimaced, then turned thoughtful. Frowned. “So she may cause problems.”
“That depends. She’s so caught up in her own games, she’ll only lash out and mention us if provoked.”
“Perhaps I should speak with her.”
He stopped. “No! That’s not what—”
She halted, looked at him questioningly.
He glanced about the lake path, heard a high-pitched girlish voice float down from the gardens above. They’d reached the pinetum; a path led on, winding beneath the specimen trees. Tightening his hold on Portia’s hand, he drew her on.
Stopped only when they were surrounded by tall trees, cloaked in dappled shade—totally private.
He released her, turned, faced her.
She watched, waited, mildly curious . . .
Ignoring the constriction about his lungs, he drew breath, met her midnight blue eyes.
“I want to marry you.”
She blinked, then stared. “What did you say?”
Her voice was oddly weak.
He set his jaw. “You heard me.” When she continued to stare, dumbfounded, he repeated, “I want to marry you.”
Her eyes only grew rounder. “When did you decide this? And why, for heaven’s sake?”
He hesitated, trying to see ahead. “Kitty. She almost said something over the luncheon table. At some point, she will—she won’t be able to resist. I was already thinking of marriage and didn’t want you imagining, if I waited to speak until after she caused a ruckus, that I was offering because of that.”
With any other lady, letting Kitty create a scandal and then offering ostensibly because of it might have been a reasonable way forward, but not with Portia. She’d never accept an offer made out of social necessity.
“You were already thinking of marriage? To me?” The stunned look in her eyes hadn’t faded. “Why?”
He frowned at her. “I would have thought that was obvious.”
“Not to me. What, precisely, are you talking about?”
“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten you spent last night in my bed.”
“You’re perfectly right—I haven’t. I also haven’t forgotten that I specifically explained that my interest in such proceedings was academic.”
He held her gaze. “That was then. This is now. Things have changed.” An instant passed. Eyes locked on hers, he asked, “Can you deny it?”