“I already love you, Rufus.” Anna knew her face glowed as she gazed up at him with all of that love shining in her eyes.
“You do?” His eyes darkened with emotion as he looked down at her searchingly. “Can you possibly? Is it really possible you are in love with me, my darling Anna?” He looked uncharacteristically uncertain.
An uncertainty that caused Anna’s heart to ache. “I love you so very much. From that first moment, too, I believe. I just— I did not believe that you could ever feel the same way about someone like me.”
“There is no one else like you, Anna!” Rufus assured gruffly as he held her fiercely in his arms. “You are unique. You are perfect. You are my beloved. Will you marry me, Anna, and make me the happiest man in the world? Will you be my duchess? The mother of our children?”
Anna’s heart leapt at the realisation that if she said yes to his marriage proposal she would not only become Rufus’s wife but also a duchess. “I am only the daughter of a parson.” She reminded him then.
“And I am only a duke because of tragic family losses and being the unfortunate third grandson of a duke,” Rufus assured wryly. “Can you not see how perfect we are for each other, Anna—the unexpected duke and the parson’s daughter!” He looked almost boyish as he grinned down at her.
She winced. “It sounds like the title of a melodrama.”
“To me it sounds like heaven,” Rufus contradicted huskily. “Say yes, Anna. Say yes, and we shall have your brother marry us as soon as is possible, and then we shall leave England and go on an extended honeymoon. Would you like that, Anna?” he prompted as he saw the excitement glowing in her eyes. “Shall we leave England for a while and travel together, not to the Continent, because it is not safe as yet, but to all the other exotic places that so call to your heart?”
Rufus really did know her, Anna acknowledged wonderingly. He knew her and what was in her heart.
“I would be just as happy to remain here, or to go to London. As long as I am with you it does not matter where we are,” she assured, knowing it was true, and that Rufus meant more to her than anything else. That he was her dream, loving him was her true freedom, and marriage to him would be the biggest adventure.
“We will travel,” Rufus insisted. “I am looking forward to sharing all the wonders of the world with you. To seeing them through your beautiful eyes. I love you so much, Anna Juliet. So very, very much,” he added fiercely.
“I love you too, Rufus,” she answered him just as earnestly.
“Then marry me and make me the happiest of men.”
“As you will make me the happiest of women.”
Anna had no doubts it was a vow, and a love, they would both treasure for the rest of their hopefully long lives together.
* * *
They made their official vows before family, friends and God just weeks later, Anna somewhat overwhelmed by meeting so many titled members of the ton, most especially the five Dangerous Dukes, and several of their wives, who were all Rufus’s closest friends.
But she need not have worried, the three duchesses could not have been more welcoming, and the dukes were all exceedingly charming to her. Apart from Griffin Stone, Duke of Rotherham, who was pleasant enough, but seemed to be of a naturally taciturn disposition.
“Do you think he is leaving early because he disapproves of me?” Anna whispered to her new husband after Rotherham had taken his leave to depart for his estate in Lancashire.
“I would not care if he did,” Rufus assured her with his usual arrogance. “But I am sure he does approve of you, my darling.” He kissed her soundly in front of all their wedding guests. “Rotherham is… It is only that weddings are not his favourite occasions.” He grimaced.
Rufus had told Anna all there was to know about him. His past, his present, their future. And she loved him still, in spite of it.
But there was no reason for him to talk on their wedding day of his and the other Dangerous Dukes’ work for the Crown. No need to explain that Griffin was returning to his estate because they had received word that Jacob Harker, Rufus’s errant estate manager, had possibly been seen in Lancashire.
“Oh?” Anna looked up at him enquiringly.
“Never mind your curiosity about Griffin.” Rufus tapped her lightly on her nose. “You shall have your hands far too full of your husband, and our happiness together for many years to come, to be able to indulge your inquisitive nature in regard to Rotherham. Besides which, he would not thank you for it,” he added with certainty.
“Really, husband?” Anna looked up at him mischievously. “And how shall we occupy ourselves for these many years to come?”
Rufus grinned down at her. “I am sure we shall think of something.”
The two of them laughed softly together, the promise of a long and happy life together ahead of them. The adventure they had both longed for and now found in each other.
* * * * *