Elinor felt the heat in her face. She disengaged her hand and turned away from him.

'Was I cold?'

'As an iceberg,' he assured her cheerfully.

'Well, you could hardly call your own manner friendly!' she retorted, nettled. 'And then to remain in Town, with never a word to us for so long!' She broke off, conscious that she had allowed her feelings to get the better of her.

'Have you missed me, Nell?'

'Of of course not.' She tried to recover her ground. 'We are so busy here, I have no time to think of anything...'

'So busy in fact that you are reduced to copying out lists of household linens,' he interrupted her, picking up the inventory. He tossed it aside as his eye alighted upon another scrap of paper. 'Too busy to miss me?'

His eyes gleamed as he held up the scrap, upon which were drawn and embellished the initials JD in a very elaborate script. With a gasp Elinor put her hands to her cheeks.

'I I must have been day-dreaming!' she cried, a look of dismay upon her countenance. 'Pray, give it to me.'

She reached out but with a laugh Davenham snatched back his hand, holding up the paper.

'Come here and take it.'

'Wretch!' Elinor stepped forward, stretching up to take the note from his hand. She became aware of how close she was standing to Lord Davenham and could not resist the impulse to look at him. In that brief second he bent his head and kissed her. The touch of his lips triggered the longing she had kept locked away for so many months. She returned his kiss fiercely, revelling in the contact as he wrapped her in his arms and pressed her to him.

'Oh Nell, I have wanted to do this for so long!' he muttered.

Elinor said nothing, but gave a little moan of pleasure. Her arms tightened about his neck as if to hold him there forever.

Later, when Davenham was sitting in an armchair with Elinor curled up on his lap, he said: 'Oh Nell, I've missed you. I cannot tell you how many times I have wanted to ride down here and ask you to marry me, but I told myself you need time to recover. Not for the world would I rush you.'

She buried her face in his shoulder.

'Oh pray do not talk of marriage! You must see how impossible that is. I don't deny that, at one time, I had hoped.... but now everything is changed.'

He held her away from him, frowning into her face.

'What is it, Elinor? Would an offer from me be so repugnant to you?'

Her eyes filled with tears.

'Not to me, my lord,' she managed to say, her voice breaking, 'but to you and your family....'

'Here, take this.' He gave her his handkerchief. 'When you have dried your tears perhaps you will tell me what makes you think my family would object to our marriage?'

Having dutifully wiped her eyes, Elinor took a deep breath and began to speak, her fingers folding the viscount's fine lawn handkerchief into tiny pleats as she sought her words.

'You all see me as - as an obligation. Despite what your father says, I am the daughter of his bitterest enemy, scarcely the wife he would choose for you! And your mama made it quite plain to me that she regarded Lady Thurleigh as little more than a than a '

The viscount put an end to her explanation by the simple if ruthless expedient of kissing her, after which he told her lovingly not to be such a goose.

'You cannot be held responsible for the misdeeds of your ancestors why, if you cared to read my own family history I daresay you would find any number of rogues amongst them. In fact, if I remember correctly, the first earl was no saint, married his first wife for her fortune, then poisoned her off so that he could marry some cousin of the king, which is how he came by the earldom. Then of course there was the fourth earl, Robert, who had his own mother clapped up for treason-'

'Oh pray be quiet!' cried Elinor, between tears and laughter. 'How can I make you understand that this case is quite different?'

'You won't,' he said, looking at her with such a glow in his blue eyes that her heart began to pound in the most erratic manner. 'I can assure you, Madame, that I have my parents' full approval for the offer I am about to make you. Not that it is necessary, for I have been my own master for years, you know, but I suspect that you would not even consider my proposal without my family's blessing, am I right?'

'You are, my lord.'

'Very well, then! In our eyes, my love, you remain the much-loved daughter of my father's dear friend, and nothing would give us greater pleasure than a union between the two families. Well, Madame de Sange?'

She rose and moved away from him, still kneading the handkerchief between her fingers.

'You are aware, my Lord Davenham, that I have had a a very varied life?'

'I am. And I hope we shall enjoy a very varied marriage! I will do my best to make you happy, Elinor.'

She smiled at that.

'But could I make you happy, Jonathan? You would not be the first man in my life, you realize that?'

'Of course, but does my past worry you? No, of course not. It is time to forget the past, Elinor, unless, perhaps you are still in love with this fellow Ralph Belham?' Anxiety added a rough edge to his voice. 'You spoke his name, you know, during your illness. I thought then, perhaps '

She shook her head, a faint smile curving her lips. 'He told me he was not for me; at the time I could not believe it, but now I see that he was right. I owe him a great deal.'

The cloud lifted from the viscount's brow.

'Then what is there to prevent our marriage?'

'If only I could be sure you would not regret it!'

He lifted her hands to his lips, kissing each of her fingers in turn.

'No one can be sure of the future, Elinor, but I will try my best to make you happy. I love you very much, my dear. Will you consent to be my wife?'

She nodded, smiling mistily through her tears.

'Yes,' she whispered, 'Oh yes, Davenham, I will!'

Copyright 2003 by Melinda Hammond.

end.