Page 78 of Sir Durham’s Disarming Asset

“I hope I did not cause you distress that I was gone, and for so long.”

“I knew where you were. How could I worry when I knew you were with Rafe?”

“He and I are to marry.”

Gus tipped her head, exuberant. “I expected nothing less.”

“He promised to get a special license so we can be married soon. Day after tomorrow, if possible.”

Gus broke into a grin. “Would you like the wedding here?”

“I would. May we do that?”

“It will be Kane’s and my pleasure. I will tell the staff. They will be thrilled.” She cocked a brow. “They worried about you, gone in the middle of the night, you see.”

“I appreciate that they care for me.”

“Oh, Zeph.” Gus took both her hands. “We want you to have everything you desire.”

“Only Rafe.”

“And you shall have him. And for this”—Gus shivered with her excitement—“we need a breakfast menu and a wedding cake. Tall, lots of sugar icing. And flowers. Oh, what can we get at the end of November? A challenge, but do not fear.”

“I need a gown, Gus. Every one I’ve had made recently is too severely cut to be a proper wedding dress. Do you think your modiste can add a fichu to one of my day gowns?”

“I’m sure of it.” Gus patted her hand. “Now, the guests.”

“Oh, we must invite everyone. I want them to know, to see, to believe that Rafe loves me and that I…”

Gus knitted her brows. “That you what?”

“Love him. Desire him, not as the one who saved me from doom, but as the man I would have chosen no matter how we met.”

“Zeph, I have long known just by looking at you that you are in love with him. Even blind, one could hear in your words how you care. Never fear that you will be questioned.”

“I want no one to assume he married me from pity.”

“Sweetheart, the way the man has worried over you for months leaves no doubt that, to have you as his own, he would burn down the world.”

*

The next morning at breakfast, Friendly entered the small dining room, mumbling to himself about the post, the cook, the scones. He was becoming more senile. Zeph glanced at Gus. She was unaffected. But the man bent to each of them and presented a note first to Zeph, another to Gus, and a final one to Kane.

Each read their own letter and dropped it to the table to take stock of the others’ reactions.

Zeph ground out her frustration. “Rafe cannot get a special license until the American Minister to Great Britain affirms I am an American citizen.”

Kane shook his head. “You could both be married by the ambassador, but to be perfectly legal in Britain, you both must be married by a cleric of the Church of England.”

“You know the American ambassador, don’t you, Zeph?” Gus was worried.

“I do. He is an old friend of my father. Do you suppose I must present myself to him?”

Kane said, “No need for that. Rafe’s note to me suggests that I call upon the man and take a letter to him from you, in which you ask for his affirmation of you as your father’s daughter and a citizen of the United States.”

“I worry there may be another problem,” she told them.

“What is that?” Gus asked.