Anne Stuart (38 page)

“
I don’t need a thing to occupy my time, thank you very much. I’m sure I’ll find plenty of things to do in Yorkshire while I visit my sister.”

He rose, and she backed up a little, her magnificent eyes wary. “Ah, but life with me would be such an adventure, Jessamine,” he murmured, moving closer.

“
I’ve had adventures enough,” she said. “I don’t want any more.”

“
And what
do
you want?” His voice was suddenly deadly serious as he waited for her reply.

“
I want a home,” she said. “I want children, lots of them, so many that they drive me to distraction. I want to be far away from the city, so that I never have to smell the city stink again. And most of all, I want a man who loves me.”

“
Ah, Jess,” he murmured, pausing in his approach. “You demand so much, and you don’t compromise.”

“
Never,” she said.

“
I can give you the home,” he said. “In the hills of Scotland, miles away from any city. It’s huge and rambling and drafty, but the roof won’t fall down anytime soon, and there’s a loch with the best salmon in the world.

“
And I can give you children. I can quite willingly see that you’re eternally pregnant if that’s what you want.” He paused, oddly frightened.

“
Is that all you can give me?” she asked him, calm and clear-eyed.

He raised his eyes to look at her. “I can give you a man who loves you so much that he would likely die without you,” he said simply.

For a minute she didn’t move. And then a glorious smile lit her face, so bright that it finally melted the ice around his heart, and she was in his arms, and he was kissing her, kissing
her, and she was crying, and he might have been too as he picked her up in his arms and carried her toward the bed.

And in the fireplace the brandy-soaked clothing burst into merry flames, sending warmth and light throughout the bedroom. And neither of them noticed.