The Inconvenient Duchess

the answer to all your questions for breakfast after all, my dear.’ He produced a clean handkerchief from his coat pocket and began folding it into a blindfold.
    ‘Surely not?’
    ‘Most surely. I have taken great pains to arrange this surprise and intend to wring every last ounce of suspense from it.’
    ‘Very well, then. If you must.’
    He stood behind her and covered her eyes with the linen. ‘And now, if you will take my arm?’ Her hand flailed in the air before she felt him catch it and squeeze. Then he raised it and she felt the press of his lips against the palm before he tucked it into the crook of his arm. He helped her to rise and guided her from the room. And into the hall, she noted, as the carpet changed to smooth marble beneath her feet.
    ‘You really are the most impossible man.’ She smiled.
    ‘As well you knew before you married me. And yet it did not stop you.’
    ‘I did not think it proper, at the time, to inform you of the fact.’
    ‘No. Of course not. You waited until the wedding night to enumerate my faults and drove me from my home.’
    ‘Drove you…?’
    ‘To London. Which is where I got the idea for this surprise.’
    He had taken her to the entry hall. She could hear his voice echoing off the distant walls and feel the cold draught from the recently opened door. She racked her brain. What kind of package could have arrived at this hour? Something come by a special coach from London, perhaps? She dreaded the thought that it could be a replacement for the accursed emerald necklace. Certainly he would not give that to her in the morning.
    And if he did, she reminded herself, she would accept it with all good grace and a silent prayer that St John would soon return with empty pockets to be bought off again. Her husband had spent too much time dwelling in the past, and the emeralds were a sad reminder of it. It was time to cast off the old family traditions and make new ones.
    ‘Are you ready?’ he asked.
    ‘Really, Marcus. You know you needn’t have bought me anything. You have already given me everything I could possibly want.’
    ‘Every thing save one.’
    And he removed the blindfold and left her blinking in the bright light as Wilkins announced in his grandest voice, ‘Sir Anthony and Lady Cecily Grey.’
    She rushed to her family, for her father’s frail embrace that she had missed for almost half a year, and the tears and kisses from Cici. At last, she turned to her husband, unable to express the feelings in her brimming heart. ‘Thank you, Marcus, my love. I thought you’d already given me everything my heart could desire. And then you grant my fondest wish.’
    ‘And now you must give me something as well, as mustSir Anthony.’ He was beaming at her, but there was a shyness, a nervousness about him that was most endearing.
    She looked to her father in confusion, and found his smile almost as broad as her husband’s.
    And then, to her amazement, her husband stepped forward and said in a strained voice, ‘Sir Anthony. Excuse me. May I request the hand of your daughter in marriage?’
    Her father paused, as if considering.
    ‘I swear, sir, that she will have all the comfort she deserves, and all the love in my heart.’
    When her father nodded, Marcus turned to her and went down on one knee before her, taking her hand in his. ‘And you, Miranda. Will you give me this hand, and accept my heart in trade?’
    She blushed at the sight of him, kneeling there, in sight of the servants and in the cold of the open door. ‘Marcus, get up. Of course I give you my hand. I gave it to you before. We are already married, are we not?’
    He looked up at her. ‘In our souls, perhaps. But not as you deserved, my sweet. If you will agree, we can do it again, and properly, for the benefit of your parents, and the Reverend Winslow, who is waiting in the chapel. And all the world if you like, for I want there to be no doubt about what I feel for you.’
    She took his upturned face in her hands and kissed him on the top of the head. ‘Stand up, then, before you catch your death. Let us go to the chapel. For I would like nothing better than to give my life and my heart to you again.’
    She could feel his body relax as she pulled him to his feet, and when she looked at him, he seemed every bit as excited as a new bridegroom.
    He smiled down at her. ‘Of course, this does create a dilemma in the future. I am most happy to give you everything I am and everything I ever shall