by Alix James
I tugged at his cravat until I could capture his mouth. After a breathless moment, I whispered, “It was your buttons.”
He choked on a laugh, then wrapped me in his embrace until my head snuggled against his chest. “It is your fault, you know,” he murmured into my hair.
“What is?”
“The explosion. And the flooding.”
“It is no such thing!”
“Indeed, it is,” he answered with a chuckle. “You blew my heart from its cage with one glance and flooded my mind until I could think of nothing but you, you magnificent little machinist.”
“In that case, the fire is all your fault.”
“Long may it burn,” he replied. And then he kissed me, and the destruction was complete.
Epilogue
Five years later
“And this is how you turn it,” I instructed as my daughter, two-year-old Jane Marie Darcy, took the wooden toy wrench into her chubby hands.
“Slowly, Eddie,” I told my four-year-old son. He was valiantly trying to disassemble a miniature gear mechanism—a gift from his Uncle Gardiner. “There! You got it!”
“I might have expected to find you here.” I looked up and found William leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed patiently. Those liquid brown eyes and that distracting smile had never yet failed to turn my heart over in my breast. I rose and went to him.
“Ready so soon?” I asked.
“It has been above an hour, and the coachman is waiting. Are you not planning to come with me to Birmingham?”
“Is it so late? I am sorry, my love. You know I would not miss your meeting at the Soho Foundry tomorrow.” I tugged at his lapels, smoothing them and then standing on my toes to kiss his chin.
“I doubt they will give any credence to my design,” he fretted. “I hope this trip is not a waste of—”
I silenced his doubts in the way of an adoring wife. “William,” I whispered against his lips, “it does not matter if they listen to you or not. I love hearing and seeing your designs.”
“You should. They are half yours.”
“No wonder they are so brilliant!” I laughed. “But do not tell anyone, for I shall never be able to hold up my head at the next Society event.”
“You can hold your head high anywhere, my Elizabeth. Let other men be daunted by a clever woman; for myself, I live each day grateful for a mind that daily stimulates my own and an equal partner in every way.”
I slipped my hand into his. “Like cogs in a wheel. We fit.”
“Precisely.”
About the Author
Short and Sassy Romance for Busy Readers
Alix James is a best-selling romance author under another pen name. Always on the go as a wife, mom, and small business owner, she rarely has time to finish a whole novel. She loves coffee with the sunrise and being outdoors. When she does get free time, she likes to read, camp, dream up romantic adventures, and tries to avoid housework.
Each Alix James story is a clean Regency Variation of approximately 20,000 words.
