Grimm stopped moving and Samantha stood still, waiting for some sound from the others or a perception of movement around her.
Moments later something bumped her arm, she felt a caress on her shoulder, and then a gentle nudge on her elbow. She reached out and touched nothing but air. She turned and brushed against some soft material. A woman’s muffled giggle reverberated in her over-receptive ears. Aunt Grace! Samantha thrust one arm out to the side in a sudden, quick movement. Her fingers made contact! She held on tightly and squeezed what felt like thick, woolen fabric.
“I’ve got you!” She realized she was gripping a man’s arm and was aware of rigid, firmness as she held onto what was apparently the sleeve of a gentleman’s coat.
Obviously, she had captured either Sir Chester or Lawrence. It was hard to believe her brother-in-law would allow himself to be caught so early in the game. “I know you are a man,” Samantha announced confidently.
She slowly moved her fingers up the sleeve. She gripped the heavy material. Samantha had an immediate sensation of power and strength as her hand came in contact with a muscular forearm. It had to be her brother-in-law.
“It’s you, Lawrence,” she declared proudly. “I’m surprised you made it so easy for me.”
“No, no, it’s not me.”
She froze with her hands in mid-air. She had been about to remove the blindfold. “Sir Chester?”
“Incorrect again.”
She lowered her arms to her side. “I’m very confused. Did you bring Grimm into the game without telling me?”
“No, he has left the room.”
Samantha stood still as she heard Lawrence’s reply. Then Sara giggled and Sir Chester cleared his throat. Heavy footsteps resounded on the floor and then stopped.
“I believe it is time we removed the blindfold,” her brother-in-law’s voice pierced the sudden silence.
She looked down toward the floor as gentle fingers worked the knot free at the back of her head.
“See who you caught,” Sara’s excited voice rang out in Samantha’s ears.
She took note of gleaming black leather shoes topped by dark gray trousers hugging a pair of muscular legs. Without a doubt, this was a gentleman. She quickly raised her head.
“Paul?” She clamped her hand over her mouth as she realized she had spoken out loud. It was him! He was here in this room; the man who she had admired from afar in London, the man who occupied her thoughts almost exclusively over the past few hours and the most daunting fact of all, the man she had kept company with that morning dressed as a groom.
“Hello, Sam…Samantha.”
His deep voice resonated throughout the room. He had purposely said Sam before calling her by her own name. He knew who she was. He had seen through her disguise. Samantha slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. She stared into his shining blue eyes. She studied his full, smiling lips. Her heart began to beat erratically and she felt light-headed. She suddenly recognized the sensations she was experiencing for what they were. She was in love.
Without further thought, she reached out and pulled Paul toward her. She placed her hands on his shoulders, looked purposely up at the kissing bough dangling above their heads and then placed her lips on his.
He had no qualms about kissing her back, she thought with pleasure moments later when he dropped a white berry into her palm. She stared up at him with a dreamy expression on her face.
“Um, I believe the two of you have some things to discuss. You may use my study for a few minutes.”
Lawrence’s voice recalled her to her surroundings. She looked around the room and saw Sara grinning happily from her seat close to the hearth. Her husband stood behind her with his hand resting on Sara’s shoulder. He was also smiling at Samantha. Sir Chester and Aunt Grace sat close together on the sofa holding hands. Her aunt was beaming across the room at her and Sir Chester appeared to be casually winking one of his eyes. Certainly none of them acted surprised at Paul’s sudden appearance. She remembered her earlier conversation with Bertha that had caused her to be late arriving at the dining room. Something told her that discussion had been planned just for that purpose.
“Shall we, Samantha?” he held out his arm and she placed a somewhat unsteady hand on his sleeve.
He led her out of the room and down the hallway. Samantha silently pointed to the closed door that led to the study. He opened it and guided her into the chamber.
Leaving the door slightly ajar, he turned to her. He was quiet and simply stared at her for several seconds. “You look very beautiful, my dear. I imagine you have several questions you wish to ask me. Should we sit down?”
Feeling quite unsettled as well as tongue-tied, she merely nodded her head and walked across the room to sit in one of the high-backed chairs that faced the windows. She started in surprise as he bent down on one knee before her.
“Wh…what are you doing?” she gasped.
“Before we get too far in our discussion, I have something important to say to you.” He studied her face intently. “I wish to ask you to be my wife, Samantha.”
“I…I” she stopped. She couldn’t speak. Paul’s statement had taken her breath away.
“I want you to know,” he continued in a deliberate, serious tone of voice, “that I am asking this of you not because you have been compromised when you spent time alone with me and your family expects me to come up to scratch but rather, as unbelievable as it may sound, I have fallen totally and completely in love with you and wish to spend the rest of my life with you by my side as my partner and wife.” He reached out and stroked her arm.
“I…I feel as if I’m dreaming.” She found her voice and stared up at him in wonderment.
He smiled down at her. “This is reality, my dear. I noticed you in London last spring and I felt attracted to you even before I saw your beautiful green eyes and observed your confident, enthusiastic manner. Unfortunately, we never had the chance to be formally introduced and I left the city extremely disappointed, wondering what could have been if we had met and if you would still be available next Season. This morning, when I looked out of the cottage door and saw you dressed in groom’s clothing, I couldn’t believe my luck. I resolved not to waste the chance I had been handed to spend time with you and to talk to you.”
“Oh, my goodness, Paul, I had no idea.” Samantha finally found her voice. She felt tears pricking her eyelids as she pointed to a nearby chair. “Please, get up off the floor. Come sit down.”
He settled himself next to her and clasped her hand in his own. “What do you say to my proposal, Samantha?”
She hastily wiped the moisture from her eyes with her free hand and turned in her chair to face him. “I, too, was captivated by you in London. I also wished to meet you. Today when I saw you at the cottage, I was nervous and excited at the same time. I was nervous because I knew it was imperative that you not guess I was a woman. My excited feelings came because I felt I was being handed a chance to discover if you were the man I had been searching for as a perfect complement to myself.
“When I returned here and thought more about you and our discussions, I missed your presence and wanted to be with you again. That is when I realized I couldn’t see you because I thought you believed I was truly a groom. To show myself to you dressed as a lady would risk harming my reputation. I felt I had lost the opportunity to know you better.”
He chuckled. “You obviously hadn’t practiced walking like a man and no matter how bulky the groom’s clothing was, it could never hide your womanly shape from my eyes.”
“So you knew from the beginning?”
“Oh, yes. But I realized if I admitted I saw through your disguise you would immediately take flight and head back into the storm. I couldn’t risk you getting lost in the snow and I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to be with you.”
“I assume you were in my brother-in-law’s confidence?”
“Yes, I was. Shortly after I dropped you at the stables, I encountered Viscoun
t Dixon. He had been told by his staff that a saddled mare had returned to the stables without a rider. He originally conjectured someone had tried to steal the horse and for some reason, the mare had bucked them off. Lord Dixon had ridden out to comb the nearby woods looking for an injured person. I told him what had actually happened, guessing at the reason you disguised yourself and left the house on your own.”
She giggled. “You realized the tale I told about my sister being recently married and pressuring me to start my own family wasn’t far from the truth?”
“Even in the short amount of time we had together, it quickly became apparent to me that you wouldn’t be comfortable with anyone attempting to control any part of your life.”
She studied his handsome face with a look of surprise on her own. “You do know much about me, don’t you?”
“We have a special connection. I have been aware of it since I saw you standing on the porch in those floppy boots this morning.” He raised her hand to his lips and kissed the soft skin on her palm.
Samantha felt her cheeks flush and her heart began to race at his touch. “Wh…what about this evening? Did you plan the surprise?”
He grinned. “I knew I couldn’t show up and request an introduction. You wouldn’t have agreed to see me because you thought I would realize I had seen you earlier this morning dressed as a groom. I had to appear without you knowing I was there. Lord Dixon came up with the idea to play Blindman’s Buff.”
“I was never more astonished in my life when I looked up and saw you standing in front of me.”
He gently clasped her fingers in his hand. “The kiss you gave me told me that you were very glad to see me. But you haven’t answered my question, Samantha. Will you marry me?”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes! I would be much honored and quite ecstatic to be your wife, Paul! It’s funny; we had discussed love at first sight. I knew without question that I loved you when I raised my head and saw you standing before me tonight.”
“Ah, Samantha, you have made me the happiest of men.” He bent down and gave her a lingering, very satisfying kiss.
“Now, now you two lovebirds, it’s time to join the rest of us and have some gingerbread.”
Samantha reluctantly moved out of Paul’s arms and turned toward the sound of her sister’s voice. “Oh, hello, Sara. Please meet my betrothed Lord Paul Russell.”
Sara grinned as he stood and bowed to her. “That is wonderful news, Lord Paul. I was worried that my sister would never find a man to make her happy.”
“I intend to keep her as content and blissful as possible during all of our married life,” he vowed.
“Now I clearly understand why you were so insistent that I find a man to love, Sara,” she stood up and smiled at him. They held hands and followed her sister as she walked out of the study. “There is truly no better feeling in the world.”
Paul stopped moving as they reached the hallway and turned to look down at Samantha. “This happened so fast. I’m sorry that I have no ring or Christmas gift for you.”
Samantha studied Paul with a tender smile upon her face. “The gift of you for a lifetime is infinitely better than a present, my dear.”
A word from the author...
I am a native Southern Californian. When I was very young, I discovered my local library and the exciting potential of escaping the real world inside the pages of a good book. As a teenager, I became a huge fan of British literature. After reading most of the Victorian classics, I came upon Regency period novels in 1987. It was love at first read. Since my chance introduction to this wonderful era in time, I have read over three thousand fiction novels and I own a large collection of research books on the period.
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Better than a Present Page 5
