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“Better,” he growled against her mouth. “Nearly tolerable, in fact. Kiss me.”
She did, and she was still kissing him when a tap sounded on the door.
Elijah smiled crookedly and eased away, pausing to tuck a lock of Je
The marchioness led the parental parade into the parlor. “Excellent! You are showing Lady Je
“Perhaps it will be a family tradition, then,” Elijah said. He slipped his arm around Je
His Grace? As Je
“Welcome to the family,” Lord Flint said, bowing over Je
“Flint, that is not fu
As Lord Flint led them back to the paneled parlor and poured generous cups of wassail, Je
“Do you really want to see Paris, my dear?” Elijah had bent close to whisper his question, while their mamas debated the use of the Windham chapel or the facilities at Flint Hall.
“Paris can wait. There are other things I want to see more.”
“Such as?”
Je
He set his drink aside. “Papa’s brew has addled your wits. What nonsense is this?”
“Someday you will become a Royal Academician, but not if your lady wife is showing up at Venetian breakfasts with paint on her fingers. I understand that.”
He studied her for a moment, as if trying to puzzle out which pigments would accurately depict her hair in strong sunlight. “You would stop painting, stop drawing, stop even embroidering?”
She hesitated only an instant before nodding. “I expect that home and family you allude to will keep me adequately occupied.”
“My mother bore twelve children, six of them boys.”
What did that have to do with anything? “I look forward to meeting your brothers and sisters.”
“Come with me, Genevieve. If you think a few babies will excuse you from your art, then you have much to learn as a future marchioness of Flint.”
He dragged her from the parlor, barely giving Je
“This is the portrait gallery, also the cricket pitch, skittles hall, and pall-mall pitch, among others.” He opened a carved door and ushered Je
Frigid was a better word, but as Je
“You lot!” Elijah called to a group at one end of the room. “Clear out! I’m proposing to my prospective wife.”
Hoots and whistles resulted, and smiles from the young ladies, two of whom looked exactly alike but for their attire. As Elijah’s siblings filed past Je
“Pru is the worst,” Elijah said as he closed the door. “You must not allow him to cozen you, ever.”
Je
“Mother finds time to paint,” Elijah said. “You will too.”
Je
“She hid her talent for you,” Je
“You’re wrong.” Elijah laced his arm with Je
Je
“She did, and we will too. There’s an epistle downstairs bearing the seal of the Royal Academy, and it has my name on it. I’m going to decline the nomination.”
As she had turned away from Paris?
“Accept it, Elijah. For your parents, for me, for yourself. You accept this gesture of recognition, and I will not give up my art.” He sent her a look that revealed his uncertainty, and Je
“You’re sure? I will never hide my wife’s talents, Genevieve. Not for them, not even for you would I do such a thing.”
Je
“My love?”
“As much as I look forward to sharing a studio with you and arguing with you about the proper use of the color green, I suspect we’re going to have a very large family.”
Elijah’s smile was devilish and sweet. “I suspect we will too.”
They shared several wonderful studios thereafter—at Flint Hall, at Morelands, at their London residence, and in the homes of each of Je
They also argued over the proper use of every color in the rainbow, and over many other things besides.
And they had a very large, happy family, the first child—Rembrandt Joshua Harrison—making his appearance exactly nine months after the wedding.
Read on for an excerpt from Grace Burrowes’s
bestselling Scottish Victorian series
The MacGregor’s Lady
Available February 2014
from Sourcebooks Casablanca
Ha
The first letter had degenerated into a description of their host the Earl of Balfour. Or Asher, Mr. Lord Balfour. Or whatever. Aunt had waited until after Ha
The Englishmen favored by Step-papa were blond, ski
Balfour was neither blond, nor ski
The second draft had made a valiant attempt to compare Boston’s docks with those of Edinburgh, but had then doubled back to observe that Ha