He grinned and put his arms around her. “I’d get on my knees for this, but I don’t trust these floorboards to risk—”

“Yes!” she squealed, and threw her arms around his neck.

He leaned back with a chuckle. “You’re supposed to wait for the question.”

“Go ahead, but my answer is still going to be yes.” She smiled.

“So you guessed that I love you?”

She grinned. “It’s nice to hear it, but I had my suspicions.”

“Did you now? And that I want to marry you?”

“That I wasn’t so sure about—until now.”

“I do, darlin’,” he said tenderly. “It was agony fighting with you, and for that you can’t imagine how sorry I am. But it’s even more agony being apart from you, and it didn’t take long to find that out.”

“I don’t feel whole without you either. I’ve loved you for so long.” She giggled happily. “Even when I thought you were a ghost.”

“I was never—never mind. Just tell me how soon we can marry. Today can’t be soon enough for me.”

“My mother will want to arrange it. We can’t deny her that.”

“If you insist.”

“And you should probably formally ask—”

His hands cupped her cheeks, his words brushed her lips. “Will you marry me, Judith Malory?”

“I meant ask my father.”

He groaned, placing his forehead against hers. “I would do anything for you, but you must know I’d rather be shot than ask his permission—”

“Then it’s a good thing I’ve already given it,” Anthony said from the open front door.

Nathan immediately stepped back from Judith to demand, “How long have you been standing there, Sir Anthony?”

Anthony was leaning against the doorframe, relaxed, as he replied drolly, “Long enough.” But then he straightened. “Just so you know, Tremayne, the only thing I had against you was that my baby was falling in love with you. I wasn’t ready to accept that yet, it was too bloody soon, but I’ve had it beaten into me that there’s no accounting for when, merely that it’s happened. So you’ve my blessing, for what it’s worth. But if you ever hurt her or make her cry again, I’ll bloody well kill you—just so we’re clear on that.”

Judith was grinning. “Go away, Papa, we were about to kiss.”

“No, we weren’t,” Nathan assured Anthony.

Judith grabbed the front of Nathan’s shirt. “Yes, we were.”

She started it, but he soon forgot they had an audience, embracing her fully, kissing her deeply. But she couldn’t quite lose herself with a parent in the room. She didn’t let go of him though, just ended the kiss so she could lay her cheek on his chest, a happy smile on her lips.

“Is he gone?” Nathan whispered after a moment.

She bit back a giggle to peer around his shoulder. “Yes. You will get used to him, you know. You’ll probably even become great friends.”

“Somehow I don’t see that ever happening. But as long as he doesn’t visit us too often.”

“He might, at least for a while. He’ll want to see for himself that I’m going to be blissfully happy here. He’s not going to just take my word for it. But it won’t take long for him to believe it.”

“But he won’t want to reside in this house when he visits, will he?”

“Probably.”

“Then I won’t repair the guest rooms.”

“Wait—”

“No.”

“But there’s something you don’t know about me. I’m rich, and I don’t mean my family is. I have my own money and a lot of it.”

“And why does that warrant a ‘wait’?”

“Because you have to promise me you won’t be like my father. He refuses to let my mother spend any of her own money on things that are needed. It quite infuriates her.”

“You had me at ‘don’t be like your father.’ I bleedin’ well won’t be like him.”

“So I can decorate our house?”

“I love the sound of our. Yes, to your heart’s content, darlin’. As if I know anything about decorating.”

“And furnish it?”

“Don’t press your luck.”

She laughed. Compromising with him was going to be fun. She brought his lips back to hers to prove it.