She returned his smile less certainly. "I'm ashamed. But you won't go——"
He laughed at the folly of her question. "Go, when I've got you, the woman whom I wanted!"
"Then you won't go exploring? You won't exchange me for hardships?"
"Di, dearest, I've done with searching."
The door was opening. She pulled herself together. Porter stood before them, neatly laundered, with the old suspicious meekness in her glance.
"Good morning, Porter. We've come to see Miss Beddow. We've been told that she's staying with my sister."
"She is, your Ladyship. But none of them are down. She arrived so late and unexpected."
They followed her across the hall into the sun-filled drawing-room, with its fragrant flowers, tall windows, rockery-garden and little oval pond, with the toy boat floating on its surface. The moment the door had closed, he had her in his arms. Now that he was sure of her possession, he held her desperately as if he feared that he were going to lose her. "Closer," she whispered. "Closer." It flashed through his memory that the last time he was in that room, he had been the spectator of just such a union and had fled from it because he was excluded.
She stirred against him, lifting up her face.