Picture Perfect (33 page)

‘It’s not just me,’ Justine said earnestly, ‘Jack has been very concerned for you too, but this can’t go on, your best hope it to live quietly for a year or two, there is no knight in shining armour coming to rescue you from yourself. Oh, I can see I need to set it out for you plainly, it’s obvious you are quite smitten with Jack, but you mustn’t let your imagination get the better of you, he and I spoke on this very topic this afternoon, he has been leading you on most unfairly, it’s best if you give up all hope now and go quietly.’

Annabel felt as if she had had the breath knocked out of her, it wasn’t just what Justine said, it was the cool, assured way in which she said it, as if Annabel was her much younger sister who had been pushing her attentions where they plainly weren’t wanted, but Jack didn’t have an unspoken understanding with Justine, he had one with herself, didn’t he? She struggled to find the words to clear things up. ‘I don’t think – ’

But Justine didn’t let her finish. ‘You’re embarrassing all of us with your infantile crush on Jack,’ she snapped and Annabel recoiled as if her sister had struck her, the venom in her words stinging like acid but as she stepped back she felt someone’s hands on her arms, supporting her and she knew at once it was Jack. He stepped to her side and took one of her hands in his own.

‘I think it’s better if we finish this discussion here,’ he said mildly, but Annabel could feel anger and sorrow running through him even as he retreated into formality to cover it up. ‘Miss Black and I are leaving now.’ He let go of her left hand, gave Justine the merest of bows and held out his arm to Annabel. She placed her hand on it and saw Justine’s eyes widen in surprise and then narrow as she turned and flounced off in the opposite direction.

Jack led her swiftly through the press of the crowd and Annabel felt she was almost running to keep up with him. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked breathlessly.

‘Out in my curricle,’ Jack said briefly as they reached the front door and nodding to a footman to fetch it.

‘Oh, but should we?’ Annabel asked, doubt as to the propriety of it warring with the desire to be alone with Jack.

‘We need to talk,’ Jack said.

‘But my reputation…’ Annabel began but Jack interrupted her.

‘Your reputation is perfectly safe with me,’ he said, taking her hand in his and looking down at it. Annabel followed his gaze and gasped, on the ring finger of her left hand there was a ring, a band of warm gold adorned with a delicate cluster of garnets, it fitted her beautifully, as if it had been made for her, then she realised Jack was smiling, still looking down at their clasped hands. ‘Your reputation is utterly safe,’ he said, ‘after all we are engaged.’

‘But,’ Annabel said, perplexed yet feeling lighter than air, as if she could fly, Jack must have slipped the ring on her finger when they were talking to Justine and her sister had seen it, and that was why she had let her go at last.

Jack looked up at her, his eyes crinkling, ‘I realise I haven’t actually proposed to you yet,’ he said, ‘but it has been very difficult to find the time.’ A crunch of wheels on the cobblestones distracted them and the footman drew up in Jack’s phaeton and jumped smartly out. ‘Thank you,’ Jack said, handing the man a coin and assisting Annabel in. They drove in silence for a few minutes until they were off the busier streets then Annabel grinned sideways at Jack.

‘Are you actually going to ask me to marry you?’ she asked, ‘or are you not sure of my answer?’

Jack gave her a baleful look. ‘I will ask you,’ he said, ‘but you must promise me one thing, you must give up doing dangerous things.’

‘I don’t do dangerous things!’ Annabel protested. ‘Remember
I’m
not an art thief and I never will be.’ Suddenly something he had said the night of the kidnapping fell into place. ‘It’s you who contemplated a life of crime, not me,’ she said. ‘Do you remember what you said to me by the river the other night?’ She had the pleasure of seeing him blush and Jack shook his head over his rash promise.

‘I said that if you were an art thief then I had no choice but to become one too,’ he said and added hastily, ‘but I would have done my best to reform you first.’

Annabel threw back her head and laughed, she couldn’t help it. ‘But if you had failed you would have joined me in my criminal pursuits?’

Jack let the horses amble to a stop and looked down at the reins in his hands then up at Annabel and as their eyes met she felt as if their souls had touched. ‘Yes, I would have,’ he said quietly, ‘that is how much I love you.’

His pledge was the greatest gift anyone had ever given her, for a moment she was completely still, touched beyond anything she had ever imagined, held by his eyes in the moment. Then one of the horses stirred slightly.

‘I love you too,’ she said, her words were so simple, but Jack looked as if she had just made him the happiest man on earth. The he looped the reins around his wrist and took both her hands in his own, it was just a formality and he was smiling as he said it, but his question was music in her heart.

‘Annabel Black, will you marry me?’

‘Yes!’ she said ‘yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.’ And then heedless of the traffic in the street he kissed her, transporting her once more to heaven and back.

THE END