#fiction#romance#love#paperback#historical “Are you suggesting we marry ?”His thunderstruck tone had her glaring.Gathering herself she tipped her chin higher .I believe that we -that you and I- could reach a mutually beneficial agreement.My dowry is considerable.And you and I have known each other forever-it’s not as if we couldn’t rub along well enough,and I know your family and they know me ,and before you start on about what a nonsensical notion it is just consider. It isn’t as if I would expect -he missed whatever she wasn’t expecting .He stared at her thru the dimness.Her lips continued to move ;presumably she was talking ,he tried to listen but his mind wouldn’t cooperate It had frozen - seized -on the the one vital ,crucial,unbelievable fact. She was offering to be his wife .