Page 70 of Otters and Obstacles
“Will I?”
“I promised you no more secrets, but… I think you will forgive this one. I was afraid to say anything until I had it in my hands.”
To her astonishment, Peter handed her… a book.
It was bound in dark blue leather embossed with gold. Glancing up at him, she opened it to the title page.
A Treatise on the Otters of The Asian Continent
“Peter!”
Her knees weak, Georgie dropped into the nearest armchair. Peter sat on the arm, his grin now irrepressible.
“Your cousin didnothave a chance to destroy the manuscript. Your father had sent it off to his solicitor to arrange publication shortly before his final illness. The man had been trying to reach you for months to finalize everything, but your cousin intercepted his letters to you. The solicitor told me about it whilst we were retrieving your dowry from your cousin.”
Hands shaking, Georgie began to page through the book. It was her father’s words and her own illustrations, hand-colored and sharp on the page. It was just as she had imagined it—just as she and Papa had imagined it. The pages blurred as she turned them one-by-one, marveling that their shared dream had come to fruition.
“Georgie?”
She looked up through her tears to see him smiling at her. She had not thought she could ever love him more, but she had been wrong.
“It’s perfect. I love you.”
“Youare perfect, Lady Peter.” He bent to kiss her. “And I love you, too.”
From the basket, Bonny half-opened an eye, snorted, and rolled over to return to her nap. Whatever mischief humans decided to get up to in the drawing room was no business of otters.
