The warm flush that stretched across her pale cheeks twisted something in Basil’s gut the professor could only classify as satisfactory. He liked being the reason the lady flushed, and it was yet another realization he hadn’t ever fallen into step with. Odd, seeing as how they’d spent so much time together this year. Her little quip about flattery and ‘laying it on thick’ only made him chuckle again, even as she pulled away and pretended to be interested in the books around them.“I’m serious,” Basil pressed gently. He stepped up behind her again, itching to touch but knowing better than to dare too much. Instead, the brunette reached for a book just in front of her face and slid it carefully from the shelf so as to position himself before her. “Don’t you believe me?” He whispered earnestly. “I might pretend to be made of stone, but I forswear that somewhere in here - behind all the chaos and confusion - I do actually have a heart.” The sentiment was not convincing anyone, Basil himself least of all. He still felt a pinch at the thought of everything that had transpired recently as he stood here, now, face to face with what was the only woman in the world he could ever imagine marrying! Perhaps all the rest had just been a passing fancy. This, here, was what he’d always aspired to. Mama would be so pleased he’d finally realized as much.
Setting the book and his drink on the desk behind them with a thump, Basil turned to Ms. Victoire with an imploring look. “Torie what if… what if we’re making a mistake by not seeing where this, us, could go? We get along so well, and you really are the only woman in the world I can—” He paused and sucked in a breath. Taking the lady’s free hand in both of his own, Basil pressed it to his chest. “Can we just entertain the thought for one minute, just to see where it might lead, if anywhere? I should hate to let you go so easily when… when I’ve never admitted to you how I really feel.”