With a smile that said everything that eyes could say as he looked at her.  His feelings for her were clear.  He loved her.  His emotions may have come on suddenly, compared to the proper English courting patterns, from what he understood, but he knew his feelings.  He had not followed proper behavior with Heidi's mother, but the feelings had been real then as well.

"We should go back and finish that dinner.  I imagine the staff is waiting on us in the kitchen."  He chuckled.  Though his fingers went up along her chin and then down the length of her neck slowly and gently in a sensual manner.  "One night, though, we will spend much time alone in the dark.  I am fighting the manners a gentleman should have, so, we should get with witnesses around us."  He winked pulling his hand back away.

She could feel her blood heating up in just the right way when he spoke of doing things in the dark that they had not done yet. His touch in tandem with his words caused her belly to clench. When he mentioned going back inside, she nodded softly. "To supper," oh god, her voice sounded so husky.

Lorn smiled, took her hand, lacing his fingers with her slender digits.  He did not go fast, just walked at an easy pace, enjoying the time with Karen there in the evening.  Inside, they went up the stairs back to the dining room.  Mrs. Pearson saw them coming in and motioned the cook and the maids to action.  Lorn pulled out the chair for Karen.  The table had been cleaned of their previous dish and was prepared for their return.  The smell of the steaks was coming from down below. 

"I hope you like steak."  He smiled.  "You will be working with Mrs. Pearson and Miss Cora for the menus soon.  So, you can pick things you like most."  He winked.  "I am easy as long as there is lots of food."  He teased, well sort of.  He was a good eater.

She sighed softly in content as they strolled through his fragrant g-- THEIR fragrant garden, back into the house and up the stairs. She sat down when he pulled the chair out for her and smiled at him. She lifted her hands in mock surrender at the fact they were having steak. "I haven't had one before, is it good?" She waited for the food to be served and then looked down at her plate.

It smelled lovely.

Her stomach growled despite the first few courses having been served.

"You've never had steak?  Well, you are about to have quite a treat.  I showed them how I liked them back home in Texas."  He grinned.  The plates came in with a thick cut of steak that was about the size of Lorn's hand.  It was perfectly medium rare with a baked potato beside it cut then added with butter, sour cream, bacon bits, and chives. 

Lorn thanked the maids and Mrs. Pearson for the dishes and asked them to send praise to Cora as they looked and smelled amazing.  He waited till the ladies headed back out of the dining room and looked to  Karen.  "You don't have to eat all of it.  They are used to making them for me."  He grinned but waited to cut into his own wanting to see if Karen liked it.

She took hold of knife and fork and cut into the meat. She said, "It looks delicious." She took a bite of the meat and night unto melted in her seat. "Mmmmmmmm, this is delicious!" She ate heartily, then, of the meat and potatoes. Her favorite part of the meal by far. She ate the whole steak, as it was so good, plus with the fact she was nursing two babies still meant she was starving all the time. But that meal filled her up.

He grinned.  "I thought you might.  Nothing like a good thick steak."  He spent some time then into his own steak as it was his favorite dish.  After finishing the potato as well, he sat back.  Mrs. Pearson had been peeking in to see when they were ready and motioned to the maids behind her.  The ladies came in and one taking the empties the other brought a cheese plate with 3 types of cheeses (a mild firm, a medium soft, and a sharp crumbly) with grapes and pears for them to share between them.  Mrs. Pearson refilled their drinks, then the ladies were gone again for the moment.

Lorn chuckled.  "The steak is why all the other courses are so small.   I think.  But I promise, this is the fifth course and there is only one last after this one.  It is worth a taste, as she always makes amazing desserts.  They know I eat a lot."  He winked.  "But don't feel you have to eat more if you don't want to.  If you have any room for more, I recommend a bite of the dessert."

He took a bite of the mild firm cheese.  He would wave this course off if Karen wasn't interested in it.

She took a bite of soft cheese and grapes and her eyes lit up. She had never felt so spoiled in her life, being fed until she felt fat with food. She didn't know how much more she could eat; she was nigh unto bursting by the end of the steak and potato. "I don't think I can eat much more," she said with a groan of mock agony.

Lorn nodded with a chuckle.  "I completely understand."  He waved a hand up to signal Mrs. Pearson.  The maids came in, once again one to take off the cheese set up, and the other to bring a large wedge of one of the moistest rich chocolate cakes with chocolate icing Lorn had ever tasted.  Not that he would tell his mother that.   Another of his favorites.  Cora had learned that when his parents had come to visit.  It was actually his mother's recipe but with a few of Cora's own additions.

"Even a bite of this will take you to Heaven."  He promised her.  About then, of course in time for dessert, a small little, now four-year-old blonde angel, with completely tossed hair all wild around her head from sleeping came padding into the dining room with bare feet and a white ankle-length soft night gown.

"Daddy, I had a nightmare,"  Heidi said moving to his side, but seeing his cake, her eyes went wide and the nightmare was less of an interest.

Lorn glanced at Karen with a chuckle.  "I am guessing the cake would scare the nightmare away?"  He asked lifting her up into his lap with a gentle motion.  At her little gentle nod, he winked at Karen.  "What do you say?"

"Cake, please, Daddy."  She looked at him with a pleading little doggie look that it melted him totally every time.

"Ok, but not all of it.  This is mine."  He gave looked down at his daughter as he spoke, his tone low but gentle with her.  Looking back at Karen, he raised a brow.  Why not bring up the topic now.

"Heidi, you like having Miss Karen here and the twins right?"

She was carefully getting a fork, with her fingers help, of cake.  "Mmhmm."  She nodded.

"You know Daddy really likes them too.  In fact, what would you think of them living here in the house with us?"

She looked up over at Karen with a smile, and already having icing all over her lips.  "So, I could play with the babies all the time?"

He nodded trying to manage some of the mess with a napkin.  "You know Daddy told you about how he loved your birth momma and momma Cress right?"

She nodded with a pause looking at the cake then looked to Karen.  "They gone to Heaven, Miss Karen.  But we say gonigh' to them every night with the pictures in the nursry.   Never forget them, not ever."

Lorn nodded, trying to figure out how to explain it.  "What would you think about Miss Karen being being your mommy now?"

She stopped trying to put cake on the fork suddenly at that her eyes wide with fear.  "I donna want Miss Karen to go to Heaven yet, Daddy.  Don't make her go." 

Lorn hugged her quickly.  "No, no, sweetie."  He had not realized how much that had affected her and how the little one connected momma meant going to Heaven.

"Miss Karen is not going to Heaven yet."  Not that he hoped that was, he had loss too many that he loved already.  "We went to that wedding last year, remember?"

Little blue eyes so much like her father's, looked up at him totally trusting.  "They became married because they love each other too much to not be together."

Lorn nodded.  "I was thinking if you were okay with it, I might marry Miss Karen."

Heidi gave a cute serious look of thinking through that.  She looked at her father.  "You love Miss Karen?"  She scrunched up her forhead.  "But you love me."

Lorn had to fight back the smile at that.  "Yes, I do, but I have lots of love inside me.  I have enough for you, for Miss Karen and the twins too.  Do you mind sharing some of that?"

It was a few more moments.  Lorn wondered how that little brain thought.  Likely it would scare him.  She looked at Karen with that same very serious look that only a four-year-old could have.  "Tim and Tara married because they loved each other too much to stay away.  Do you love my daddy like that?"

She tried a bite of the cake and almost died. Oh, mercy, she thought. And then there was Miss Heidi, sweeter than the cake. Karen's eyes filled with wonder as she looked between the two of them during their exchange. When the question was finally asked of Karen, her eyes were filled to the brims with tears. "Aye, wee one... Aye. I love yer da very, very much. Do ye want ta know how much?" She opened her arms as wide as they could go. "I love him more than me hands can reach and that is the most love ye can give. I love ye too and so do the babies. Did ye know that?"

And then she looked up and said, "I would be honored ta marry yer da and be yer ma. I promise, I'll stay as long as I can, alright? Ye'll have me fer the most time ye can have, and that's a lot too, isn't it, Lorn?"