Page 26 of The Grand Mistletoe Assembly
“Are kissing and pinching the same?”
“What about biting?”
“I don’t bite.” Nicholas dropped his gaze to her lips. “Unless you want me to take a bi—?”
“No! No biting!” She shook her head. “You’dbitebut not pinch?”
“Old men pinch, young men—” He stopped. “This is ridiculous. You are not dreaming.” Nicholas paused. “Do I kiss you in your dreams?”
“This is exactly my point. You’d never ask me such things in the waking world. Never abduct me in the park. Kiss me on the back of a horse. Say such things to me. What else, if not a dream?”
“None of that matters.”
She directed a pair of suspicious eyes at him. “How can you say that? The real Nicholas wouldneversay that.”
“Because you kissed me at the ball. Because now I want to kiss you again and again. Of course, life would be much more convenient if this were a dream. I wouldn’t need to hold back every instinct to make you mine.”
Her eyes widened. “Surely you jest?”
“I never joke about matters of great importance, Pippa. Believe me when I say this matter is vital to me. More important than air. You started this at the Pearler ball. How we end is entirely up to you.”
“What exactly do you mean by that, Nicholas?”
The horse restlessly shifted beneath them, as if suddenly sensing the rising tension. Before Nicholas could explain, the horse unexpectedly reared, sending a chill down his spine. Caught off guard, the reins slipped from his fingers. Without further thought, he circled both arms around Pippa as they toppled from the horse, hitting the dirt with an audible thump.
Nicholas’s head spun as pain shot through his body.
“What on earth …” Pippa squirmed on top of him. “Nicholas? Are you all right?”
I’m fine … Truly.
“Nicholas!”
He caught the note of panic in the urgent call, but his reassurance came out in a grunt. The next moment, the world turned black.
CHAPTER 6
Your heart has its reasons. They ought not to be dismissed.
—From the Diary of Lillian Wright
Pippa’s heart nearly left her body. She scrambled from Nicholas’s body as the horse took off, afraid her weight would add to his injuries.
“Pippa! Nicholas!”
Pippa hardly registered the call of voices and the approaching hooves. Her entire being focused on the man lying unconscious on the ground.
“What happened?” Nancy asked, falling onto her knees beside them.
“Snake.” Dare pointed to where a snake coiled nearby. “Must have startled the horse.” He flicked it away with his cane.
“Help me lift him into the carriage,” Dare instructed Jeremy. The two of them managed to deposit Nicholas onto the phaeton with little effort.
“I’ll drive him back. Locke, you retrieve Chatteris’s horse.”
Pippa found her voice. “There is not enough space in the phaeton.”
“There’s a small seat reserved for the groom behind the body,” Dare said.
