Page 69 of A Proposition for the Comte
‘When I was a young girl, Papa was adamant I should have a good seat. After I married Harland, though, I seldom got on a horse so this is exhilarating.’
When she laughed her eyes sparkled and the red tail of her hair beneath the hat caught the light.
‘Yesterday I was sure that I would die, Aurelian, and yet today...’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t believe we are here, on horseback, together and safe.’
He liked the joy in her voice. ‘Wait till tonight when we sleep under the stars. Do you know the constellations?’
‘No.’
‘Then you are in for a lesson, and a good one at that.’
She laughed again. ‘I used to wonder what it would be like to feel as truly happy as I do now. I wish we could have met years ago when I was young.’
‘How old are you?’ His voice was full of humour.
‘Twenty-seven.’ She grimaced.
‘Ah, so very ancient. How old were you when you married Harland?’
‘Twenty. Just. It seems like a century ago.’
‘There should be a mandate,’ he replied. ‘Marriage ceremonies can only be performed for those above the age of twenty-five.’
‘I’d sign that. Who can truly know their mind when they are so young?’
‘Do you know it now, Violet?’
She blushed and he leaned over to take her hand. It was small and warm and her fingers folded into his own.
Hours later the dusk was upon them and Aurelian dismounted and motioned to her to do the same.
‘We will walk from here. There is a river close by and the trees will shelter us from any notice.’
She did as he asked and followed him in, pushing the bare tree limbs aside and grateful for the other greener bushes that dotted their pathway. Fifteen minutes later he stopped and tied his horse to a tree, removing the saddle with a quick and easy movement before walking over to her.
The shadows made it all colder and although there was no snow on the ground it was freezing.
‘I’ll have the fire going in a few moments,’ Lian said, dealing with her saddle in exactly the same way as he had his own.
Stretching, she tried to get the cricks from her back. It had been years since she had ridden so far and she felt the pain of muscles she had not used in a very long while.
Still, as he laid out their bedding and looked around for wood to light a fire she made herself do the same, collecting an armful of dry sticks in a matter of moments.
When she placed them down near him and he gave her a blanket she took it gratefully, tying the wool around her shoulders.
‘You have done this many times?’
His eyes were laughing as he looked up. ‘I have.’
‘I suppose self-sufficiency is a mandatory character trait for a spy?’
‘That it is.’ His hands were busy now with a small piece of wood as he turned a twig on its surface with a length of thin thread. Within a few seconds flame flared and, adding other twigs, he soon had a fire, a man at home in his world and in everything that it threw at him.
The hesitancy between them was apparent. Her barrenness was only a part of a larger problem for he was the heir to the Dukedom of Lorraine-Lillebonne, a noble family whose lineage stretched across generations.
Granted he was also modern thinking but every man wanted the chance of immortality, progeny stretching into the future and making some sense of what was and what had been. Aurelian de la Tomber would be no exception despite any protestation he might give to say otherwise. She wished she was different, younger, more innocent, more able to be the woman he needed.
Their clearing was sheltered from the wind but she could hear it in the trees above them, whining. With the heat from the fire and the blanket he’d given her Violet felt almost warm. And drowsy, too. It was the fright she supposed from all that had happened, a fragility that made her bones weak.
