Page 2 of Madcap with a Marquess
Perhaps a damsel in distress would be too much for Perfect Perty’s lordly honor to ignore. She’d show him how much better life could be if he had a little fun. She crawled forward, laying out over the thick branch. She grabbed onto a thin sapling and leaned to her left.
“Woo-oahh!”
She snapped the sapling.
Crack.
“Franny!” Rupert’s high-pitched yelp sliced through the tree canopy.
She wiggled and draped herself lower over the side of the branch, gasping theatrically. “Rupert, save me!”
She peered beneath the branch she was dangling from, and by Jove, Rupert was climbing the tree! He leapt up to the first branch, mimicking her steps from earlier. Not half bad. For a pompous lordling.
“Hold on, Franny! I’m coming!”
He climbed frantically, wildly, straying from the trunk to where the branches thinned out. Oh dear, he wasn’t paying any attention. He was going to propel himself onto a branch that couldn’t hold his weight. Franny quickly righted herself.
“Rupert, slow down. Watch where you are climbing. That branch is much too—”
An ominous creak moaned from the tree. Rupert froze.
With deliberate slowness, he turned toward her, and their gazes met—perfectly in line from where he stood on his branch and she lay sprawled on hers.
The tree let out another groan.
The whites of Rupert’s eyes dominated against his flared pupils, his pinched lips quivering.
“Eyes on me, Rupert. Step toward the trunk. I am here with you. I will keep you safe.”
He remained frozen. Dear Lord, now was not the time for the stick up his bum to make him permanently stuck.
“Come now, Rupert. Small steps toward the trunk. Focus on me, on my eyes. What color are they? Focus on that.”
“Green,” he breathed and shifted slowly back toward the trunk. “They’re green, with gold around the pupils.”
Franny’s chest fluttered like the large oak leaves surrounding them. She pushed back up to sitting, staying with him, never leaving him.
“There you go. Now grab onto the knots of the trunk. You can look away from me now. See the branch below you to your left? You are going to lower yourself onto that branch. That is a nice fat branch. Perfect for you and your large lordly ego.”
He shot her a glare that was sure to cut down future opponents in parliament. Too bad for him, she was immune to his haughtiness. She stuck out her tongue and waggled her eyebrows. His large cheeks split into a grin. Her heart gave an extra powerful kick. Blast and damn. Rigid Rupert knew how to smile.
He lowered himself onto the branch and straddled it.
“Perfect. Now you are well on your way to mastering the art of climbing trees,” Franny said. “Just ensure you choose branches that can support the weight of your pomposity.”
His eyes narrowed into slits, and he glared at her, but his cheeks were still bunched in a small smile. “Yes, now I will always be able to follow you up here. You can no longer get away from me.”
A shiver stole down her spine. She didn’t understand why, but something in the way he said the words had her heart clattering in her chest.
“Rupert!” A shrill glass-breaking voice rent the air.
Rupert whipped around toward his mother’s call, tilting precariously to his left. Franny reached for him, but she was too far away. Arms flailing, Rupert tipped over the side of the branch—and disappeared from view.
“Rupert!” Franny yelled, already deftly slipping off her branch and jumping down to the one Rupert had been sitting on. Gripping the trunk in a large hug, she slid down the tree, the coarse bark cutting into her palms as she coasted down to the ground. She landed with a thud, the impact reverberating through her joints. She ran to Rupert, her brain still vibrating in her skull, but she hardly cared. Rupert lay stock still, flat on his back in the grass.
“Rupert! Talk to me, Rupert!”
He let out a sudden gasp and broke into a fit of coughing, chest heaving.
