Page 74 of Wild Lily
She tipped her head, wistful and hopeful.
“You have to know that.”
Her hand went to her throat where she wore his engagement gift. The four-foot long rope of flawless pearls had to be priceless. As she’d taken them from their red velvet box last week, her father had gasped with approval. Marianne had stared, her mouth open. “I’m delighted with these. Thank you.”
“I was pleased you wore them with your gown. And now, too. They’re not and never have been my mother’s.”
That had her beaming at him. She slid her fingertips over the perfect satin of one gem.
“They belonged to my Great-Aunt Priscilla, her own engagement gift from her fiancé who died at Waterloo. She was a bluestocking with a stinging wit and I loved her with a small boy’s fascination for saucy women. Before she died, she gave them to me. ‘A gift for someone you care for’.” He patted the seat beside him. “Come sit with me and we can talk more of it.”
She cast him a sideways glance. “I hate to ride backward. You come sit with me. Here.” She patted her cushions.
“It’s dangerous you realize.”
Her eyes went wide. “In yourcarriage? What can you do?”
He threw back his head to laugh. “Anything.”
“You’re serious?”
“Quite.” He searched her expression.
“But…but you wouldn’t. Would you?”
“No.”
Her jaw fell. “Oh.”
With a wry look, he rose from his seat and positioned himself next to her. Close but not too close, he took one of her hands and put it on his knee. “Let’s be friends, shall we, and talk as we used to?”
She licked her lips, her eyes on their entwined hands. “I want to.”
“So then. Anything is possible in a carriage. Anything between a man and a woman is possible standing up or in a chair. On the floor.”
“Oh, you are making fun of me now.”
“Never.”
“And the reason we don’t do it in a carriage? Or…um…in this carriage?”
“Too damn uncomfortable.”
Her cheeks flamed. “I see.”
“Now. Tell me something else.”
“As long as we’re not talking aboutthat.”
“We won’t.”
“What would you like to discuss?” she asked with some trepidation.
“Were you drinking alcohol before the ceremony?”
She clamped a hand over her mouth.
He took it away and he was grinning at her. “You were, weren’t you?”
