Page 59 of Shining Knight
“I am sure I look a fright, but this is hardly the first time you have seen me soaked to the bone and covered in mud.”
“No,” he agreed, “but this whole situation is such… If I do not laugh, then I might do something drastic.”
“More drastic than telling the whole of London you are betrothed to me?”
“Indeed.” He pulled off his hat, then untied the strings to hers and tossed them on the bench near the porch. “It looks like I will be buying you another bonnet,” he said softly before cradling her face in his hands and lowering his lips to hers.
She gasped with surprise but then quickly gave in and returned his kiss.Good girl, he thought, as he became more and more comfortable with the idea of her as his wife. When he pulled back and let her go, she stared at him as though seeing him for the first time. “Why are you doing this?”
“Are you going to pretend you did not enjoy that?” he asked, with just a little self-satisfaction.
“That is beside the point,” she sputtered.
“No, that is exactly the point. We are compatible, not just friends. Shall I continue to teach you? There is a great deal more to learn.”
She hit him. Hard. Then she began to walk away.
Chasing after her, he took her arm. “I am unwilling to leave it at that.” He spun her around. “Can you truly tell me you would rather marry one of the others than me?”
She was fighting off tears. That was why she had turned away. The look on her face undid him and he pulled her into his arms. He let her cry, despite the rain soaking them. They had to come to an understanding now.
“I do not understand,” she muttered against his chest.
When she had calmed, he tilted her face up to look at him.
“Will you not give me a chance? At least consider it until Rowley arrives?”
She sighed heavily—just the sound every suitor wished to hear from his perspective bride.
“At least no one else is here to know we are alone together.”
“True,” he said cautiously. “And you know I would not force you to do anything if you truly did not wish it.”
“I still do not know how you think to change my mind. We have been as brother and sister our entire lives.”
“Not entirely,” he corrected. “You became a woman while I was away.”
She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulder. “Do you think we might find our way inside now, Graham?”
He burst out laughing and tweaked her on the nose. “Put me in my place, pet.”
