“Papa can catch you,” Kit persisted.
“Yes, Papa is more than willing to catch the Lady Elizabeth.” Miles grinned, standing before her. He saw a look of doubt cross her face. “Trust me, Elizabeth.” He was smiling but was deadly earnest at the same time. “I won’t step aside; I’ll catch you no matter how hard you fall.”
Elizabeth didn’t play Kit’s trick of standing in the swing, but she did release the ropes and go flying headlong into Miles’s arms. When she hit him, the breath was almost knocked from her.
Miles clasped her tightly, then with a look of horror he said, “You are too heavy, Elizabeth.”
His fall was the most ostentatious fake she’d ever encountered, and as he went down with great loud groans she giggled, clinging to him. With a loud, heartfelt, “Uh oh,” from Miles, they began rolling down the steep hill. It was a terribly insincere roll. When Miles was on the bottom, he clutched at Elizabeth, his hands running down the length of her and when she was on the bottom, his arms and knees kept her off the ground so that not even a rock jabbed at her.
Elizabeth’s giggle turned into a laugh which made her very weak and her hands were quite ineffectual at pushing him away. He’d pause with her on top just long enough for her to push at his arms, then he’d turn and she’d hang on for dear life.
At the bottom of the hill, he stopped, flung his arms outward, closed his eyes. “I’m crushed, Elizabeth,” he said in a wounded tone.
Kit, wanting to join the fun, came tearing down the hill and jumped into the middle of his father’s stomach, catching him unaware.
The groan Miles gave this time was genuine, and Elizabeth broke into new gales of laughter.
With great show, Miles set his son off his stomach and turned to Elizabeth. “Like to see me in pain, do you?” His voice was serious but his eyes were alive with teasing. “Come on, Kit, let’s show Lady Elizabeth she can’t laugh at two knights of the realm.”
Eyes wide, Elizabeth stood and backed away, but Miles and Kit were too fast for her. Miles caught her shoulders while Kit threw his body weight onto her legs. Elizabeth tripped over her skirt, Miles tripped over his son and Kit just kept pushing. The three of them went down in a laughing heap as Miles began to tickle Elizabeth’s ribs and Kit joined his father.
“Enough?” Miles asked, close to Elizabeth’s face which was streaming with tears. “Are you willing to admit to our being the best of knights?”
“I…never said you weren’t,” she gasped.
Miles’s tickling became more severe. “Tell us what we are.”
“The bravest, handsomest knights in all of England—in all the world.”
His hands stilled, slipping about her waist, his thumbs just under her breasts. “And what is my name?” he whispered, completely sober.
“Miles,” she whispered back, her eyes on his. “Miles Montgomery.” Her arms were on his shoulders and now they slipped about his neck, lightly.
Miles bent and kissed her, softly, but there was for the first time a tiny spark between them.
Kit jumped on his father’s back and Miles’s face slid from Elizabeth’s, and he just missed slamming into the dirt.
“Let’s swing again, Papa.”
“To think that I used to love my son,” Miles whispered in Elizabeth’s ear before he rose, his son attached to his back.
None of them had noticed that the sky had darkened in the last few minutes, and they each gasped when the first cold drops hit them. The sky opened up and nearly drowned them.
“To the cottage,” Miles said, pulling Elizabeth up, his arm about her shoulders, and together they ran for shelter.
“Did you get wet?” he asked as he lowered Kit from his back.
“No, not much.” She smiled up at him for just a moment before turning toward Kit.
Miles casually put his hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Why don’t the two of you build a fire while I find us something to eat?”
Kit agreed enthusiastically while Elizabeth gave a dubious look to the torrential rain outside. “Perhaps you should wait until it slackens.”
Miles gave her a smile of delight. “I’ll be safe enough. Now, the two of you stay in here and I’ll not be far away.” With that, he slipped between the charred beams and was gone.
Elizabeth went to the edge of the shelter and looked after him. She was certain Miles Montgomery had no idea how unusual today had been to her. She’d spent an entire morning with a man and not once had any violence occurred. And the laughter! She’d always loved to laugh but her brothers were so solemn—anyone living in the same house with Edmund Chatworth soon grew to be solemn. But today she’d laughed with a man and he’d not tried to tear her clothes off. Always before, if she even smiled at a man, he’d grabbed her, hurt her.
It wasn’t that Elizabeth was so beautiful that she drove men to uncontrollable passion. She knew she was pretty, yes, but if she’d heard correctly she was no match for the Revedoune heiress. What had always made Elizabeth the victim of men’s aggressions was her brother Edmund. His distorted sense of humor ran to wagering with his guests as to who could get Elizabeth in bed with him. Edmund hated that Elizabeth wasn’t terrified of him. When she was a child he used to bring her home from the convent where she lived most of the time and he’d often hit her, knock her down stairs. But somehow Elizabeth had escaped uninjured.