The blue of Sebastian’s eyes.
She nudged that thought aside, or she attempted to. But she couldn’t forget how he’d gazed at her in the ballroom, warmth in his look, and humble gratitude—as though she’d given him a gift. The gift of life with less fear in it.
She’d been glad to do it, glad to be able to play some part in making him happier, more confident. He deserved that much.
“Rotherby’s loss in not coming with us,” Grace said, yet she was glad that the duke had opted to stay in the city rather than come out to this meadow a mile northwest of London.
These past days in the ballroom, with her and Rotherby and Sebastian, she’d enjoyed them—but the duke was always there, and she’d begun resenting his presence. She wanted Sebastian to herself again. A selfish wish, and one she shouldn’t make, but there it was. She missed their friendship . . . even as her responsiveness to him strengthened.
It had been no hardship to watch him run. To see his athletic body put to use, and to see a healthy flush in his cheeks and the shine on his skin. Such things made a woman think things, things she’d no right to think.
“What are we looking for?” Sebastian said, and she appreciated that he kept his voice low lest he frighten any nearby animals.
“I thought we might be able to see some viviparous lizards engaging in their mating behavior.”
“Lady Grace Wyatt!” Seb exclaimed in a shocked voice. “I never suspected you to be one of those deviants who like to watch.”
She turned to wink at him. “Don’t tell my parents.”
They reached a spot in the field where the grasses were shorter, and a number of large stones baked beneath the sun. Grace unfolded her blanket and dropped down onto it. She patted the spot beside her. “Here’s a likely spot to observe.”
Sebastian hesitated for a moment, then lowered himself to the blanket. He stretched out his legs as he leaned on one elbow, the picture of masculinity in repose.
Though she and Sebastian had ridden in her carriage out to the field—with the curtains drawn, of course, to subvert possible scandal—here in the meadow, with barely a few inches between them, she grew acutely sensitive to his nearness. Katie waited with her novel in the carriage, so Grace and Sebastian were truly alone for the first time.
Grace barely heard the drone of bees or the birdsong that wafted from a stand of birch trees, too attuned to him to notice much of anything.
Fortunately, she had enough reason to notice the mottled green-and-brown lizard sunning itself on one of the rocks. “There,” she whispered to Sebastian, pointing to the reptile. “A female. You can tell by the dark line on her back.”
Sebastian put on his spectacles, which he’d produced from his coat’s inside pocket. “Having herself a fine afternoon.”
“Ballrooms can be so very tedious for common lizards.”
“For common anthropologists, too,” he said drily.
“An uncommon anthropologist,” she corrected with a smile. “With a trove of knowledge.”
He smiled back, but when he looked at her, his gaze was thoughtful. “My knowledge of you, Grace, is where I fall down.”
“We’ve known each other for years,” she said in a deliberately casual tone. “Surely you know anything that’s worth knowing.”
“How’d you become interested in herpetology?”
“Ah.” That was a topic she could discuss without worry that things might drift into more personal territory. “I didn’t grow up in London, but on my family’s estate in Hertfordshire. Such a wondrous place, full of wild green space and creatures of every variety. I hesitate to use such hyperbolic words as paradise, but in its way, it was.”
“Sounds enchanting.” There was a note of wistfulness in his voice, and she understood that their upbringings had been considerably different.
“During my birth,” she continued, “there had been . . . complications. My mother lost her ability to bear children, and so Charlie became my parents’ main preoccupation, being the heir.”
“They neglected you?” His body tensed—he was angry on her behalf.
“More like benign inattention. Which turned into a great gift. Whenever my governess set me at liberty, I was out of the house like a rocket, tramping across our estate, exploring every part of the landscape. There was so much to see, so much to learn.”