Anthony quirked a brow. “I’m shocked, Miss Sheffield. I had donned all my armor and was expecting you to return with, ‘I know quite enough.’ ”
Kate tried not to make a face at his imitation of her voice. But her expression was wry in the extreme as she said, “I promised Mary I would be on my best behavior.”
Anthony let out a loud hoot of laughter.
“Strangely enough,” Kate muttered, “Edwina had a similar reaction.”
He leaned one hand against the arch, carefully avoiding the thorns on the climbing rose vine. “I find myself insanely curious as to what constitutes good behavior.”
She shrugged and fiddled with the tulip in her hand. “I expect I shall figure that out as I go along.”
“But you’re not supposed to argue with your host, correct?”
Kate shot him an arch look. “There was some debate over whether or not you qualify as our host, my lord. After all, the invitation was issued by your mother.”
“True,” he acceded, “but I do own the house.”
“Yes,” she muttered, “Mary said as much.”
He grinned. “This is killing you, isn’t it?”
“Being nice to you?”
He nodded.
“It’s not the easiest thing I’ve ever done.”
His expression changed slightly, as if he might be done teasing her. As if he might have something entirely different on his mind. “But it’s not the hardest thing, either, now, is it?” he murmured.
“I don’t like you, my lord,” she blurted out.
“No,” he said with an amused smile. “I didn’t think you did.”
Kate started to feel very strange, much like she had in his study, right before he’d kissed her. Her throat suddenly felt a bit tight, and her palms grew very warm. And her insides—well, there was really nothing to describe the tense, prickly feeling that tightened through her abdomen. Instinctively, and perhaps out of self-preservation, she took a step back.
He looked amused, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
She fiddled with the flower some more, then blurted out, “You shouldn’t have picked this.”
“You should have a tulip,” he said matter-of-factly. “It isn’t right that Edwina receives all the flowers.”
Kate’s stomach, already tense and prickly, did a little flip. “Nonetheless,” she managed to say, “your gardener will surely not appreciate the mutilation of his work.”
He smiled devilishly. “He’ll blame one of my younger siblings.”
She couldn’t help but smile. “I should think less of you for such a ploy,” she said.
“But you don’t?”
She shook her head. “But then again, it’s not as if my opinion of you could sink very much lower.”
“Ouch.” He shook a finger at her. “I thought you were supposed to be on your best behavior.”
Kate looked around. “It doesn’t count if there is no one nearby to hear me, right?”
“I can hear you.”
“You certainly don’t count.”
His head dipped a little closer in her direction. “I should think I was the only one who did.”
Kate said nothing, not wanting even to meet his eyes. Whenever she allowed herself one glimpse into those velvety depths, her stomach started flipping anew.
“Miss Sheffield?” he murmured.
She looked up. Big mistake. Her stomach flipped again.
“Why did you seek me out?” she asked.
Anthony pushed off the wooden post and stood straight. “I didn’t, actually. I was just as surprised to see you as you were me.” Although, he thought acerbically, he shouldn’t have been. He should have realized his mother was up to something the moment she actually suggested where he take his walk.
But could she possibly be steering him to the wrong Miss Sheffield? Surely she wouldn’t choose Kate over Edwina as a prospective daughter-in-law.
“But now that I have found you,” he said, “I did have something I wanted to say.”
“Something you haven’t already said?” she quipped. “I can’t imagine.”
He ignored her jibe. “I wanted to apologize.”
That got her attention. Her lips parted with shock, and her eyes grew round. “I beg your pardon?” she said. Anthony thought her voice sounded rather like a frog.
“I owe you an apology for my behavior the other night,” he said. “I treated you most rudely.”
“You’re apologizing for the kiss?” she asked, still looking rather dazed.
The kiss? He hadn’t even considered apologizing for the kiss. He’d never apologized for a kiss, never before kissed someone for whom an apology might be necessary. He’d actually been thinking more of the unpleasant things he’d said to her after the kiss. “Er, yes,” he lied, “the kiss. And for what I said, as well.”
“I see,” she murmured. “I didn’t think rakes apologized.”
His hand flexed, then made a tight fist. It was damned annoying, this habit of hers always to jump to conclusions about him. “This rake does,” he said in clipped tones.
She took a deep breath, then let it out in a long, steady exhale. “Then I accept your apology.”
“Excellent,” he said, offering his most winning smile. “May I escort you back to the house?”
She nodded. “But don’t think this means that I will suddenly change my mind about you and Edwina.”
“I would never dream of considering you so easily swayed,” he said, quite honestly.
She turned to him, her eyes startlingly direct, even for her. “The fact remains that you kissed me,” she said bluntly.
“And you kissed me,” he could not resist returning.
Her cheeks turned a delightful shade of pink. “The fact remains,” she repeated determinedly, “that it happened. And should you marry Edwina—regardless of your reputation, which I do not consider inconsequential—”
“No,” he murmured, interrupting her with velvet soft tones, “I didn’t think you would.”
She glared at him. “Regardless of your reputation, it would always be between us. Once something happens, you can’t take it away.”
The devil in Anthony nearly compelled him to drawl the word, “It?” forcing her to repeat the words, “The kiss,” but instead he took pity on her and let it go. Besides, she had a good point. The kiss would always be between them. Even now, with her cheeks pinkened by embarrassment and her lips pursed with irritation, he found himself wondering how she’d feel if he pulled her into his arms, how she’d taste if he traced the outline of her lips with his tongue.
Would she smell like the garden? Or would that maddening scent of lilies and soap still cling to her skin?
Would she melt into his embrace? Or would she push him away and run for the house?
There was only one way to find out, and doing so would ruin his chances with Edwina forever.
But as Kate had pointed out, maybe marrying Edwina would bring with it far too many complications. It would not do to be lusting after one’s sister-in-law, after all.
Maybe the time had come to search out a new bride, tedious though the prospect may be.
Maybe the time was right to kiss Kate Sheffield again, here in the perfect beauty of Aubrey Hall’s gardens, with the flowers grazing their legs and the smell of lilac hanging in the air.
Maybe…
Maybe…
Chapter 9
Men are contrary creatures. Their heads and their hearts are never in agreement. And as women know all too well, their actions are usually governed by a different aspect altogether.
LADY WHISTLEDOWN’S SOCIETY PAPERS, 29 APRIL 1814
Or maybe not.
Just as Anthony was plotting the best course to her lips, he heard the perfectly awful sound of his younger brother’s voice.
“Anthony!” Colin shouted out. “There you are.”
Miss Sheffield, blissfully unaware of how close she’d come to having been kissed utterly sens
eless, turned to watch Colin approach.
“One of these days,” Anthony muttered, “I’m going to have to kill him.”
Kate turned back. “Did you say something, my lord?”
Anthony ignored her. It was probably his best option, since not ignoring her tended to leave him rather desperately lusting after her, which was, as he well knew, a short, straight road to utter disaster.
In all truth, he probably should have thanked Colin for his untimely interruption. A few more seconds, and he would have kissed Kate Sheffield, which would have been the greatest mistake of his life.
One kiss with Kate could probably be excused, especially considering how far she’d provoked him the other night in his study. But two…well, two would have required any man of honor to withdraw his courtship of Edwina Sheffield.