Part 20 (2/2)
young, you know. I'm nearly one-and-twenty. So perhaps you should rest a.s.sured that Iwouldn't be shocked at anything you decided to tell me.”He laughed softly. ”Trust me, Arabella. Your tender ears would be singed. The smoke would be spied all the way to London.”
”I was always a precocious child.” She had no trouble keeping up with his long-legged stride. Suddenly she pointed. ”Oh, look! What is that?”
Justin followed the direction of her finger. ”It's the gazebo.”
”Oh!” she exclaimed. ”May we stop?” She didn't wait for an
answer, but picked up her skirts and began running toward the small white structure on the hilltop.
Justin quickened his pace. ”Oh, but this is lovely!” she sang out. Slanting him a smile, she leaned forward to sniff the dainty pink roses that climbed the twin columns of the entrance. ”I do so adore roses.”
Justin stopped at the bottom of the stairs. No, he thought raggedly, she was the one who was lovely. He found her disregard for convention quite enchanting. The strings of her bonnet still trailed from her fingertips. Exertion or perhaps the sun had tinted her cheeks the fairest rose. He had to wrench his gaze from lips that were practically begging to be kissed. G.o.d, but what was behind this cursed attraction to her? She was all wrong for him. Yet being with her this afternoon*Christ, it felt so right*
She turned to him. From where she stood on the first step, they were eye-to-eye. ”Now,” she said briskly, ”where were we? Oh, you were about to tell me all your secrets.”
”Are we trading secrets, then?”
”Indeed, you are the keeper of all my secrets,” she grumbled. ”Or the ones that matter anyway.”
He chuckled. ”That grates, doesn't it?”
Her lips pursed. ”Yes,” she muttered. ”I think it's only fair that I should have just one of yours.”
”A secret of the licentious nature, eh?”
”Well, yes*it makes sense, doesn't it? Licentious. Lascivious. Libertine. What do all those things have in common?”
”Me, I suppose.”
Her eyes crinkled. ”Very clever,” she praised. Smiling brightly, antic.i.p.ating victory, she stationed herself on the top step, where she gazed down at him. Oh, he was so smug and superior! Just once she longed to have the upper hand, so to speak.
It proved a victory short-lived. He quirked a brow. ”I know what you're doing, Arabella, and it won't work.” Setting his hands firmly on her waist, he swung her from her perch above him.
”Cad,” she charged.
”Vixen,” he shot back. ”But I will admit, you win points for being persistent. However, I am compelled to inform you, no matter how hard you try, I won't tell you what you wish to know.”
”Why not? I suppose it is a matter of principle now.”
”Principle be d.a.m.ned. I've no intention of sinking even lower in your eyes, so my lips are sealed. Besides which, I begin to wonder if perhaps you are so insistent because it is indeed a trifle more than a matter of curiosity.”
She frowned. ”I don't know what you mean.”
Justin began to walk on. ”Simply this.” He cast a sidelong glance at her. ”Are you even aware how the act of procreation is done?”
”Of course I am. My mother told me, as well as my Aunt Grace. And -” She stopped short.
Justin placed his hands on his hips. Her expression was decidedly guilty. ”And?” he coaxed.
She was blus.h.i.+ng fiercely. ”The night before my cousin Harriet married, I heard Aunt Grace telling her what to*” She ran the tip of her tongue around her lips. ”What to antic.i.p.ate in the marriage bed.”
Justin dissolved into laughter. ”I should have known! You were spying behind closed doors again!”
Arabella scowled. ”I wasn't spying.”
He only laughed the harder. ”The devil you say!”
”Forgive me for interrupting your amus.e.m.e.nt, sir.” She gestured grandly to the path before them, where the night's rain had collected in a wide pool.
”What?”
”There is a puddle before us,” she pointed out.
He smiled. ”So there is,” he agreed.
Her gaze ripened to a glare. ”A gentleman, on seeing that it is too wide for me to traverse on my own, and seeing that he is wearing boots and I have but thin slippers, would offer to carry me across.”
”My dear, you have called me many things, but never a gentleman.” His smile widened. ”However, since you insist*”
Bending low, he pitched her over his shoulder and strode through the puddle. She was still sputtering as he set her on her feet on the other side.
Her chin climbed high. ”And now I see why,” she informed him icily. ”You, sir, are no gentleman, nor will you ever be.”
Justin threw back his head and laughed as she stalked away. Now, this, he thought, was the Arabella he knew*
Twelve.
Tea was just being served when they arrived. Arabella chatted with Georgiana and Julianna for a time, then moved to sit with her aunt and uncle. Finally, she wandered off a short distance away from the others. A pair of chaise lounges beckoned beneath the shade of a tree, and it was there she directed her steps. Uncle Joseph had been discussing his prized hunting retriever with Sebastian, and Aunt Grace was busy flitting from guest to guest.
All the while, there wasn't a single moment she wasn't aware of Justin - where he was, who he was with, everything about him.
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