“I take comfort where I can find it.” The reply had slipped out before she had thought about it. Uncomfortable, she made a rapid attempt to change the subject. “You mentioned that you have not spent much time in your lordship. Do you like traveling so much?’
“I do not,” he said. “I would much rather settle down in one place and live a peaceful life.”
“Your life is not peaceful?”
He shrugged, his big shoulders lifting. “I am a warrior. I reckon that my life is not meant to be peaceful by virtue of my profession. That does not stop me from wishing, however.”
Toby glanced at the knights riding behind them, massive men on massive horses. “And your companions,” she said. “Do they travel everywhere with you?”
“They have for many years.”
“I have never been out of Cartingdon,” Toby said. “Someday I would like to travel to the places that you have perhaps been.”
“Where would you go?”
She thought a moment, visions of exotic cities in far off lands filling her mind. Some days, when her father drank himself into oblivion and her mother was out of control, she would sit and dream about being somewhere else. It was a game she sometimes played to keep her sanity.
“I would like to see Paris someday. But I have a stronger desire to see Rome.”
“I have been to Paris many times but never Rome.”
“If you ever go, will you come back and tell me about it?”
There was something wistful in her tone that made Tate take a closer look at her. “Do you think you will never go? Perhaps your husband shall take you someday. Surely he would do this for you.”
She gave him an ironic smirk. “I thought I clearly established that I will never marry. If I go, I shall have to go alone.”
“Unacceptable. If it comes to that, I shall take you myself.”
She laughed, a gesture that lit up the sky. “My lord, although your offer is most gracious, I will not hold you to it. You could barely stand to be near me for an evening. How on earth could you stand it for months on end?”
Tate was completely entranced by her smile; it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. “If you laugh like that more often, I should easily stand it.”
His tone was quiet, sincere. It made Toby’s heart leap. She looked at him, amazed he would say such a thing, uncertain why he would. Not knowing how to respond, her cheeks burned brightly. It was a delicious spot of color amongst the gray of the morning mist, not lost on Tate.
“Is Wales like this?” she asked.
The change in subject was blindingly swift. Tate nearly had his head ripped off at the rapidity of it and he had to turn away lest she see him grin. “Beg pardon?”
“Wales. I hear that is where you were born. Is it like Northumberland?”
“In a sense; Wales is more mountainous.”
“I hear that it is a wild place.”
“No wilder than the borders of Scotland.” He rubbed his chin with a gauntlet-clad hand. “What were we just speaking? Oh, yes. Laughing. I would suspect you do not do it nearly enough. Perhaps if you did, it would ease your brutish manner. It might make you more attractive to a husband.”
She raised her eyebrows at him. “How did I graduate from an appalling manner to a brutish one?”
He was struggling not to smile at her, but he couldn’t help it. He had a devilishly attractive smile, his teeth straight and white. “Forgive me for moving you up the ranks so swiftly.”
“At least have the courtesy not to do so until I have done something to warrant it.”
“Of course, mistress. My most genuine apologies.”
“Accepted.”
Much to his surprise, she was showing a delightful sense of humor. He would never have guessed. “Thank you,” he covered his heart with one hand sincerely. “Now, tell me; why do you not laugh more often than you apparently do?”
