“It is,” she insisted. “Douglas, you know you are the most handsome man at Axminster and, more than likely, the entire world, and the fact that you are making me tell you this when you already know it is only feeding your pride. That is shameful!”
“Is it?”
Mira was ready to explode at him when she caught him laughing. He started laughing so hard that he bent over, handson his knees, and she was trying desperately to maintain her outrage.
“Stop laughing,” she said, fighting off a smile. “Stop laughing this instant, Douglas de Lohr. Do you hear me?”
He did, but he suddenly went down on one knee in front of her and took her hands, holding them in his two big fists.
“I know those silly chickens are watching us from the chapel windows, so they now see that I am on my knee before you,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling with mirth. “Please, Mira. Please pretend to love me. Please pretend to belong only to me so that gaggle of children will leave me alone and stop watching me piss.Please!”
He was being dramatic and hilarious and very sly. He was making it look as if he was proposing to her and, of course, she had no choice but to go along with it. Or so he thought. She tried to yank her hands from his grip.
“Let me go, you fool,” she said, trying very hard not to laugh at him. “Douglas, I swear I will beat you if you do not let me go.”
The more she pulled, the more he refused to let her go, but she managed to get one hand free. That caused him to yank on her, pulling her into an embrace right out in the middle of the central bailey for all to see. He was on his knees, holding her tightly, his face pressed into her belly, as she began slapping him around the head.
“Douglas!” she gasped. “Release me this instant!”
He was laughing so hard that he was crying, his face pushed into her soft, warm torso. It would have been extremely enticing had he not had to suffer through the sting of her slapping at his head and ears.
“I will not release you until you agree to pretend to love me,” he said, muffled against her belly. “Agree or we stay like this forever.”
Mira knew he meant it. Furious, but also caught up in the man’s undeniable charm, she stopped hitting him and he immediately released her. He stood up, but he still had one of her hands.
“Now,” he said in a low voice. “Do we have a bargain?”
She was desperately fighting off a grin as she shook her head at him. “You are an insufferable arse,” she hissed. “I swear you deserve everything that is coming to you. I hope a thousand foolish maidens follow you around and spy on every aspect of your life. I hope you never have a moment’s peace!”
His grin broke through. “As long as you tell everyone that we are madly in love, I do not care what curses you bring down upon me,” he said. “Do we have a bargain?”
She was looking at him most hatefully. “If we must.”
“We must,” he said. “Now, smile. You are very happy that I have declared my intentions. Smile!”
He hissed the last word, and she produced a sneering grin that not even he believed. “How is that?” she asked.
He frowned. “Terrible,” he said. “You look like you have a bellyache.”
“I do, and its name is Douglas.”
He started laughing. “Insult me all you wish and I do not care,” he said. “We have a bargain and you had better live up to it.”
“And if I do not?”
His laughter faded. “Even if you do not want to make the bargain, you have,” he said, suddenly serious. “Your honor is at stake, my lady. That is the most important thing in the world. If there is even a small part of you that has any respect for me, live up to that bargain. Do not disappoint me.”
He meant it. All jesting aside, even Mira could see that. She may not have liked what he’d managed to wrangle out of her, but her honor was important to her. She didn’t want to lose a friend.
“I will not,” she said. “I will be a sickly sweet as you want me to be where you are concerned.”
He eyed her dubiously. “Make it believable, at least.”
“I told you that I will not disappoint you. I meant it.”
He nodded, a faint smile on his lips, before lifting her hand to kiss it. With a lingering glance, he headed off, back to the duties that were part of his day, as Mira stood there and watched him go.
Her heart was still beating wildly in her chest.
