She laughed at his bluntness. “No, not really. When he does find time, he teases me unmercifully.”
“It is a law that brothers must tease their sisters.”
“Have you sisters?”
“Two.”
She assumed his teasing of them wasn’t nearly as irritating as Neville’s of her. She actually welcomed the occasions when they went months without seeing each other, when he’d either been off at school or was seeing to one of the family’s estates in their father’s stead, learning all he needed to know in order to be a proper earl when the day came.
“I hope you don’t find my saying this offensive, but you don’t speak like a laborer.” While his diction was far from the haughtiness of an aristocrat, it did reflect a certain amount of education, more than she’d have expected from someone who slaughtered animals for a living.
“That’s my sister Gillie’s doing. She’s obsessed with ensuring none of us sound like we come from the gutter. She firmly believes we have to speak properly if we ever hope to make something of ourselves.”
“And what will you make of yourself, Finn Trewlove?”
With a wink, he gave her another flash of a smile. “That remains to be seen, Lady Lavinia.”
He brought the wagon to a halt, set the brake, and climbed down. No one seemed to be about as he walked around to her side and held up his arms. She scooted over until he could bracket his large hands on her narrow waist while she placed her small hands on his broad shoulders. Slowly, ever so slowly, as though he were in no hurry, he lifted her down until her feet touched the earth.
For the briefest of moments, he seemed to be studying her, and she wondered if he was ever going to release his hold on her, wasn’t certain she wanted him to. No one had ever looked at her as he did—with such intense interest, as though she fascinated him. It was rather thrilling to be the object of such attention. Finally, he dropped his hands and stepped back. “My brother has wagons and horses for hauling the brick. Over here.”
She followed him to a large paddock—not a proper stable, although she could see what appeared to be some sort of wooden shelter in the distance. The horses she saw standing around were much bulkier than the ones in her father’s stables, but then she supposed they needed the muscles for hauling something as weighty as bricks. Then she spotted the elegant white mare with her silver mane, and her heart leaped with such joy she was surprised it didn’t burst through her chest. “Sophie! Here, girl! Here, sweet girl!”
The horse trotted over, and Lavinia petted her, pressing her forehead against Sophie’s. “I thought never to see you again. I suppose after tonight that will be true, but at least you’ve not been taken from me completely. I’ll know you’re here, frolicking about, having a grand time with your new friends. I’m sorry I treated you poorly, tried to use you to gain another’s attention. Oh, sweet girl, I shall forever miss you.”
Throwing back her head, Sophie neighed, and Lavinia couldn’t help but believe the horse understood every word she’d spoken and was expressing how much she’d miss her mistress. Then the mare scampered away.
With happiness and relief spiraling through her, Lavinia turned to Finn. “Thank you for sparing her.”
Then without thought or reasoning, in her gladness, she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.
Chapter 3
1871
Finn remembered their first kiss as though it had been delivered only minutes before instead of years. It had been as brief as the blink of an eye, and yet he’d felt as though his lips had been branded by hers. He’d been no stranger to kisses, preferring those that went on for ages, slow and sensual, a feast rather than a nibble. Still, the quick brush of her mouth over his had rocked him back on his heels, just as her quick jab to his jaw had done moments earlier.
Apparently, she was no happier to see him than he was to see her. Not that he was going to let on how much it hurt or angered him to be in her presence after all this time.
With that blade positioned perfectly between two ribs, he stood as still as death. There was only meat to be pierced and it would give way easily without bone to provide a barrier to its destination. The steel was vibrating ever so slightly, and he could see the barest of trembling in her hand, wanted to dare her to finish what she’d begun eight years earlier, the complete and utter rending of his heart.
Their breathing was shallow, fraught with tension, as they each took a measure of the other.
He hadn’t planned to make his presence known, but neither had he been in a mood to see blood spilled or to wait to intervene until the situation escalated into an altercation that would have required a bit more effort to subdue. Although he’d been tempted to hold off, to see how well she might have defended herself in the face of three opponents. But he’d spoken true. He hadn’t liked the odds.
Although she had some power now to her punch that she hadn’t when she was younger and had smacked him the day he’d arrived to take away her horse. He wondered who’d taught her to fight—and knew a surge of unwarranted jealousy at the prospect of some faceless man folding his hand over hers and demonstrating how to make a proper fist that was less likely to result in any broken bones.
He wondered if the same person had taught her to wield the rapier. He’d been impressed with her skill and the confident way in which she’d handled the weapon, although being impressed annoyed him as much as the memory of their first kiss. He wasn’t going to race through his memories until he remembered their last kiss, the one he’d thought truly made her his—until he’d realized too late that it was a lie, like everything that had passed between them.
“Have you been following me?” she asked, not even attempting to disguise the bitterness in her tone.
He had been, not that he was going to directly admit that to her. He’d learned only six weeks earlier that she was in the area, and it hadn’t taken long to find her once he knew to look. Since then, for reasons he’d been unable to explain to himself, he’d been keeping a close watch on her, unaccountably curious regarding her reasons for being in this area of London. If he were honest with himself, he also had an unwarranted desire to ensure no harm came to her. Damn his instincts to protect that had landed him in trouble more than once. “There’s a bounty on your head.”
“Yes, I’ve seen the notices posted by someone my brother hired to return me home. Is it your intention to collect on it?”
“Five hundred quid is a lot of blunt.”
“I shall fight you tooth and nail the entire way.”
