He held out the basket. “Mr. T requests the pleasure of your company at once.”
“I’ll think about it.” Virginia accepted the basket.
It was heavier than usual. When the footman left, she set the basket atop her bed and opened the lid. One by one, she placed its contents in a line.
Her bonnet. Her winter gloves. Her favorite pelisse. A folded scrap of paper.
She unfolded the paper. The sparse handwriting inside read only:
Come peckish.
Her heart gave a dangerous flutter. After having fled from their make-believe dinner party the night before, Virginia hadn’t been certain when she would be ready to face Theodore again. Or if he would even want to see her.
This answered one of the questions.
She slid on her pelisse and gloves and tied on her bonnet. Her heart lightened. The walk down to Azureford’s cottage seemed to take half the time as usual.
When she rapped the knocker, Swinton led her not into one of the various drawing rooms, but straight through the cottage to the rear exit.
Were they headed to the outbuilding?
Virginia frowned. She’d come peckish, but wouldnotbe eating the partridge.
Swinton turned her not toward the outbuilding, but to a wooden-latticed belvedere on the other side. Thick woolen blankets covered most of the interior. Upon its cozy surface sat two wooden crutches, one handsome viscount, and a picnic basket.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Theodore said. “And no, we cannot be trusted to behave ourselves inside.”
Virginia glanced around at the thick copse of evergreens buffeting the rear garden in total seclusion, then returned her questioning gaze to Theodore.
“It’s cold,” he said. “That helps more than you think.”
Cold, but not freezing. She stepped closer. Snow still covered the trees and grass, but the air was calm and dry.
“I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t rise to greet you,” he said. “I believe I found the most awkward way possible to lower my backside to the blanket and I’d like to spare you from having the image in your head.”
“I don’t mind awkward.” She settled across from him. “What’s in the basket?”
He clasped his hands to his chest and affected a joyous expression. “I’ve made metal braces for your elbows, knees, and ankles.”
She burst out laughing. “You did not, beast. Knowing you, that’s a basket full of ice cream.”
He did not respond.
“It is a basket full of ice cream?” she asked in disbelief. “For a winter picnic?”
“Technically, it’s April,” he reminded her. “April is definitely ice cream weather.”
He opened the lid to the basket and began to place dishes of ice cream atop the blanket.
“If you insist on normalcy,” he said, “there may also be cheese, bread, and fruit somewhere inside the basket.”
“I’ve never once been normal,” she assured him, and picked up a dish of ice cream.
Theo’s eyes sparkled with approval.
It didn’t take them long to have done with their sweet, creamy feast.
He stacked the dishes inside the basket and moved it aside in order to lie back with his hands laced behind his head.
