“I forgot myself for a moment. Forgot that you’re engaged. Forgot I’m a confirmed bachelor for now.”
“We should be careful. Mindful of our respective boundaries.” Should she confess she wanted him to kiss her? When Gus stepped closer, desire bloomed again. Even through the cold, she could feel his warmth. What she couldn’t feel was Thomas’s ring.
“Agreed. Because Daffy, you’re not a lass a man can kiss and forget. You deserve a bloke who can give you his heart. Not one who only wants one thing.”
She warmed at his compliment. “Do you only want one thing?”
“From you? No. Not from anyone really. Never was one of those lads who could love them and leave them. But I’m alone now. My own commander, sailing through life by myself.”
“Gus, don’t you see what you’re doing? Really?” Daffy risked touching him, placing her hands on his arms. “Letting an American heiress and an uppity Lauchtenland aristocrat dictate your life. You’re letting their decisions define you. Don’t let their choices steer you. Not only are you rejecting a chance at love, you’re rejecting yourself.”
“Rejecting myself? I’mprotectingmyself.”
“Is that what it is? Sailing alone. Not trusting anyone with your heart, including yourself. Blimey, Gus, be honest. Any girl would be lucky, blessed to have you. Not just because you have a title and a crown. She’d be amazingly blessed by you.” She poked his chest. “The man who lives in here.”
“You don’t hold back, do you?”
“Not when you’re being stupid.”
He stared past her head, his thoughts twisting behind his eyes. Had she gone too far? Said too much? But she’d only spoken the truth. He had to get over himself if he ever wanted a chance at happiness.
“Thank you,” he said, tipping his head toward the bright light at the end of the lane. “Come on. Ernst. Waiting.”
At the last establishment, Gus opened the door and stood aside for Daffy to enter. “Welcome to theBelly of the Beast.”
The pub, with wide plank floors and hefty beams, was fragrant with a wood-burning fireplace. Almost every table was full, but no one looked up when the Lauchtenland prince darkened the doorway.
From behind the bar, a bear of a man with more girth than height leaned on his elbows and nodded as he listened to a skinny chap wearing a woolen ferry cap tell a tale.
Above the mirror, a sign read “Enter the Belly of the Beast with Sword in Hand.”
“What does that mean?” Daffy tugged on Gus’s sleeve and pointed to the sign.
“Whatever Ernst wants. Come on, over here.”
Chapter Eleven
Gus
“Well, Prince.” Ernst looked up from the bloke with the story and came around the bar, his stained apron barely covering his equally stained white shirt and faded black trousers. He’d braided his goatee tonight and Gus noticed when he walked, his feet spilled over the sides of his scuffed and battered leather shoes. “On a night. Beasts face beast.”
The proprietor embraced Gus with no royal reservation. But that was his way. His version of respect. “And this?” He held Daffy by her shoulders. “A blue for the Blue.” His cackle resonated in his chest. “Can’t resist ladies.”
“Ernst, this is Daffy Caron. She’s part of the Royal Trust and setting up a historical wedding gown display at Hadsby. For the wedding ball. Daffy, this is Ernst, proprietor, and if he has a last name, I don’t know it.”
“Ernst of the pub, that’s me.” He pulled Daffy to his chest in an exuberant hug. “Nice to meet.” Clapped his hand on Gus’s back. “Sit. Pints! Fish and chips.”
“We’ve had our dinner—” Daffy raised her voice over the pub’s clamor.
“Don’t waste your words. He won’t listen.” Gus held her chair, then sat next to her, facing the fire.
Should he just pretend he’d not confess what he confessed? What was he thinking? The whole kissing thing? He blamed the snow and the romance of the street lamps. He’d argued with himself as they trekked carefully down Centre Street, told himself to say nothing, then the moment they turned on Wells Line, out it came.
“I wanted to kiss you.”
Worse, he still wanted to kiss her. He gazed down at her ring finger where a respectable diamond proclaimed “Off limits. She belongs to another.”
Having been the chap left at the altar, then left for the man his betrothed still loved, he’d never move in on another lad’s territory. He respected what that ring stood for.
