The man sighed and galloped up to him. He laughed and insisted, “I wasn’t flirting.”
Annoyance coursed through Lisbeth. Who was he to warn her against hurting Thomas? She wasn’t the known rake. No, that was the famed explorer, and he had the letters to show it. She glanced to the left of her, and Benson asked, “Anything amiss, Your Grace?”
She shook her head. Lisbeth had no intentions of doing anything with or to Thomas. All of that died between them a long time ago. He glanced back, and their eyes met. A spark of something flared between them.No, she told herself. Thomas Easton had a whole world of ladies to tup, and she wouldn’t be on his list of conquests.
*
Thomas rode besideRafe, and his friend smirked at him. “Why don’t you go speak with her?”
“What do you mean?” he asked, feigning ignorance.
“She is your Layla.”
He snorted at his friend’s quiet declaration. He was comparing him and Lisbeth to a forbidden Arabic love story. The Majnun loved Layla, but she married another, and he went mad, roaming the desert for years. “I’m not a madman.”
Rafe lifted a brow. “Madness comes in different forms. You take risks other men wouldn’t, bed numerous women but don’t take the time to know them and refuse to put down roots anywhere. I think that could be considered a form of insanity.”
Thomas rolled his eyes at his friend. “You are no better—a man who won’t claim his heritage, flirts but won’t touch any woman, and spends time with a madman. What does that make you?”
Rafe chuckled. “An imbecile.”
They both laughed, and it momentarily eased the tension in Thomas’s chest. Rafe jerked his head. “Go talk to her. She may be with us for weeks. Forgiveness is the best gift you can give or receive.”
The problem was that he wasn’t sure if he had forgiven Lisbeth. A part of him carried a bit of hatred for her everywhere he went. It propelled him into so many rash but successful decisions. In truth, part of his success as an explorer came from not wanting to be Serious Thomas, the young man she’d decided she couldn’t wed.
With every one of his achievements, he’d become more boisterous and confident, not because it came naturally to him but because deep down he’d always believed the practical, quiet young man he once was hadn’t been enough for her.
“Go,” Rafe said.
“You better hope we never run into the woman you are behaving like a saint for.”
Sadness fluttered across his friend’s face. “Only fate can bring us together.”
Thomas lifted a brow. “It isn’t like you to be this dramatic.”
Rafe shrugged. “I’ve never known you to be angry when I flirt with a woman. She is special.”
Thomas glanced back at Lisbeth, who was talking with Abbas. “She is my past.”
“Then let her go so you can be free from the weight of your feelings.”
He sighed but slowed his horse until he was next to Lisbeth. Abbas said, “I think I will join Rafe.”
Thomas nodded, and Lisbeth gulped, seemingly nervous. Their horses moved at a leisurely pace. Finally, he said, “I’m still shocked you are going with us on this little exploration.”
“Honestly, so am I.”
“I feel in some ways I goaded you into it,” he confessed.
Her blue eyes flicked towards him, and her mouth tilted up. “You did, but I don’t blame you entirely. I’m not some young girl; I shouldn’t be so easily incited.”
Thomas chuckled. “You seem much calmer as a duchess.”
His mention of her title cast a heaviness between them. Her lips trembled, and Thomas had the shocking urge to comfort her—to provide her forgiveness for the choices of the past. Perhaps Rafe was a wise man. Being this close to her, the fury didn’t fester in him like he thought it would. Thomas found himself wanting to forgive her so they both could move on from the past.
“I want you to know that I don’t hate you or hold any grudges for the decisions you made.”
Her eyes widened, and she pressed her lips together.
