Flushing scarlet, she shrugged off his arm and went to the opposite window.From here, she could see the iron spokes of the wheel and the giant iron beams of its inner workings.
“How long does it take?”
Harry remained on the opposite side of the cart, watching her with his arms crossed over his chest.“Twenty minutes or so.Is that too long to spend in my company?I thought you were enjoying yourself.”
“I was,” she answered.“I am.”
The wheel continued to rotate, sending them upward.Fiona stared out over the city, not really seeing it.She was aware of nothing but Aylesbury and the steady gaze that never left her.
A soft sigh broke the silence.She wasn’t sure if it had been her or him.A dim reflection in the glass let her watch him without turning his way.He removed his derby and ran a hand through his hair as he slapped the hat against his heavily muscled thigh.She wanted to run her hands through his shiny hair again, to feel it between her fingers.
There were many things that she wanted to experience once again.
“Are you embarrassed by what we did?”he asked, reading her all too well.“You needn’t be.I thought you were magnificent.Did you think I would poke fun at you?”
“You poke fun at everything, Harry.”
“Do you believe I intend to gloat?I wouldn’t humiliate you like that.”He shook his head in disbelief.“You would trust this contraption more than you would trust me?”
That was what it really came down to, wasn’t it?
“Have you nothing to say?”
Fiona swallowed.There were many things she wanted to say, things she wanted to do.Already, she was losing her will to keep him at arm’s length.
Now that she knew the rapture he could provoke, she tingled with every whisper of a touch, her rich imagination postulating all sorts of delightfully inappropriate scenarios that might have been, were it not for Pembrooke’s timely interruption.
Similar imaginings had consumed her once before, long ago.More innocent, filled with gaps that had been filled in two years later.Scintillating as it was, she knew that her reluctant heart was filling once more as well, beating just for him.All the promises she’d made herself, all the tenacity in the world, hadn’t kept it from happening again.Just as it had once before.
How many different ways would history find itself to repeat itself?Fool though she was, Fiona wasn’t keen on finding out.
But he was wearing her down with his persistence.
She ignored him studiously, pacing the perimeter of the carriage.Looking down and about, she saw a small crowd of spectators gathered around the foundation of the Ferris Wheel and wondered desperately how long it would take to get them down.
The carriage jerked forward only to stop again with a jolt.Aylesbury let her go as she turned to look out the window.“Is something wrong, do you suppose?”
“There’s something very wrong,” he grumbled.“And since you seem to have nothing to say about it, perhaps you will just listen.”
As if she had a choice.In that carriage alone with him and with no escape to be had, she was a captive audience.
Aylesbury rolled the brim of his hat between his hands as he pondered where to begin.“You continue to hold this grudge against me.To harbor this resentment over the things I said and did.Though you said you cannot forgive me for it, you’ve yet to ask for an explanation.”
“I know what happened, Harry.I was there,” she said tightly.“I am willing to look past it.Isn’t that enough?”
“Hell, no.It is not.You see only your side of it.That I was an ass, as I have already admitted and apologized for it.”Running one hand through his hair, Aylesbury slapped his hat against his thigh again.“Ah, Fiona, you haven’t a clue what a spot you had me in, do you?You were so young...”
“Eighteen!”
“Young enough,” he said with a grimace.“As young as a sister I refused to see as a young woman.Admitting you were old enough to be courted would have been admitting that I should allow Piper the same as she had been begging me to.ThatI was certainly not prepared to do.Besides that, you were the only sister of men I admire and respect.To have dallied with you in any way, even if it was just a mild flirtation, was bad-mannered, to say the least.Each time I looked at you, I anticipated the beating I knew I deserved for the very shameless thoughts that were going through my mind.And they were quite immodest thoughts, Fiona.I wanted you right from the start.”
She stared at him disbelievingly.“Now that’s a boatload of hogwash.”
“It is the truth,” he said firmly, “though I refused to acknowledge it then.Especially when we first met that summer before.There you were just seventeen...”
“Almost eighteen,” she corrected.
“All right then,” the corner of his mouth kicked up in a half-grin.“Either way, I felt like a degenerate for finding you attractive.Thankfully, for my sanity, I left you behind when I returned to London.But when I saw you again, it was like an arrow went straight through my heart.Even surrounded by the unruly lot of the MacKintosh clan...”
