Louisa folded her arms pettishly. “I cannot believe someone else is performing an assignation while I am reduced to hiding.”
The gentleman sent her an incredulous look. “That is your preferred method of spending your time?”
“I imagine it would be if I were given the opportunity to try it.” She pouted. “I don’t suppose you would be so kind?”
There was another long silence as he looked at her. The space between them yawned, but beyond the puzzlement in his face, she was sure she saw a flash of longing that matched her own, deep in her belly.
“You want me to kiss you?” he asked in a low voice that seemed to rumble through her.
“If you would not object.”
He swallowed, throat bobbing. “And if Iwouldobject?”
Now she really was offended. “What about me is displeasing?” she snapped under her breath. “Am I not pretty enough for you? Or perhaps you dislike the colour of my dress? My hair?”
A dimple appeared at the opposite corner of his mouth this time. “I daresay you know precisely how pretty you are.”
“Then why will you not kiss me?”
His finger touched her chin, a fleeting pressure that made her insides feel like liquid. “Because,” he said with a solemnity that quelled her flash of hurt, “I intend to only ever kiss my future bride.”
Louisa did not know precisely what she felt, only that he had taken the source of her anger and tugged it free, like removing an embedded thorn from her skin. He was looking at her with a gravity that seemed beyond his years, and beyond her understanding.
“But I cannot conceive why you mightwantto. From what I understand, kissing isfun.” Another enthusiastic gasp from theparty nearby seemed to confirm her claim. “And your future bride will not mind, I am sure.”
His dimple deepened into a lopsided smile. “Is that so?”
“I know I certainly should not.”
“And yet,” he said gravely, “you have fled your chaperone in order to find a stranger in a maze who might kiss you, and you have aspirations of being a painter. Forgive me for my impertinence, but I do not think you resemble the typical young lady.”
Louisa tossed her head. “I have no wish to resemble a typical young lady.”
“So I am coming to understand.” He hesitated, glancing in the direction of the other couple, who seemed to be increasingly amorous, and beckoned Louisa further into the maze.
“Have you truly never kissed another young lady?” she persisted, following him and wishing she had thought to bring a parasol to shield her from the sun. “Not even a maid?”
“No.”
“When do you intend to marry?”
“Not for some time yet, I would imagine.”
“Hmm.” Louisa pursed her lips at the back of his head. “That is a rather singular decision. Will you be able to resist?”
“I have so far,” he said dryly.
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen.”
That meant he was probably at Oxford or Cambridge. Louisa did not know what occurred at such establishments, but she suspected studying often came second. “I think you are making a mistake.”
“Yes,” he said from ahead. “You are not the only person. But I doubt you can change my mind even if you wanted to.”
Louisa decided then and there that she would charm this young man into giving her a kiss if it was the last thing she did.But before she could act on it, there came a very familiar scream of outrage from behind her.
“Goodness gracious,” Miss Huxley squawked, presumably on discovering the amorous couple. “Have younoshame?”
