He wore an alarming look of quiet speculation she’d never seen before. “Where did you go?” he asked.
She shrugged, moving away from him. “I was just remembering that I try not to repeat my mistakes.”
“So do I, Georgiana.” Before she could decipher that, he turned to his aunt. “Shall we, my dear?”
With her cane in one hand and a firm grip on Tristan’s arm with the other, Milly took a single wobbling step across the grass. Georgiana and Edwina, along with Niles and Gimble, cheered, and she took a second and a third step.
“I knew you could do it!” Georgiana laughed.
“I’m so glad you suggested this, Georgie,” Edwina said, beaming. “It’s a miracle.”
Tristan sent her a sharp look, then went back to maneuvering his aunt in a wide circle around the coach. When Milly claimed exhaustion, they pulled down the wheeled chair and set it beneath a tree for her. Niles laid out the blankets and the basket of food while Georgiana attended to her charge.
“Luncheon is served, my lord,” Niles said, bowing.
They seated themselves in a semicircle around Milly while the footman offered them Madeira and sandwiches. Gimble had indeed managed to find a quiet spot in one corner of the park. It was very nice, Georgiana decided, to be able to sit and laugh and chat without three or four dozen men all trying to make eye contact or ride their horses by in the most daring fashion possible to catch her attention.
“So with whom will you dance first after your recovery?” she asked, accepting an orange from Edwina.
“I think I shall ask the Duke of Wellington. I considered Prince George, but I don’t wish him to become infatuated with me.”
“I should like a kitten, if one is still available,” Edwina announced.
“I’ll send a note over to Lucinda this afternoon,” Georgiana promised her.
While Niles cleared the luncheon and Milly and Edwina brought out their embroidery, Tristan climbed to his feet. “If you ladies are comfortable, I thought I might stretch my legs a little,” he said, brushing a stray leaf from his gray trousers. “Georgiana, would you care to join me?”
She hadn’t thought to bring any sewing or a book, dash it all, so she would look like an idiot and a coward if she declined and had to sit there in the grass, staring at her hands. “That would be nice,” she said, and allowed him to help her to her feet.
Dare offered her his arm, and with a slight hesitation she wrapped her fingers around his sleeve. “We won’t go far,” he said to his aunts, and headed toward the path by the pond.
“I hope you didn’t mind my mentioning the kitten to Edwina,” she said, before he could ask her which mistake she wasn’t repeating, or why she had really bullied him into a picnic. “Since you’d already had a cat in residence, I didn’t think you would mind another.”
“With four younger brothers, cats are the least of my worries. Why did you suggest the outing today?” he asked, undeterred. “Is it because you want me to apologize for last night?”
Heat crept along her veins. “I scarcely remember last night. It was late, and we were both tired.”
“I wasn’t tired. I wanted to kiss you. And I think you do remember it.” He pulled a box from his pocket and presented it to her. “Which is why I thought you might have need of this today.”
She opened it. The fan was even lovelier than the last one, white with small yellow flowers sprinkled amongst the ivory ribs. Georgiana wondered whether he’d realized that the fans she’d cracked over his knuckles were never the ones that he’d given her. Those stayed in a drawer, where she could pretend to ignore them. “Tristan, this is very confusing for me,” she said, glad that for once she could speak the truth.
She belatedly realized they were hidden from the aunties by a small stand of elm trees. No one else was in sight at all. “It doesn’t have to be,” he murmured, and tilted her chin up with his fingers.
Panic rising fast enough to choke her, Georgiana backed away. The first kiss she could blame on Tristan; a second kiss would be equally her own fault. “Please don’t.”
Tristan froze, then closed the space between them again with one slow step. “If you remembered the way I waltz, you must remember other things, too.”
That was the problem. “Are you certain you want to remind m—”
He leaned down, and feather-light touched his lips to hers, tasting her as though they’d never kissed before. Georgiana sighed and twined her fingers through his wavy dark hair. Lord, she had missed this. She had missed him, the feel of his strong arms around her, and his seeking, beckoning mouth. He deepened the kiss, a small sound coming from deep in his chest.
What was she doing? Georgiana pulled away again. “Stop it! Stop it, Dare.”
He let her go. “There’s no one to see, Georgiana. It’s just us.”
“That’s what you said before,” she panted, straightening her shawl and glaring at him. Pretty as her new fan was, she was tempted to put it across his skull.
“And you gave in then, too,” he said with a slight grin. “You can’t blame me, alone. It does take two to do it properly, and as I recall—”
