“No need to hold back. I am well aware of Rupert’s failures.” And those of his father, his uncle, and his brother. “But comparing them isn’t fair to the bird.”
She looked horrified but then, after a short pause, laughed and covered her mouth. “I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry.” And to keep the conversation light, Reed said, “I actually feel an affinity with crows.”
“Crows?”
Reed glanced down, expecting her to protest. Most people viewed crows to be opportunistic. Instead, she was nodding.
“I can see that,” she said. “Crows are quite clever, really. And practical.”
He appreciated their sleek watchfulness, but hadn’t considered other characteristics.
But she wasn’t finished. “They make use of what resources are available to them. They are problem solvers and very protective of what is theirs. Like you.”
Caroline had said Lady Marigold had watched him closely at the house party. And he’d… well.
He’d dismissed her as a child. But she had seen things about him that few others ever had.
“I’m flattered.” He would not embarrass her for having watched him. She was an innocent—caught up in his less-than-honorable scheme. She deserved better.
Reed exhaled. “I’m afraid I have a confession.”
She stiffened and ducked her head, disappointment rolling off her. “Of course…” She erupted with a cynical laugh—a sound too bitter to come from such an innocent. “I should have realized.”
But Reed cleared his throat and charged forward. “I came looking for you today,” he said.
“Why?” She whipped around to stare at him. “Why would you come looking for me?”
He could compliment her looks, buy her presents and flowers. But that wasn’t the way he operated. When he needed something, he first tried the most straightforward means of acquiring it.
“To ask you to marry me.”
He didn’t have a chance to check her expression because her foot caught on a root, and if he’d not been there to catch her, she would have slammed unceremoniously onto the packed dirt. Then again, if he’d not been there, she likely wouldn’t have tripped at all.
Nonetheless, Reed caught her.
The Details
She didn’t make it to the ground, but the breath whooshed out of her as though she had.
Surely, she’d heard incorrectly. He cannot have actually proposed.
To her, of all people!
“What? I mean, pardon?” She struggled to catch her breath as sturdy hands grasped her waist. The two of them had come to a halt, surrounded by trees and brush with the sky hidden by a giant canopy of branches and leaves.
“I’d like to marry you. Hell, I don’t suppose that’s the proper way of going about this sort of thing.” He released her and then removed his hat to rake his fingers through his hair.
“But… Why?” Goldie glanced around them to see if there might be a collection of witnesses taking part in some sort of joke.
But there was no one. And when her gaze landed on Lord Standish once again, his expression appeared genuine.
“I need… I need a wife,” he answered.
“Does this have something to do with the rumors?”
He winced. “You know, then.”
