“I’m trying,” he said.
“No,” I replied, reaching to touch his chest. “No, you said you do not want me here, not don’t.”
“What?” he asked.
“Miss Josie says liars say do not.”
He narrowed a single eye, then tapped my temple. “I’m sure that makes sense somewhere in here.”
“Youwantto see me,” I said.
“Yes, but I don’t want to hurt Sam,” he said.“And I’ll confess, I worry you do.”
“Do what? Want to hurt Sam? That isn’t what this is about?” I said.
“Isn’t it?” Cyrus glanced at the fingers at his heart.
“It’s not,” I said. “It’s not. I swear.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Would you like me to tell you howlittleI think of him? Would that convince you? Would that clarify what’s happening here?”
“I’d like you to-”
“You, and Sam, and Lady Agatha,and myseamstressfor some reason,all just played rather happily with one another just now. Didn’t you? Yet here I am with you. Not Sam. Not the girls. I’ve dodged my knight; I’ve risked invoking his fury by being discovered here with you. I’m standing in front ofyou. Not Sam. I very well could’ve inserted myself intohisconversation, embarrassed him, told his Aggy to go sniff another man’s trousers, but I followedyoubeneath these seats, did I not? I chose—” I stopped. “Cyrus.”
He swallowed.
“Cyrus, I don’tcarewhere or what Sameer is doing or who he’s doing it with, and I don’t care enough about his misdeeds to seek harm to him. I don’t want to hurtanyone. I just want to seeyou.”
“You want to see me?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. “Alone. Not out there with everyone, where I cannot be free to say things like that. And certainly not where fabric harlots blatantly flirt with you!”
He tensed again. “I would ask you not to speak of Lydia that way.”
“Lydia?” I asked.“Lydia is…? As in…Swift?”
“Aye,” Cyrus said.
“Lydia Swift? Yourfiancé?You’re engaged to my seamstress? To-”
“We’re not engaged. We were. We have since parted,” he said.
“Are you…?” I tried to form the question, unable to move or even think to save him from the insecurity the truth brought out of me.“Are you in love with her?”I asked.
“How can you ask me that?” He frowned.
“How can I not?” I returned. “She was sohandsywith you for someone who’s no longer in love!”
Cyrus rolled his eyes. “I don’t control how she feels,” he said. “And as lovely as fighting with you is, this is a bad place. We can’t be here like this.”
“Then where should we go?” I asked. “You’re the navigator. I’ll follow your lead.”
He shook his head. “We should go nowhere, Your Highness. You should go back to your derby.”
“What? No, I don’t want to do that.”
