“Oh no—”
Ellie interrupted. “Excellent. Come, Lady Mowbray, I wish to have my fortune told, and I hear Madame Estelle is the best.”
“Oh indeed, I shall join you, my lady. I think Lady Shubert has set the fortune teller up over there,” Lady Mowbray said, leading Ellie away.
“There is no need, my lord. Really, I have not the slightest wish to go boating, and am not sure why my aunt suggested I would.”
“But I wish it, so you shall accompany me.” Joseph took her hand and placed it on his arm. She did not mind stirring the waters with a few caustic or misleading comments, but Milly would not make a scene of cutting him, so soon they were walking down to the boats.
“I’m really not overfond of water.”
“You will not be getting in the water.”
A servant wearing a ridiculous costume held the boat for them. Joseph lowered Milly in, still protesting, and followed.
“Careful you don’t take someone’s eye out with that helmet,” he said as the man pushed them off. The servant muttered something they did not hear.
“I hope they are paid well,” Milly said. She was seated before him, and his eyes followed a long curl that fell below her shoulders to a row of buttons marching down her spine.
“My brothers and I were just discussing that.”
They were silent as he maneuvered them around several other boats and then headed toward the gardens. She tugged off her gloves, and trailed long, slender fingers in the water, each causing a small wake as the boat glided along.
“Is it catching, this madness you had?”
“Very, therefore I suggest you return me whence we came.”
He laughed. “Relax, Milly. You are safe out here on the water. No one will question you further.”
“Not even you?”
“I am exempt.”
She sighed. “I feared you would be.”
Joseph paddled three more strokes before speaking again. “I have been betrothed to no one but you.”
She lifted her face to look at the sky. “So many lies. The society I once loved so much is now a foreign battlefield of artifice.”
“You need not navigate it alone.”
“I am unsure if I wish to navigate it at all.”
“It has its uses, and not everyone is hiding behind a facade, Milly.”
“Forgive me for not realizing they were lying.”
“Who?”
“It matters not, and upon reflection the words were not actually mentioned, only alluded too. And indeed, who am I to care to whom you become engaged.”
“Who indeed,” Joseph said as he pulled the boat to the small platform, where another Viking stood. He held the boat as Joseph climbed out, then took Milly’s hand and helped her.
“Release me, my lord,” she said when he retained her hand.
“No.” Instead he slid her fingers through his.
He walked, and she had to follow, and soon he had taken them away from the formal gardens to a private section, as overhead the trees thickened and formed a canopy with only the occasional flicker of light.
