He fought a fresh grin. She kept surprising him, although he wasn't sure why. If she had survived that awful school she'd been condemned to, especially as an orphan, she had to have her share of grit.
Pip had filled him in on the draconian conditions that had existed until his spitfire of a cousin had fomented rebellion. The girls had been sent for their safety to the most unsafe place in Britain. And Felicity would have been caught dead center without even the protection of a family. It once again occurred to Flint to wonder why.
“MissChambers,” he corrected, knowing damn well Billy Burke had a big grin on his face where he was perched up behind. “How about we put a two-week deadline on our little mission?”
“Yourmission,” she corrected, eyes straight ahead, hands clasped in her lap.
He wanted to smile again. Most people new to his driving would have been clutching the railing like a drowning person. Felicity seemed perfectly comfortable swaying with the motion as if she were seated on a ship in high water. He was impressed.
“Well,” he said, his own attention back on Mack and Jack as the horses threw up their heads at an urchin who chose that moment to dart into the street.
“Here now, lads,” he calmed them, pulling them out of the way.
The child skidded to a stop and shot Flint a cheeky grin and a tip of his disreputable cap. The horses snorted at the boy as if he had earned their disgust. Alongside him Flint heard a breathy little chortle and felt a bit better. At least she wasn't weeping.
“As I was saying,” he said, easing the reins a bit as they reached the edge of town to give the horses their heads. He didn't like it that he still hadn't escaped the shadow of that bloody bell tower. Did everyone in this town feel judged, as if God were glowering down at them?
“As you were saying,” Felicity prompted.
“Yes. As I was saying. We both have a mission. Mine is to try to talk you into marrying me...”
“Because of your high regard for me.”
He chuckled. “Keep showing me such sass, and I will have a very high regard for you. You should know Pip is my favorite cousin, and you remind me of her a bit.”
Next to him, Felicity seemed to slump a bit.
“She is well?” she asked, sounding more tentative than she had since he'd met her. “I haven't been able to...well...”
He shot her a quick look to see the sadness in her rich brown eyes. “Difficult for a teacher in a young ladies' academy to mingle with theton?”
She shrugged. “Pip would have it otherwise, but you know Pip.”
He smiled again. “Pip invited Brady the gardener to her come-out ball. She even danced with him, much to the chagrin of both her mother and my mother.”
Finally, he got a smile out of her, and it was a beauty, sparkling and sharp.
“She considers Brady to be more of a good influence than most of her family.”
“Probably for good reason. We're a rather reprehensible lot.”
There was a brief, sudden silence. “Probably not the way you want to convince a girl to marry you.”
He shrugged. “You've known all along what kind of family we are. It's not exactly a surprise.”
“True.” She sighed. “Why, then, should I trust you enough to put my future into your hands?”
“Why? Because I am a nonpareil, of course.”
“An excellent thing to be if I were a horse.”
“Top of the trees.”
“Botany bores me.”
“Well-breeched.”
“Only if you marry me.”
