“You are also an ass. You’re the one who kissed me, you overgrown oaf.” Her hands came up and flattened against his chest, but the fire in her eyes had alerted him and her shove came to naught.
He tsked. “Now, now, Lady Rebecca. Such language is not becoming in a young woman. While you are not quite duchess material, I’m sure we can come to some sort of understanding.” Who knew taunting her could afford him suchfun?
He hadn’t thought she could look more bewildered. He was wrong. Her bewilderment shifted and she glared at him with a burning, scalding fury. Her gaze surveyed the area before coming back to rest on him. “Perhaps you should continue your lecture on my inappropriate behavior when it comes to my children, Your Grace. I don’t believe you were quite finished berating me for shoving that beast in the mud when he threatened my… my son.”
Of course he should. How had he gotten so off course? “That man could have smashed you into the ground. I vow, I’ve never seen anyone so stubborn or careless of her own well-being.”
Sadly, she moved back, planting her hands on her hips, leaving him an excellent view of a perfectly formed décolleté. Her entire body shook with the depths of her outrage in short rapid breaths. “Don’t you think I know that?” she said harshly. “When I saw that bastard standing over Owen, I—”
“Tsk, tsk. Again with the language, my lady.” This was exactly why she was all wrong for him. Yet, in her presence he felt so…alive.
Sebastian moved behind her, catching the subtle scent of lavender. Whether it was her skin or her hair, he couldn’t say, but his lips tingled with another unbidden desire. To press them against the side of her neck. To suckle, to nibble. “Please, my lady, I apologize. Of course, your first thought was for your—” he stopped, turned her to face him, and cocked his head to one side. “Did you just call PercyOwen?”
Her entire body stiffened. Like a feline threatened with a bath. She stalked away from him. “That’s his… his middle name. It’s one of affection. No one else refers to him as Owen but me.” Her defensive posture spoke more loudly than her words.
Curious. He caught up her hand and tucked it once again within his arm, tugging her to his side. It wasn’t the kiss he inexplicably craved, but keeping her at his side would have to do for the time being. He did so love a mystery, and one was definitely brewing. With a full day’s ride to Ryleigh Hall, he decided to let her remark go. “Come, you must be famished.”
Unfamiliar,unsafeemotions, similar to one of her father’s volatile chemistry experiments, spiked his blood. Left him feeling somewhat dizzy. He grappled to garner his control. He cleared his throat. “Daniel must have our lunch set up by now. Perhaps you should retrieve the others so we may eat and continue our journey.”
She detangled herself from him.
He’d never met anyone who exasperated or enticed him more. He was renowned for being calm and centered; for his ability to bring order and peace to any situation. He’d learned at the master’s knee. Yet his own father never failed in reminding Sebastian how he was responsible for his friend’s death. Never.
The urge to run attacked him, but rather than pick up his step, he took her arm again. He was a gentleman and would behave as such.
“Is something wrong?” Rebecca’s voice, filled with concern, broke through his self-recriminations that sent another current of exasperation bolting through him.
With considerable effort, he swallowed an impulse to lash out. It irked him to realize his own thoughts would be the catapult for his ability to limit some ridiculous bit of sentiment he refused to label. It didn’t matter whether or not anyone knew how close he was to an unexplainable edge.Heknew, and it was unacceptable. He needed the upper hand. “No,” he gritted out.
He kept his gaze on the path before them, but he felt the weight of hers bearing down on him.“Are you sure? You seem upset.”
Sebastian stopped short of the blue and white checkered blanket Daniel had laid out on the ground. “I’m perfectly fine. As I said, perhaps you should retrieve—”
“We’re right here, sir.”
Sebastian glanced over. There was heat in his face but he put it down to his and Rebecca’s quick return. Not the too observant gazes of two young boys: one wide-eyed; the other, suspicious and narrowed on Sebastian’s hold on Rebecca’s arm.
Daniel had found a picture-perfect location under a massive tree. The maid hurried over to hold the blanket in place for Daniel to set a large basket down on one corner.
Rebecca threw her shoulders back, lifted her chin and stalked over. “Come along, boys. If I’m hungry, I’m certain you must be.”
Percy, the one not scowling at Sebastian, quickly followed Rebecca, the dog, obviously feeling better, right on Percy’s heels. Peter’s hands were tightened into fists. He looked ready to call Sebastian out.
Sebastian stood back, waiting until the rest of the party was seated, then released a sigh. He’d botched his entire conversation with Rebecca. A frequent occurrence where she was concerned, he was quickly learning.
Rebecca took on the duties of hostess and lifted the basket’s top. She shooed the boys back with good natured teasing. Something he hadn’t expected. She handed out glasses and turned the wine and water carafes over to him. Plates came next. She set out food of cold chicken, hard cheese, fruit, and a loaf of bread and dished it out. To Sebastian’s utmost amusement, she served Daniel and her maid first.
Sebastian lifted a brow.
She took on her haughtiest tone. “They’ve worked harder than any of the rest of us,” she said by way of explanation.
Sebastian studied the group surrounding him, starting with the maid. She was definitely not a tutor or governess. At least not for these boys. In fact, it seemed as if she carefully deferred to Rebecca on everything when it came to her children. From what they could eat to how they behaved. The most puzzling aspect from Sebastian’s perspective, was Rebecca. Despite her amazing confidence, even she seemed unsure of how to behave with her own children. As if she didn’t really know them well.
In most circumstances, and for most of the nobility, that was not so out of character, except Rebecca wasn’t married. Had the children been away at school or with a paid and aging couple who couldn’t have children of their own? That wasn’t out of the norm, he imagined. But why would she have them with her now? Perhaps the caretakers were now unable to care for them. That didn’t sit right either. She didn’t strike him as the sort of person who sloughed off her own responsibility. She would meet her challenges head-on. Just as she had that degenerate who’d come after Percy in the stable yard.
This image did not converge with his previous one of ensnaring Gabriella in another one of Rebecca’s hair-brained schemes. Sebastian forced himself to consider the woman and her children with determined detachment.
There was a lack of intimacy missing between them. Oh, certainly the boys were well enough behaved, their manners almost flawless. Rebecca didn't allow them much in the way of being out of her sight and she was quite strict. Actually, now that he thought of it, he would almost swear the boys and their mother tip-toed equally about one another.
