He nodded in agreement, his expression pensive.
“I don’t want this, either,” she told him. “It was not my intent.”
“Understood.”
Except shedidwant him.
He stepped back. At last he looked at her. “I’ve never kissed her.” He made the statement as if it explained everything, and then added, “She is a good person.”
“And the matrons want her to stay in the village.”
His golden eyes darkened with concern. “I’ve always been an outsider until I came to Maidenshop. You know Miss Taylor’s story?”
“That she was found as a babe on the parsonage doorstep in a basket.”
He nodded. “Of course you have heard it. Everyone knows it. All her life she has beenthat one. I understand what she is up against because I wasthat one.” Then he said quietly, “I had no right to touch you.”
“Yes,” she agreed, a heavy sadness coming down upon her. “It was the moment,” she suggested. “Just a passing moment.”
Averygoodmoment.
“Gemma—”
She held up a hand to cut him off. “Let’s not make it seem more than it is.” Her words seemed heavy in the world around them.
His expression falling into lines of gentlemanly politeness. “Of course.”
There. They were done.
She lifted the reins but then had one more thought. “You may hold your lecture at The Garland.”
His expression changed to gratitude. “Thank you, Gemma. Thank you.”
“There is one condition.”
He tensed, wary. “Yes?”
“You must invite the women. Men aren’t the only ones interested in the goings-on of the world or the cosmos. Besides, I’d pit my intelligence against one of the Dawson lads any day.”
That made him laugh.
And in that moment, when he was pleased, when he was trusting her... she realized she could fall in love with him.
The idea rose unbidden in her mind.Shecould fallin lovewithhim.
But she mustn’t. She couldn’t.
If anyone learned that they’d kissed, thatshe’d likedthat kiss, well, the matrons would protect Clarissa—whom Gemma considered a friend.
“I need to go back,” she said. Her voice sounded strained, a combination of both being around him and realizing she could never have him.
“Yes.” He didn’t sound happy himself. “This is it, right?”
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand him. “If we care for Clarissa.”
He nodded, then stepped back. “Go, Hippocrates. Take her home.”
The horse gave himself a shake as if he’d been sleeping. He chewed the bit a second and thentook a step toward the road, when the doctor suddenly put up a hand and stopped him.
