“But as you’re considering stepping back from instructing, you’ll have time to become engage with that movement again,” Seth pointed out.
She smiled. “I know, but to return to your mother, I feel that I should probably tell you that she took it upon herself earlier to give me some pointers when it comes to kissing.”
It took a great deal of effort to keep his mouth from dropping open. “Do I want to know why my mother decided to give you pointers on kissing?”
“Probably not, but I’m going to tell you anyway because it might be for the best if we act as a team since mothers with matchmaking on their minds can be persistent.” She leaned closer to him. “Louisa believes that a first kiss between a couple is meant to happen in the most romantic of settings because one only experiences that first kiss once.”
“And she gave you that pointer because ...?”
“She thought we’d shared a moment earlier today, and a moment that might have had both of us thinking about kissing.”
He cocked his head to the side as the moment she was obviously referring to sprang to mind. “Wereyou thinking about kissing before?”
“Wereyou?”
“I’ve been thinking about kissing you since I became enthralled with the symmetry of your face months ago,” he heard pop out of his mouth before he could stop the words.
She blinked. “I was not expecting you to say that.”
He blinked right back at her. “Because you’ve never thought about kissing me before?”
“Of course I’ve thought about it, and more than once, the last time being when you told me that you named the donkey.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh.”
Satisfaction began flowing through his veins. “It seems to me then that we’ve both been doing a bit of thinking about kissing.”
“It does seem as if that is the case.”
A charged silence settled over them as they simply stared at each other, until Seth moved closer to her right as she moved closer to him, and...
The sound of Harriet chattering in a frantic sort of way wafted to them, interrupting the moment they’d almost shared, that moment turning downright unsalvageable when Harriet scampered into view, clutching something undoubtedly stolen in her hand, which exactly explained why two men bolted into view as well, a pistol gripped in one of the man’s hands.
Twenty-One
The very idea that Charlie and Howard—men who spent their lives hunting poor, defenseless birds—were now threatening a monkey who’d seen more than her fair share of abuse had Annaliese reaching for her pistol.
Racing after the men who were now standing underneath the tree Harriet had scampered up, Annaliese’s heart skipped a beat when Charlie fired his pistol into the tree. To her relief, Harriet immediately began chattering, but the terror mixed in with the chattering sent fury coursing through Annaliese’s veins.
Not wanting to give Charlie an opportunity to take another shot at Harriet, Annaliese raised her pistol toward the sky and pulled the trigger, the blast leaving Charlie and Howard freezing on the spot, until Charlie turned ever so slowly around.
“Lose the pistol,” she snapped as she aimed hers at Charlie, who dropped the pistol to the ground before raising his hands into the air.
“Pippin, guard it,” she said, an order that left Pippin climbing down Annaliese’s arm and gamboling over to the pistol, crouching down once she reached it where she immediately bared her little ferret teeth at Charlie.
“Ain’t never seen a ferret take commands before,” Charliemuttered, taking a step backward when Pippin sent a growl his way.
“Ferrets are incredibly intelligent, quite like many animals, including birds,” Annaliese said. “Perhaps if either of you ever took the time to view them as anything other than a way to earn an income, you’d understand their true value and abandon the plume trade, as well as realize it was beyond unacceptable to take a shot at Harriet.”
Charlie frowned. “I told you why I’m in the trade, and I wasn’t shooting to hit, ah, Harriet. I just wanted the monkey to return the cross she snatched from around my neck.”
“And you thought Harriet would, what? Climb out of that tree when a man was shooting at her?”
“It was worth a try, but how do you suggest we get my cross back?”
“Before you shot at her, I would have simply asked her to hand it over. Now, though, since you’ve terrified her, I’m not feeling inclined to ask her to do anything.”
