“’Twould seem that way.”
“Then I am your enemy.”
“In theory.”
“I had not heard of you before this day. What I was told was quite unflattering.”
“To you or to me?”
She looked at him. “To you, of course. I was told that you are not only the king’s protector, but that you assist him in his… his dastardly and distasteful deeds. Everyone is afraid of you. Is this true?”
He drew in a long, deep breath. Thoughtfully, he gazed up at the sky. “It is far more complicated than that. Politics always are.”
“But you are kind to me. I do not fear you even though I am told that I should. Why are you kind to me?”
“Because you were kind to me.”
She stopped walking, lifting her hands in a confused gesture. “How would you know that? I only met you this afternoon. I said but a few sentences to you.”
He looked down at her, so diminutive and sweet against his massive size. “It wasn’t what you said, but how you said it. Your manner was kind.”
There was something in his expression, barely perceptible, that brought her an odd sense of pity. “You are unused to people being kind to you.”
His reply was to lift an eyebrow. When he put his elbow out, this time, she took it. They resumed their walk.
“I suppose there are those that would call me foolish for even speaking to you,” she said.
He was enjoying the feel of her on his arm. It had been ages since he’d last experienced such satisfaction. “Absolutely.”
“And if my family were to see me at this moment, I would be in for a row.”
He glanced at her. “They will not beat you, will they?”
She met his gaze. “That is a strange question coming from a man…”
“Of my reputation.”
She smiled sheepishly. “I should have worded that more carefully.”
He just smiled at her and they resumed their walking in silence. Sheridan was beginning to grow cold in spite of her assertion that she was immune to such a thing.
“You did not answer my question,” she said.
“What question was that, my lady?”
“If a man of your reputation were to take your daughter on an unescorted walk, what would you do?”
“Kill him.”
He wasn’t joking. She knew from the tone of his voice that he had never been more serious. It wasn’t a boast, but a fact.In that statement, she could see that everything Jocelin had told her about him was true. He was a man of deeds bred of evil. Still, she did not sense that Sean was an evil man. In their first meeting and now their second, she had never received such an impression.
But the mood threatened to grow odd and strained. She did not want that. Instead, she chose to make light of his comment.
“Do you plan to kill yourself, then?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “Nay, my lady. I intend to behave as a chivalrous knight should.”
She stopped walking again and looked at him with the utmost seriousness. “Sir Sean, you have been nothing but chivalrous since our first meeting this afternoon. And for saving my sister, I will always show you kindness no matter… well, no matter what our politics.”
