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‘I agreed to the kiss, so I was clearly instrumental in putting us in this position. I don’t want you imagining that I kissed you to force you into a proposal that you had hitherto no intention of making.’

He was quiet. Clearly thinking about her words.

‘Were you intending to propose?’

‘Well, no.’ He was clearly stunned enough to be honest, and it made Eliza smile even if her heart was a little bruised by his bluntness.

‘You are remarkably good at kissing,’ she said.

His lips twitched into a small smile despite his distress. It heartened her so she continued distracting him. ‘I’ve never kissed anyone before. I am conscious that I might not be terribly good at it.’

His head came up and his eyes widened. ‘Good God, Eliza, if you were any better at kissing, I would have expired on the spot.’

She stared, then laughed holding her flaming cheeks in her hands. He hesitated but then laughed with her, before scrubbing his hands over his face.

‘Eliza, I don’t know what to say. Are you sure you don’t want me to…’ He gestured with his free hand and shuffled his feet. ‘I wouldn’t mind.’

She moved closer and took his hand in hers. ‘Perhaps… perhaps we should just see how things develop between us,’ she said. ‘I do like you an awful lot and I have enjoyed your company enormously, but I don’t think we should get ahead of ourselves.’

He swallowed and nodded. ‘We forget this happened?’

‘Good lord, no. I’m not that good at dissembling,’ she said, taking hold of his arm, and moving them further along the path.

‘You are a remarkable woman, Eliza Courtney.’

She glanced up at him with a small smile. ‘If not a little mysterious.’

He grinned, then laughed unreservedly.

She laughed with him and realised that there was nothing quite so satisfying as making Robert Ellice of the ferocious scowls laugh.

Chapter 36

HARYO

London

Harriet watched Eliza and the Lieutenant Colonel. Eliza looked starry, and the Lieutenant Colonel had the dazed look of a man who has lost all powers of speech.

‘What’s going on there?’ she asked her brother.

Hart, infuriating soul that he was, shook his head. ‘No idea,’ he said with a look of exaggerated innocence.

‘Wretch,’ she murmured. ‘Do you think the elder Ellice will offer for Lady Hannah?’

‘Wouldn’t surprise me.’

‘I think they make a good pair.’

‘I think Eliza and the good Lieutenant Colonel will make a good pair too.’

Harriet looked at her brother. ‘You don’t think she should aim higher? What are his prospects? Isn’t he a second son?’

‘He is, but a very successful second son, and from an extremely successful family. Very wealthy to boot. All of them are.’

‘Hmm,’ Harriet offered in a non-committal way. In fairness, given the speculation that was swirling about Eliza, she was not sure exactly how high she could aim, but she wanted to be sure that her friend made the absolute most of her season.

‘What about you? Have you accepted Granville yet?’