A Shocking Proposition Read Free Page A

Edward might waylay me, didn’t you?” she said.
    And she was still as quick of thought as she had ever been.
    For a moment Ash hesitated. “He thought about it,” he said. “He
changed his mind when he saw I was with you.”
    “ What? ”
    He’d thought she hadn’t noticed Montfort lurking near the edge
of the town as they drove out. She’d needed all her concentration on her driving
to clear a dray.
    She muttered something under her breath, and paled.
    She feared Montfort?
    “Who is Cally?” he asked.
    Her mouth tightened. “A dairymaid. Who didn’t have anyone
around to defend her when she said no.”
    “I see.” And he did. The world was full of Callys. And
unfortunately full of Montforts. Sadly, not so full of women like Maddy who
would stand by the poor girl. “You’ve taken her in.”
    A short nod.
    “What did your brother say to that?”
    Her shocked expression as she turned to him gave the clue.
    “You didn’t know? But that’s why Edward—” she broke off. “I’m
sorry. Stephen died six months ago.”
    That’s why Edward what? He didn’t like to ask since she hadn’t
volunteered the information. “I’m very sorry,” he said instead. “My
condolences.” A thought occurred to him. “Er, am I still escorting you to
Haydon?”
    A queer expression flashed across her face, gone in an instant.
“Yes. I still live there. Mr. Blakiston said that you are still interested in
Roman antiquities.”
    A change of subject if ever he’d heard one, but he accepted it.
He felt relaxed in a way he hadn’t for a long time. Somehow, talking to Maddy
about the Wall, his summer plans for excavating one of the forts he knew of,
took him back to summer days before he’d gone to war. When Maddy had still worn
her hair down, albeit tied back against the eternal wind that swept the fells.
And those bright-green eyes had been nearly as quick to spot a half-buried
potsherd as his own. He still had the little horse he’d found one day when she
was there. A collector in Rome had wanted to buy it, but he hadn’t been able to
bring himself to part with it.
    They were still talking when they reached the turn off up to
the village of Haydon.
    Maddy halted the gig there, sheltered from the wind’s bite in
the lee of the hedge. “I would invite you up, but it’s getting late. If you
don’t turn back now—” She glanced up at the sky.
    She was right, but the regret that shot through him was a
complete surprise. He wanted to spend more time with her. Find out why she’d
used that odd phrase— I still live there. His jaw tensed—find out why she
feared Montfort. Did he own Haydon now? Somehow Ash didn’t much like the thought
of that.
    “Thank you, for accompanying me home,” she said, holding out
her hand. “Not just because of Edward, but—” She stopped, her face flooding
scarlet.
    Because she had enjoyed his
company? As much as he had enjoyed hers?
    “I’ll see you in the summer if not before,” he said. And
realized that he definitely didn’t want to wait that long. “You won’t mind my
digging on Haydon land again?”
    A queer expression crossed her face. Almost, he thought, it
looked like guilt. “N-no. But we’ll need to discuss it.” She held out her
hand.
    “Of course,” he said. He leaned over to take her gloved hand,
meaning only to say goodbye. For an instant her fingers clung and their eyes
met. Slowly, giving her every chance to pull back, he turned her hand over, palm
up. There, between glove and sleeve, was the merest strip of pale, tempting
skin. Heat a swift rhythm in his blood, he raised her wrist to his mouth and
brushed his lips over the place. Lord, she was soft. Tissue soft, silk soft. His
lips lingered, and he breathed in a new world. Breathed in leather, wool,
lavender and, beneath all that, the underlying fragrance of warm, sweet woman.
For a fleeting instant there was madness, his fingers tightening involuntarily.
And then his brain reengaged, banishing insanity.