Sweet heaven.” She swallowed back a lump in her throat. “You must do this all the time. Night after night, you tell women your tale of woe . . .” “Not really. The tale of woe precedes me.” “ . . . and then they just open their arms and lift their skirts for you. ‘Come, you poor, sweet man, let me hold you’ and so forth. Don’t they?” He hedged. “Sometimes.
Tessa DareWith a snap of linen, she shot him a look. “Smote?”
“Grammatically speaking, I think the word you want is ‘smote.’ ”
“Scientifically speaking, the word I want is ‘extinct.’ Ammonites are extinct. They’re only known to us in fossils.”
“And bedsheets, apparently.”
“You know . . .” She huffed
At times like these, patience came at a premium.
Tessa DareThis Sir Alisdair fellow.” Her cheeks blushed crimson. “I’m just saying, he’s likely older than Francine. And less attractive.”
“I don’t care! I don’t care if he’s ancient and warty and leprous and hunchbacked. He would still be learned, intelligent. Respected and respectful. He would still be a better man than you. You know it, and you’re envious. You’re being cruel to me to soothe your pride.” She looked him up and down with a contemptuous glare. “And you’re going to catch flies in your mouth, if you don’t shut it.”
For once, Colin found himself without words. The best he could do was take her advice and hoist his dropped jaw.
It was a sense of privilege and mute wonder, as though he’d witnessed one of those small, everyday miracles of spring. Like a licked-clean foal taking its first steps on wobbly legs. Or a new butterfly pushing scrunched, damp wings from a chrysalis.
Tessa DareAfter spending all of her girlhood fervently wishing she could run away from home— she’d actually done it.
Tessa DareWe have the oddest conversations.”
“I find this conversation more than odd. It’s positively shocking.”
“Why? Because I understand the principle of a logarithm? I know you’re used to speaking to me in small, simple words, but I did have the finest education England can offer a young aristocrat. Attended both Eton and Oxford.”
“Yes, but . . . somehow, I never pictured you earning high marks in maths.
So there’s an . . . an etiquette to raking. Some seducer’s code of honor. Is this what you’re telling me?
Tessa DareThank you,” she forced herself to say. “I would be most . . . relieved.” He led her to the floor, where they queued up for the country dance. “Relieved?” he murmured with amusement. “Ladies usually find themselves ‘delighted’ or ‘honored’ to dance with me. Even ‘thrilled.’ ” She shrugged helplessly. “It was the first word that came to mind.
Tessa DareThis is the normal way with birthdays, see? Amazingly enough, they arrive on the same day, every year.
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