Page 100 of Not Quite a Lady
‘Stay still.’ He swung up behind her and kicked the big grey into a canter, away from the mine, over the crest of the hill, down towards a copse of trees that lay a mile distant.
A favourite picnic place, it would be deserted now. Deserted and just the place for the blazing row he was aching for.
Lily was struggling. He fetched her a light slap on the rump. ‘Quiet! You will fall off.’
She retaliated by sinking her teeth into his thigh.
‘Bloody hell!’ Her teeth however sharp, made little impactthrough the thick canvas trousers he was wearing. Jack showed his own in a snarl of exasperation as she continued to struggle.
When the grey plunged into the clearing in the middle of the copse he let her go immediately, so she slid down onto her feet, glaring up at him. The tracks of tears had cut through the dirt and dust on her cheeks.
His heart contracted as though a hand had squeezed it.
‘Bully!’
Jack swung down, dropping the reins. ‘Have you got windmills in your head? How the hell did you get down there?’
‘I’ll not tell you. I tricked them into thinking you approved, but I do not trust you not to sack them, so I will not tell you.’
‘I can well believe you tricked them, you hellion. Do you think I don’t know that? Anyone you deceived has my deepest sympathy. Will you stop at nothing to get what you want?’
‘I cannot have what I want.’ She said it starkly, stopping him in his tracks. ‘I wanted to see the mine because it is so important to you. I wanted to understand. That is all.’
‘And do you understand?’ Jack knew his voice was harsh. He cleared his throat against the obstruction that seemed to be filling it.
‘Yes.’ Lily said it quietly. ‘It is the land again, isn’t it? You love all of it, rock-deep. You have to be born to it, I think, so it is difficult for someone who is not, but I do think I understand now.’
‘Why do you need to?’ He began to move towards her again, not realising just how threatening he must look with his black-grimed face and the heavy coat swirling around him until she took several steps backwards.
A tree at her back stopped her. She shook her head, watching him silently.
‘I cannot be indifferent to you, Lily. I tried to be just a friend, but I cannot.’ He was right in front of her now. Jack restedboth hands on the thick oak trunk, trapping her as he had in the Long Gallery. He had mishandled that spectacularly. Now he had frightened her so that she wanted to run away from him.
‘I am sorry. It was kind of you to try. I realise I make you very angry.’
Finesse deserted him, he just said what he felt. ‘Do you realise I love you more than I have ever loved anything or anyone, Lily? Do you realise that?’
He did not know what to expect. A slapped face. Anger. Chilly rejection. Instead she went white under the dirt and closed her eyes.
He thought he stopped breathing.
The wide, glorious green eyes opened again, slowly. ‘No. I had not realised that.Oh, Jack!’
Her arms went round his neck and she was pulling his head down, lifting her face for his kiss. He braced his shoulders, holding her back just an inch from his lips.
‘Do you mean you love me? Lily?’
‘Of course I love you, you thick-skulled aristocrat! Do you think I go around proposing to men I do not love?’
‘I have no idea,’ Jack said, finding his mouth was curving into a smile. ‘I find I have no idea whatsoever what you might do, Lily my love.’
‘If you don’t kiss me soon, I think I might just faint.’ Lily thought she would anyway.
Things seemed to be spinning, she had no idea if it were possible to be this happy and live, her back felt as though she had been beaten all over with meat-tenderising hammers and every cell in her body wanted Jack.
‘Iloveyou.’
Jack’s mouth on hers was hot, hard, as desperate as hers as she strained into him, her fingers frantic as they clung to hisshoulders. He was like a rock, her rock.
