Page 46 of The Nature of a Lady
“You’re right. That’s not big enough. A dinner. A fancy one, with you in a pretty dress.”
She snorted. “In your dreams, Casek Wearne.”
“Every night, my ’ansum.” He turned to his boat and then wentso still that she turned to see what had caught his attention, instead of stomping away like she’d planned.
A boat, its sails a blue that would have matched the sky had it not been heavy with clouds. Small and looking all the smaller for being so far away. “Whose is it?”
“The Hills’.”
She raised a hand to shield her eyes from the gleam of sun off the water, but she hadn’t a prayer of making out from here who was on it. “I thought Mr. Hill’s leg didn’t let him sail anymore.”
“It doesn’t. Must be Perry.”
“Well. Nothing too odd about a boy going out for a bit after a squall, is there?”
“Not at all.” He shifted back to motion so quickly she had to wonder if it was a lie. He took a few steps toward his boat, then pivoted and strode back to her, not stopping until the toes of his boots were nudging her rain-wet shoes. Leaning down, head angled.
She sucked in a breath, too surprised to leap back. Or smack him, as she should have done.
But he halted a few inches away and grinned that wicked little grin at her. “No. Next time, Mabena Moon, you’re going to be the one to kissme.”
She stormed away with a growl. And then, at the top of the hill, cursed herself for not at least leaving him with a parting barb.There will never be a next time. OrThat’s as likely as me growing a tail and becoming amermaid.
Insufferable man. Conceited, arrogant oaf. And her—what was wrong with her, letting him get to her like that, render her speechless?
She pushed into the cottage minutes later, flinging her mackintosh onto a chair and kicking off her sopping shoes with a bit too much force.
“Mabena! What’s wrong?”
What waswrong? She spun toward Libby and waved at the door. “That man!”
Libby sat on the sofa again, the stupid cat curled against her shoulder. “The one you followed? He didn’t hurt you, did he? Or—”
“No.” Blast it. She pulled the tie from the bottom of her braid so she could redo it. The wind and rain and hood had surely done a number on her hair. “No, that bloke just got on the ferry.”
“Then who?”
“Casek Wearne.” She meant to say it with frustration. But she hadn’t expected the exhalation would leave her feeling suddenly shaky. She pulled out one of the kitchen chairs and slumped to a seat.
Libby was there in the next moment, pulling out one of the others. “What did he do?”
“What did hedo?” She squeezed her eyes shut and abandoned the braid in favor of rubbing a hand over her face. “Only all but confessed he was in love with me and then very nearly kissed me, that’s all.”
“Ah.” Libby’s tone was every bit as bemused as her expression, when Mabena dropped her hand and could see it. “How ... terrible of him?”
“It was!” With a groan, she slumped against the table. Never in her life had she imagined having this conversation with Lady Elizabeth Sinclair. Her employer. But then, who else could she ever have told this to? “He kissed me once before. When we were seventeen.”
Libby’s brows pulled tight. “I thought it was the brother you were engaged to. Mr. Gibson mentioned it,” she added when Mabena sat up again.
He never could keep a tale to himself. “It was. This was before.”
“And ... you didn’t like it?”
Sweet Libby. Mabena couldn’t quite help the low chuckle that tickled her throat. “Of course I liked it. It was Casek Wearne. You saw him, didn’t you?”
Her confusion didn’t relent. “Then what was the problem?”
“It wasCasek Wearne.” She shook her head. It wasn’t something she could just explain to an incomer—even when the incomer was Libby. Not all of it, anyway. “They always told me I was wild as the sea, unbridled as the wind. They always told me I’d need someone to ground me. But Casek—he’d never have done that, and I knew it the moment his lips touched mine. He wouldn’t have held me down. He’d have let me fly.”
