Page 18 of To Bed the Bride
“Where are the sheep?” she asked.
“They’re being tended to,” he said. “Is that what you’ve come to ask? I didn’t see you as someone who loved sheep, Miss Craig.”
“I just thought a shepherd tended to his sheep,” she said. “Not papers.”
“Am I to infer that you think shepherds can’t read? Or write?”
That sounded rather priggish, didn’t it?
“No, of course not. What you do with your time is not my business. I’m here about something that is my concern, however.”
She thrust the basket at him. Bruce sat there, tongue lolling out, looking as happy as any creature she’d ever seen.
When the shepherd didn’t reach out to take the basket, she pushed it against his chest.
“How dare you give me a puppy. I don’t like dogs.”
“You don’t like Peter and Paul, but I thought you might feel differently about a puppy.”
“You can’t simply make choices for people you don’t know.”
“You’re right. I can’t. Yet you reminded me of a little boy who felt the same way about dogs until his uncle gave him a puppy one day. The puppy needed a friend and so did the boy.”
He could not charm her. She wouldn’t allow it. “I don’t need a friend.”
“Have you so many, then?” he asked with a smile. “Can’t you use one more?”
“I don’t like dogs,” she repeated.
“Neither did the little boy, but he decided, after a while, that perhaps they weren’t so bad. The puppy had already decided, you see, that the boy would be his forever.”
He put the papers down and took the basket finally, smiling at Bruce and ruffling his ears. “And he was, for many years.”
“Are you talking about yourself?”
“I am indeed. This little guy needed a home. I thought you might give him one.”
“You made a great many assumptions.”
“I agree. I did. Forgive me for that. I simply saw you as a kind person.”
“I am a kind person,” she said, irritated that he made her sound terrible.
“Who doesn’t like dogs.”
“Who are you? Don’t try to tell me you’re a shepherd. I don’t believe it.”
“Why not?”
She stared at him. “What do you mean, why not?”
“I think I made an adequate shepherd, Miss Craig. I moved the sheep where I was told to move them. I didn’t suffer any losses. The dogs obeyed me. Why don’t you believe I’m a shepherd?”
“Well, are you?” she asked, frowning at him.
“While I think the occupation is an honorable one, I am not.”
“Then who are you?”
