Page 58 of A Christmas Temptation for the Duke
“Tommy!” Alison cried out in fear. “Watch out!”
“He’ll be fine,” Daniel chuckled at the antics. “Let him go.”
“What if he falls?”
“I won’t!” Tommy assured them.
“The snow will catch him,” Daniel said. Then, in a most surprising act, he looked past Tommy at the driver. “You heard the lad! Go faster!”
It was the three of them bundled into a sleigh, racing across the snow-covered fields as if trying to outrace the season itself.
Every year the town of Whitehaven rented sleighs to take families and loved ones on rides through the wilderness. Most of the land around them was flat and weighed down in thick snow, providing endless fields for the sleighs to canter and race without fear of obstruction or incident.
The sleigh they rented was pulled by four horses, steered and harried by a single driver. He sat up front, using a whip to push the steeds faster, while the three of them sat back in comfort; they had thick blankets to cover themselves with, warm mead to drink, and a view that was breathtaking.
Alison was happy to wiggle into the deep seat and get comfortable. Daniel sat across from her, as if even now he refused to let her out of his sight. Tommy stood up near the driver, balancing as the sleigh raced, crying for it to go faster than what was safe.
“He’ll be fine,” Daniel said, noting the worry on Alison’s face as she watched Tommy balance.
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“I know a thing or two about looking out for those I care about.”
She frowned at the comment, her chest tightening. “Care about?”
“Tommy,” he said simply, refusing to be tripped up by his own words. “You care for him, no?”
“Oh…” She grimaced. “Well, yes, of course. I would hate to see him hurt himself.”
“As would I.” He looked at her all the while; his stare fixed on her in a way that told without question that he was not speaking of Tommy. “But I promise that no harm will come to him… or anyone else who I care for. I give you my word.”
“I trust you.”
He continued to watch her, and she squirmed in a way that she felt he was aiming for. “It’s about time that you do.”
His smile was sincere, and Alison felt it like a blanket wrapping her body and shielding her from the cold.
They spoke little throughout the rest of the sleigh ride, but their time spent together wasn’t nearly as tense or awkward as it could be. It felt to her like she and Daniel were finally coming to an understanding, a realization that there was no need to keep avoiding one another. And certainly no reason to fight.
But it was the way that he watched her that she noticed the most. As the sleigh raced and as Tommy shouted and as the cool winter winds blew around them, Daniel kept his eyes on her always.
It was then that she realized something else.
Alison did not know what was happening between her and Daniel, if it was anything at all. What she did know was that their relationship had transcended beyond where it started. He did care for her, she knew, but he was wary of their connection. She saw in him someone who was guarded with his emotions, purposefully keeping people at a distance for reasons she could not understand.
And she was the same. That was why they fought. That was why she argued with him. It wasn’t because she hated him, but because it was easier to do than being honest.
I don’t want to fight with him anymore. And I don’t want him to think of me as someone he always needs to be guarded around. What I want is for him to know the real me…
For that reason, when the sleigh ride ended, Alison suggested that she and Daniel take it for a second ride. Tommy had just climbed down, announcing that he needed to be getting home, and before Daniel had a chance to follow, she reached out and touched him on the arm.
“Perhaps another?” she said.
Daniel frowned at her. “Should I call back for Tommy?”
“No.” She made sure to be looking at him. “I was thinking…” The urge to look away seized her, but she fought it off. “That you and I might ride alone. If it pleases you…”
Daniel considered her, and she was certain he was going to turn her down. But he must have seen something in the way that she was looking at him, because he smiled softly and did not fight her. The time for fighting was well passed.
