Page 34 of A Scot's Pride
“Is that how the two of you became friends?” she asked. “A boyhood friendship forged in one’s shyness versus another’s aggressively overconfident nature?”
Bryson burst out laughing. “Is that how ye see me? Aggressively overconfident?”
She shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
“Feels a little loose,” he said, wiggling one foot and then the other.
“What would you call it then?” She started to walk again, and he kept pace beside her.
“Confidence is not something that should be despaired but admired. And I do have confidence—in most things. Only one person ever made me feel anything but confident.” He skimmed his eyes over her.
“Who is that?” She raised a brow as if she didn’t believe him.
“Ye, Miss Freya.”
Freya’s mouth fell open in shock. Then she let out a laugh that could have scared off the birds, for it was so loud. “You expect me to believe that?” She shook her head. “I’d say you had a sense of humor, but I’ve spent more than five minutes with you and know the difference.”
He blew an exaggerated whistle. “That stings, lass.”
“Now you know the feeling.”
Bryson grinned and winked at her. “Touché.”
Freya blushed and looked away, her gaze on the tiny figure ahead. With a sigh, she said, “What are we to do with the two of them?”
“We are to do nothing.”
“You don’t want to meddle?”
Bryson shook his head. “No’ in the slightest.”
“Hmm.”
“What does ‘hmm’ mean?” he asked.
“You say you won’t meddle, yet you are here. You say you won’t meddle, yet the two of you had that bet going on.” She gave him a look that said he’d better figure himself out.
Bryson sighed. “Ye’re right. I am meddling.”
Freya laughed. “Are you staying with Ashbury?”
“I am no’.”
“Ah, so there is progress in your backing off your meddling ways.”
“Did ye think I should watch him as a governess might?” he teased.
“I’m not certain you’d make a good governess, to be honest. Though imagining you in a dress is giving me quite a giggle.”
“And why would I no’ make a good governess?” Bryson chuckled.
“I think you’ve the right demeanor, stoic and all that, and you certainly would like to take a ruler to someone’s knuckles, and you do read books, so you must be learned. Now that I think of it, you would make a good governess. Perhaps it is the dress that is the hold up for me.”
Bryson groaned. “Is this my punishment? That ye torment me?”
Freya turned around to face him, walking backwards as she did it. “I think it’s a rather good one. Shall I continue?”
Bryson couldn’t help his smile. Freya had a gleam in her eyes as she looked up at him, and her lips curved, showing genuine delight. If teasing him was the punishment he deserved for having hurt her feelings, then he was more than willing to take it if it would bring them back to where they’d been before that.
