Page 54 of An Accidental Romance

“I’m glad to hear it,” Rebecca retorted. “Perhaps, then, you’ll be more hospitable to him when he attends the celebration for Susan and the Duke of Aylesham.”

“Point taken,” Thomas said. “Now, what is this I just learned about my youngest brothers teaching you to ride a horse like aman?” He glared at Lucas.

“I cannot believe you rodeastrideto call upon Lord Winton—and with a broken ankle only partially healed,” Lucas exclaimed. “Or that you actually told him Simon and I taught you.”

“Don’t worry, Lucas,” Rebecca said. “I’m certain he holdsmemore accountable for my actions than he holdsyou.”

“You weren’t actually supposed to ride astride after you grew up,” Lucas said. He turned to Thomas. “We only taught her to ride because she insisted on going with us wherever we went. She was a child at the time, and Simon and I weren’t much more than that. I’d completely forgotten I had even done it. Children are allowed a bit of foolishness that adults are not.”

“Indeed,” Thomas said as he held the door open for her. “You are not a child, Rebecca, and should have known better.”

Children are allowed a bit of foolishness. Rebecca reflected on Lucas’s words as she hobbled into the house and up the stairs to her bedroom.Children are, but adults are not.

Thomas was right—she wasn’t a child, but she’d behaved like one. Perhaps having to wait a few years before coming out in Society had kept her too childlike, too impulsive and naive. Perhaps she needed to experience more of Society before considering an attachment to any gentleman, she thought glumly. That meant waiting until next Season.

Perhaps by then, Ben might have healed from the wounds his first marriage had inflicted upon him.

“I want you in my life—and I don’t.”

Or perhaps they wouldn’t have healed even by next year.

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