She shrugged. “Your resolve makes me uncomfortable.”
“You do not find determination a good trait?”
“Normally I do. I just don’t understand yours.”
“I believe that with time, you will.”
Calstone chuckled. “It took me a while to warm up to our Leeds here as well.” Another clap on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, even if you used up all your capital and called in all your favors, I still have some clout.”
Will nodded. He hadn’t called inallhis favors yet, and he might become the laughingstock of England, but it did not matter. Let him go down in history as a lovelorn fool. He would walk into the bowels of hell to protect this woman and spend the rest of his life attempting to win her heart.
“But first,” Calstone went on. “I won’t be happy until I have shoes, a hot meal, and a soft bed. I can barely feel my arms.”
Harriet scoffed. “Your requirements for happiness are quite simple.”
Calstone laughed. “Yours aren’t?”
Will glanced over to Harriet.
She lifted her shoulders. “I had once thought my requirements to be indeed uncomplicated, but the world has shown me they are actually impossibilities.”
Will frowned. Impossibilities? Did she mean her happiness?
“Oh?” Calstone murmured. “I’m intrigued. What are your requirements?”
Her gaze flicked to Will before averting. “Love.”
Will stiffened.
Who could ever want a boy like you? You can’t even speak properly.The teases of his childhood echoed in his mind before he could shut them out.
Will ruthlessly pushed the memory from his mind.
He was no longer the boy who stuttered to such an extent that he could barely form a coherent sentence. But he could feel his mouth, tongue, and throat tense even as the thought formed in his mind.
His palms broke out in sweat.
He couldn’t speak. The moment he opened his mouth he knew what would happen. He’d humiliate himself.
Snap out of it, man.
Will dragged a hand through his hair. He’d keep on sinking farther into what seemed to be a bottomless pit if this continued.
“Love?” Calstone questioned. He sent a glance at Will “Are there not more important things than love?”
“Such as?” Harriet returned mockingly. “Clothes, a hot meal, and a bed?”
“Why yes, those are basic needs.”
Love is also not an impossibility. I will show you...
He had faith in himself. In her.
“Don’t,” Will stopped to clear his throat, and repeated his sentence in his head before he went on. “Don’t listen to him. He is a simple man with simple needs.”
Calstone shot him an astonished look. “I’ll have you know, I’m an exceptionally complicated man! One with extremely complicated needs!”
“Yes, we have certainly experienced your extraordinarily complicated needs.” Harriet’s chin rose. “In fact, you remind me of Chester, an animal I’m looking after. He, too, has a labyrinth of complicated needs.”
