“Love at first sight?” Audrey shot back, her smile softening into a real one.
Molly groaned. “Now you’re teasing me. But truly—was it your first conversation when you suspected you might suit each other?”
Audrey hesitated. “Yes, I suppose it was.” Theoretically, that was true—she’d known she had to ask for his help. Maybe she suspected all along that he was trustworthy.
And now he’d saved her life.
“Have you—” Molly broke off, and she sounded most hesitant. “Has he … kissed you?”
“Oh, no, he has been most proper,” Audrey insisted.
“I am sorry for that.”
“I am, too,” Audrey said, trying to play her part.
Molly lowered her voice. “But he wants to kiss you, I can tell.”
Right then, Audrey almost told her the truth, but something held her back. No one must know, not until she was safe.I am playing a part,she told herself again. “How do you know he wants to kiss me?”
“I can just … tell. He doesn’t have to hide his feelings when he looks into your face, like a man would with a sighted woman. And the way he held you—like he didn’t want to let you go.”
“I hope so,” Audrey had to say, even though it wasn’t true. He was playing his part, too.
He’d better be, because Audrey would never allow herself to have more with a man. Not ever again, no matter what he felt like or how he smelled—or how he might kiss.
Not that she was planning to find out.
“Welcome to Hedgerley,”Robert said, late the next morning.
Audrey clapped her hands together. “My new village—my home.”
“Let me describe it to you, miss,” Molly said with excitement.
“Are you sure you’re up to it?”
Molly had been in pain last night, and Audrey knew she hadn’t slept well. She’d dozed the several-hour journey, though, and was sounding better.
“I could describe it,” Robert offered.
Both women hesitated.
“You think I cannot?”
Audrey was starting to think he could do anything he wanted—he’d gotten her away from her father, he’d saved her from a thief, and now he’d brought her to her own home.
“Shall we allow it just this one time, Molly?” she asked.
Molly heaved a dramatic sigh. “Just this once.”
“With that kind of belief,” he began dryly, “I shall commence. I see a village green. And there’s a church on the far side with a pointed steeple.”
“A green and a church,” Audrey said dubiously. “Do not strain your creativity so.”
“The straight facts are important in the army,” he insisted. “But I shall try to go deeper. The church is made of stone, with ivy climbing.”
“Better, milord,” Molly encouraged.
“I do believe I see the sign of a tavern, which it seems I will soon need the benefits of.”
