be with him, and her pride.
“I-I only just arrived.”
“Come with me, Alex. Join me. Listen to what I have to say and if at the end, you feel the same way you do now, then I will get in my carriage and make the long journey back to London.”
Her eyes studied his face, seeming to search for the sincerity of his promise.
“Do you promise? Or is this another lie?”
He flinched. “Just a walk. Meet me by the stables.”
With each step she took, the pads of her slippers tapped a soft, rhythmic echo against the floor and in her mind. Mad-mad, mad-mad . “You are mad, Alexandra,” she muttered under her breath.
First, it was madness to consider a walk in the frigid winter air with a sky threatening snow. Second, it was madness to consider a walk in the frigid winter air with a sky threatening snow beside the man who’d broken her heart. In spite of the hundreds of other rational excuses she could muster, Alexandra continued her course through Danby Castle. The silence surrounded her, eerily crypt-like.
After an hour of telling herself she would not meet Nathan in the stables—that he could sit there all night and rot—after bathing, paying far too particular attention to the gown she selected, and brushing her hair back into a simple, silken plait, she could now acknowledge the truth—she must see him.
She told herself she had merely agreed to see him because she wanted him gone from the grounds. Told herself she wanted to rail at him for the pain and humiliation he’d wrought on her life.
But she hadn’t convinced herself. For against all better reason she simply wanted to see him.
Alexandra pushed open the kitchen doors, one of the more discreet exits leading to the stables, and met the two dozen pairs of eyes of startled servants hard at work in the kitchen.
Apparently not so discreet.
With a flush staining her cheeks, she cleared her throat. “Good afternoon, uh, just continue with what you were doing,” she urged.
All two dozen pairs of eyes quickly fell away, returning to their work, but the curiosity had been there.
Wonderful. How much time before Mother learned of her escapade? On the heels of that thought was the defiant part of her. What did it matter? Her reputation was already in tatters.
In fact, there was something oddly freeing in having a reputation that didn’t need caring for. Alexandra threw her shoulders back and marched proudly through the kitchen.
She stepped outside and the day’s cold embrace enfolded her. She shivered, tugging her sapphire velvet cloak closer, and marched towards the stables, her brisk movements setting the fabric fluttering.
A wisp of snow drifted down and landed upon her nose, bringing her feet to a halt. Inhaling deeply of the crisp, clean winter air she tipped her head back and became lost in the shower of flakes raining down silently from their place in the sky. She loved the snow. It was clean, quiet, and the flakes so innumerable she’d always been able to lose herself in counting each different flake as they settled to their spot on Earth.
“I didn’t think you would come.”
Alexandra’s eyes flew open and a flake landed on her lid, blurring her vision. She froze. “I’m not a coward.”
Nathan’s jaw set stonily. “I’m not a coward, Alex. A bastard and a fool, but not a coward.” It was the first real indication of emotion she’d seen from him since…since—
“Is this is why you’ve come then, Nathan? To argue the merits of your character? Or have you come to further humiliate me? Only this time in the presence of my entire distinguished family?”
Nathan held his arm out. “Walk with me.”
It wasn’t a question.
She eyed his extended elbow suspiciously. After all, it was the same elbow that had bent as he’d scribbled that blasted wager into the books.
“Never tell me you are, in fact, a coward,” Nathan challenged.
Alexandra gritted her teeth and bit back a retort. “Fine, then.” She slipped her arm into his
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro