“Because we our friends?” His lips twitched again.
She frowned at him, no effort made at concealing the reproach in her pretty brown eyes. “Would you hear more?”
He waved his hand. “Of, of course, my lady. Enlighten me.”
“Katherine,” she corrected. “After all, if we are wed, you should refer to me by my Christian name.” She caught her lip between her teeth again. “Or at least I should hope we won’t be the proper English couple who refers to one another by our titles or surnames. Mr. Waincourt,” she said in a clear attempt at a proper, matronly, older woman. “Mrs. Waincourt,” she said, dropping her voice several shades. In her attempt at a deep, masculine tone, her words emerged on a low, husky murmur better reserved for the bedroom.
He swallowed, his eyes unbidden went to her bow-shaped lips, and he tried to tamp down the desire to tug that silly brown bonnet with ivory lace trim from atop her head, toss it aside, and make love to her mouth.
She continued to trouble the plump flesh of that lower lip, the gesture more intoxicating than the most potent spirits. “Though, I suppose it would be Your Grace and Your Grace.” She wrinkled her pert little nose. “That isn’t at all endearing.”
Jasper ran his gaze over her face as he realized for the first time that she was endearing; from her nervous little gestures, to the direct manner with which she spoke, to even that hideous brown bonnet she’d worn since he’d fished her from the Thames.
She blinked up at him. “Ahem.” She coughed into her hand. “I said, ‘ahem’.”
“Do you have something in your throat, my lady?” he schooled his expression to hide all amusement.
Katherine frowned up at him. “It is Katherine. And no, I do not have something in my throat. I was trying to discreetly capture your attention.”
“I should think if you have to explain as much, that your efforts appear unsuccessful.”
“Decidedly so,” she agreed with a nod. She tapped the tip of her boot on the pavement. “Well, what then? Will you wed me or not?”
“I would have to say…or not.” Though Jasper was, for the first time in nearly four years completely and utterly enchanted. And if he had been of the marrying kind, which he was decidedly not, then he would have very gladly accepted the lady’s offer.
Katherine rocked back on her heels. Her expression so crestfallen, that he nearly called the words back, and accepted her hand.
“Oh.” She blinked her wide-brown eyes, giving her the look of an owl. “Well, this is certainly not how I imagined this would go.”
A gust of cold wind whipped that brown ringlet across her cheek; it draped over her mouth. As if of their own volition, his fingers reached up to brush the strand back as he’d longed to do since he’d come upon her alongside the frozen river. “And how did you imagine this would go?” he asked gently.
Her soulful brown eyes met his, and he was struck by the great sadness he saw there. From the moment he’d come upon Katherine Adamson, she’d been fiery, and angry, teasing, and witty, but she’d never been sad. It shouldn’t matter to him.
And yet, it did.
“Katherine?”
She looked out at the river. “Well, you would of course be condescending and mocking, which you of course were.” He stiffened, not at all liking her unfavorable opinion of him. It mattered not that he’d spent four years purposefully crafting the image of an unfeeling bastard. He didn’t like that Katherine saw him in that light. Katherine carried on. “You would have of course, asked the benefits of a marriage to me.”
Again, he imagined her sprawled out upon his bed. “Oh, and what would be the benefits of a marriage to you?” he asked, voice garbled.
Katherine’s eyes lit, and the glimmer of sadness faded. She held a finger up, and then shifted the copy of Wordsworth’s work. She reached inside her reticule and pulled out a note. She held it out.
His brow furrowed. “What is this?”
“A list with all the benefits in marrying me.”
Jasper glanced down at it, staring blankly at the title.
All the Reasons to Wed Lady Katherine
“It isn’t a very clever title,” Katherine prattled on. “It isn’t the title of the list that is important, of course, but rather the contents within the list.”
The page shook in Jasper’s hands.
Katherine’s frown returned. “Are you all right?”
Jasper’s shoulders quaked, and the oddest rumble built within his chest, steadily increasing, until something foreign, something exploded from his lips—laughter. Rusty and hoarse from ill-use. It echoed in the quiet of Hyde Park.