She hopped up to sit on one of the rails, her legs dangling over the floor.She wore a pair of delicate leather sandals, her toes peeking out from under the hem of her sari.
They were very nice toes, Neil noted distractedly.
“It’s funny, isn’t it?”Constance mused, swinging her perfect toes.“Ten years ago, you were Ellie’s stick-in-the-mud older brother, and I was a pest setting beetles loose in your sock drawer.And now here we are.”
“Here we are?”Neil echoed confusedly.
“Friends,” Constance pressed back impatiently.“Aren’t we?”
Neil wondered absently at her question.Were they friends?
Constance had grown from the danger gnome into an exceptional woman bursting with intelligence, courage, and principle.Neil had become remarkably fond of her in the relatively short time since they had become reacquainted.In fact, she fit into his life so naturally that he found it hard to imagine how he had gone through so many years without her.
Of course, they were friends… even if Neil’s brain occasionally spat up random, awkward thoughts about how pretty she was.
Like now, as the gilded threads of her sari shimmered where they framed the curve of her hips.
Neil yanked his attention from Constance’s hips.“Obviously.Yes.”
The words were a bit lacking after all the extra time it had taken him to answer, so Neil pushed them a bit further.“You know I’m here for you, Connie.”
The response was solidly friendly.
Constance’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully.“It’s funny that you should say that, Stuffy… because as it happens, I need to ask you for a somewhat unusual favor.”
A thrill of warning danced along Neil’s spine.“A favor?”
“Nothing too dramatic, I promise,” Constance quickly assured him.
Neil did not feel very assured—but it would hardly have been friendly of him to admit that.“I’m happy to help.What do you need?”
His attention hitched once more on Constance’s elegant toes.He could glimpse the perfect turn of her ankle above the strap of her sandal.
“Just for us to become engaged for a little while,” Constance replied lightly.
Neil’s thoughts stuck on how Constance’s ankle must necessarily lead to the firm, strong curve of her calf.“What’s that?”he asked blankly.
Then his mind caught up, and the columns of the pavilion tilted dangerously.
Just for us to become engaged.
Constance hopped down from the rail.“Not for real, of course.We’d only be pretending—but at least that would stop my family from throwing suitors at me.They are determined that I must marry before my next birthday, which is only four months away, as you know perfectly well.”
“November twelfth,” Neil blurted out automatically.His head was still spinning as he struggled to absorb Constance’s words.
A pretend engagement.Between him and Constance.
The spinning burned away in a rush of righteous indignation.“Hold on—determinedthat you will marry?What does that mean, exactly?”
Constance didn’t seem to hear him.“And now it appears that Aai has decided to take sides in the matter.You know how Aai gets when she has set her mind to something.She is terrifyingly effective.But if I’m able to convince the family that I’m already getting married, it would give me time to think of a more permanent way to diffuse the situation.”
“But what are they threatening to do?”Neil’s voice rose.“Marry you off to the next bounder who comes along?”
Constance arched a brow at the blazing heat in his tone.“I don’t believe that’s precisely what they have in mind.”
“Then what the devildothey have in mind?”Neil stormed across the pavilion.“What else does it mean, exactly, to compel someone to become married?”
Constance looked wryly amused as he paced the ground in front of her.“I believe the intention is to push me to stop being quite so particular and agree to select one of the available gentlemen for myself.”
