No, she didn’t want him there. Even if being swept over the floor by him had been like rushing through a roaring fire, while waltzing with Chidding had been like walking through cool ashes. Chidding was not exciting. He’d never set her heart to thundering. But he was reliable. He’d come to her aid, concerned she might need him after being with Knightly. He’d spoken kindly and with deference. Later, he had claimed his last dance and his gaze had never left her. Appreciation, respect, duty. He offered all three. He would be—
“You came!” Ari suddenly shouted, catapulting Regina from her thoughts.
Her daughter rushed off, and Regina swung around to follow her but came to a bracing stop, rooted to the spot, unable to go any farther because theyouin question was ayoushe didn’t want to encounter.Knightly. One hand holding the handles of a small, closed wicker basket.
His strides were long and confident, but he came to a halt just as Arianna reached him, wrapped her arms around one of his legs, and gazed up at him adoringly. Regina had forgotten how easily he could charm any female. “What the devil are you doing here?” she asked smartly.
He had the audacity to bestow upon her one of those devastating smiles while reaching with his free hand into his coat before extending a slip of paper toward her. “I was given an invitation.”
She didn’t have to grab it from him in order to view Ari’s familiar scrawl and swirls. When she didn’t take it, he tucked it away and looked down at her child as though she was comprised of the moon and stars. “I have something for you.”
He lowered himself to one knee, a knight paying homage, which was exactly what she’d thought when he’d done the same for her before asking her to honor him by becoming his wife. The memory had her sucking in her breath. The warmth and hope in his eyes. The love—or what she’d mistaken for love—with which he’d watched her had convinced her that happily-ever-afters occurred outside of fairy tales.
Clapping while dancing on her toes, Ari asked, “What is it?”
He folded down the handles and tapped the wooden top. “Open it and see.”
But Regina didn’t need for it to be opened to hear the scratching or light whining. She wanted to snatchthe basket away, knew it would make her daughter fall in love with him as easily as her mother had, but she didn’t have it within her to deny her child this small measure of happiness when only a few minutes earlier she’d been lamenting the absence of any guests with the ability to move themselves around.
Her throat clogging with unshed tears, she watched as Ari’s tiny fingers took hold of the lid and slowly, carefully lifted it. Then a black nose, large black eyes, and brown fur were poking out. Ari’s eyes widened with her delight as Knightly took hold of the lid and dropped it all the way back. “A dog!” She looked at her guest. “Who does it belong to?”
“You, moppet. Happy birthday.”
Ari jerked her head around to look at Regina. “Mum?”
A thousand questions were encapsulated in that one word that ended on an unsure note. “It’s a gift, Ari. It’s all right to accept it but do thank the gentleman.”
“Thank you,” she gushed as she reached in, gathered the wriggling puppy—based on its small size it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old—into her arms, and lifted him free of his prison.
Regina wished she could as easily free her daughter from hers.
Ari dropped to the ground, released her hold on the spaniel, and giggled as it pounced on her. “What’s his name?”
“It’s a girl,” Knightly said.
“Howdoyou know?”
“Yes,” Regina stated succinctly. Perhaps she could make him blush like Chidding after all. “How do you know?”
But then, of course, anything associated with sex or bodies wasn’t going to make the notorious Lord Knightly blush. He merely flashed an all-knowing grin, the bugger. “She told me as we journeyed here. We spoke of all manner of things. Her name can be whatever you want it to be, sweetheart.”
She wanted to scold him for using that endearment with her daughter, and yet it was innocent enough, even if it brought pain in ways it shouldn’t, a reminder of all the times when Ari would not hear her father gifting her with special names.
Ari looked up at her. “Mum?”
“We’ll discuss it while we’re eating your cake.”
She kept her gaze focused on her daughter, but out of the corner of her eye she sighted Knightly unfolding that magnificent body of his. She’d gone too long without a man’s intimate touch. Until that moment she hadn’t realized how much she needed another fellow to serve as a deterrent to wanting Knightly.
He approached, his wonderful sandalwood fragrance wafting around her. “You can hire someone to care for the dog. I’ll pay for it.”
“No need. We’ll use it as an exercise in learning the importance of responsibility.”
“A lesson you no doubt think I never learned.”
“You obviously hadn’t learned it five years ago.”
“How long before we leave the past behind us?”
