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She chortled and rubbed behind the ears of Brutus who howled at this pleasure. His large body bounced into hers, and she stumbled. Simon lunged forward and caught her into his arms, and she lifted laughing eyes up to him. The liveliness of her character was enchanting and intoxicating to his senses which had been dormant for years.
"Oh, they are so lovely. I've always wanted a dog or a kitten, but Mamma was allergic to all animals, and they were forbidden."
How wistful she sounded.
"So you decided to sneak away and play with my dogs, did you?" he asked, dropping his hand from her arms, and moving away. The scent and feel of her was too great a temptation, and it made no sense for him to even try and indulge in a flirtation with her. Refined young ladies like her were not for him. He was the third son, for God’s sake. His income was modest, and his inheritance would not last forever. Ladies like Miranda were destined to marry men of impeccable lineage and comfortable fortune. And based on the disposition of her mother and brother, it would also be a family requirement. While his ancestry could live up to the challenge, his wealth would not be sufficient to keep her in the style to which she had long been accustomed.
He'd already used a sizeable chunk of his inheritance to buy this property, and there were no monies to be made from serving the villagers. They paid him in oranges, baked goods, meats, love, and laughter.
Nor could he bear to be a physician to those fine families who could pay him the exorbitant fees most London physicians charged their betters. His services were needed here. Before he had opened his home to those in need, they'd had no one to turn to for medical aid. The apothecary could only do so much, and they had suffered from many diseases with little recourse for support, especially the children.
He had no business wasting his energy thinking about her in a lascivious manner when it was evident to all she was as pure as snow. So even if he had been of a mind to consider seducing her, he would have been the worse sort of libertine to even attempt such a diversion.
“Your mind has gone wandering,” she said.
“Pray don’t regard it, I fear it happens sometimes.” Then he picked up a piece of wood and tossed it.
Sherra, the smallest of the four dogs broke away, and jumped in a beautiful arc, grabbing the stick with her mouth, then proudly trotted over and delivered the stick to Lady Miranda. She laughed and tossed it even further to the dogs’ boundless delight for they all raced after the stick. She saw him peeking at her stocking-clad feet and wrinkled her nose.
“Are we taking a walk on the wild and improper side?” he teased drolly.
“Why, I daresay I am!” she said with a cheeky grin, lifting her stained stocking for his inspection. "Mamma would be appalled to see me in such disarray, yet I am quite unconcerned at the thought of her displeasure."
There was that odd wistfulness in her tone once more, and a definite naughty twinkle in her eyes. She bent low and slipped on her walking shoes, then made her way to his side.
“I gather you did not play much as a child.”
She smiled. “I had my fair shares of tea parties.”
“Did you not run on the grass, roll in the snow, play crickets, and hunt for bugs and beetles? Race on your pony across the lanes of the estate?”
She stared at him in surprise, yearning darkening her eyes. “No,” she murmured. “But all those sound lovely except for the searching for bugs and beetles.”
He flashed her a grin. “My brothers and even my sister had a grand time at our home in our childhood days. Our childhood was filled with much fun and laughter. Perhaps we were spoilt.”
She drifted closer, her soft fragrance of roses and lavender teasing his senses. “Are you the youngest of your siblings?”
He tossed another stick, and this time it was Cronus who bounded after it. “My sister, Lucy, who is recently engaged, is the youngest at twenty. I am a doddering old man at six and twenty.”
“You are remarkably young to be a physician.”
“I started studying at sixteen.”
The beginning of a smile tipped the corners of her mouth. “How wonderful it must be to be so certain of the path you wish to traverse in life.”
He thought about this, surprised to realize he had known years before when he'd first stepped into the Royal College of Physicians, and then moved onto further studies in Glasgow and Edinburgh that he'd wanted to be some healer of sorts. "When I was a lad of eight years, I found a dog on one of our family trips to Brighton. He was half starved, bleeding from many wounds. Perhaps he'd been in a fight, or perhaps his previous owners beat him. I was never certain. My brothers, William and Edward, helped me lift him into our carriage to my mother's great distress," he said with a fond chuckle. "She demanded we let the poor thing out to die, but my father begged her to indulge me. Instead of running in the sand by the seaside or taking to the waters with my family, I was determined to save that dog."
“And did you?”
“To everyone’s surprise, including myself, I did. That dog, whom I named George, went on to live with us for ten years.”
She sighed. “I do love happy endings.”
“My mother would have preferred if I earned my living as a clergyman. More respectable in her opinion than being a physician.”
“From what I have seen, you’ve acquitted yourself as a physician quite admirably.” The gaze she settled on him was piercing, assessing, and with a wicked jolt to his heart, he realized she was attracted to him.
Simon stumbled and silently cursed himself for his clumsiness.
