“No.”
“You bargain terribly.”
“I am not bargaining. I am refusing.”
He sighed dramatically. “You are astonishingly difficult for someone legally obligated to tolerate me.”
Anne finally looked back at him, though annoyance warred visibly with amusement in her features. “You are very persistent.”
“Yes.”
“You do not tire of hearing no?”
“Not when I suspect that it may become a perhaps.”
“You are impossibly confident.”
“It has served me exceptionally well.”
“For gambling, perhaps.”
“For other things too.”
She shook her head once.
After another long pause, she exhaled quietly.
“One hour,” she allowed. “That is all I shall give you. Tempest will have to do a great deal of work soon, and I do not wish to exhaust him.”
The satisfaction that swept through him felt embarrassingly disproportionate. He was tempted to correct her on the horse’s name, to remind her that it was Diamond, but he did not wish to push his luck.
The countryside beyond Ashford Hall stretched endlessly beneath heavy gray skies, softened by lingering mist from the morning rain. The ground remained damp beneath their horses.
Anne looked different outside the estate. The tension she carried constantly indoors eased slightly whenever the open countryside surrounded her. Loose strands of chestnut hair escaped her coiffure, fluttering softly in the wind while her horse moved confidently beneath her.
Dorian found himself watching more than riding.
“You are doing it again,” Anne drawled.
He smiled. “You make it difficult not to.”
She glanced sideways at him, immediately suspicious. “That sounded rather close to flirtation.”
“It was absolutely flirtation. I may do that, under such circumstances.”
Anne rolled her eyes. “You would flirt with everyone.”
“Not everyone.”
“Most women in Yorkshire would disagree.”
“Most women in Yorkshire would say anything they need to about me. It would come with a great deal of power.”
“Is that to say that you do not flirt at all?”
“I do not recall saying that. I only said that I am selective.”
“And I suppose that should flatter me.”
