“If you were a man,” he said, far too reasonably, “I could call you out.”
“Which rather proves my point, does it not? If I were a man, you would not have had to call me out. We would simply discuss whatever matter we wished, because I would trust you, and you, me.”
“Come, then. Sit. I have a matter which I would like to discuss with you.”
He must be uncomfortable, though he was using a tone one might use over tea, and his long legs were stretched across the mattress and nonchalantly crossed at the ankles.
Well, at least this time he was fully clothed.
Uncertainly, she sat down on the bed beside him. “When I received Mrs. Dove-Lyon’s note conveying your request to meet me, I asked myself what a man would do. I decided a man would accept. But on his own terms, and without taking needless risks.”
“Binding me is your way of not taking chances?”
“In part. I don’t trust you—”
“Why? When have I broken any agreement between us?”
She winced. “I don’t trust you because I have learned not to trust. But I also I asked for you to be bound because I wanted you to understand what it is to have no choice. To be vulnerable.”
She laid a palm against his thigh. To her surprise, he jerked away from her touch.
She assessed him with a curious stare. And then, she folded her hands in her lap.
“I was a soldier,” he pointed out. “I know vulnerability in a way you will never understand.”
She considered this. Despite a pang of guilt she said, “But soldiering, too, was your choice. You’ve had so many choices in life, you take their very existence for granted.”
“I won’t argue there. But let me come to my point…”
She braced for a vulgar proposition.
“Bessie told me your price was marriage.”
Oh, Heavens. He wasn’t going to propose, was he? And to the Blackbird?
“She was wrong,” Eliza quickly replied. “Marriage is never what I wanted…from you.”
“Whatdidyou want?”
She felt her cheeks heat. “I wanted you to want me. And then…” She hesitated. “I wanted to take from you the way you assumed you had the right to take from me.”
“I know,” he said gently. “And I asked for this meeting because I would like you to know how well you succeeded.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve recently realized how much my manner of living—or, rather, not living—affects my family. And I came to this realization because of you, Blackbird.”
“That’s why you summoned me?” She swallowed to keep her voice from cracking. “You didn’t simply want to use me for distraction?”
“No… Although I suppose I can see how you might come to that conclusion.” He frowned as he considered. “I suppose you deserve to know the whole. The truth is, I think I’ve fallen in love. Quick, I know, but utterly sincere. And I don’t think I would have been able to do so, if you had not shocked me out of my stupor.”
“You’ve what?” she whispered.
“I’ve fallen in love…and I intend to ask the young lady for her hand.”
She reminded herself to breathe.
“You said you asked yourself what a man would do,” he continued. “After my…shock, I asked myself a similar question. I asked myself what you would want. And the answer that came to me was to know that I learned the lesson you set out to teach me.”
