“Here,” he said. “It is custard. Surely you have not finished eating yet.”
Courtly shook her head, took the custard, but didn’t bite into it. She noticed that Maximus had not replied to her statement. As he rummaged around for more little custard pies, she spoke.
“Please tell me your thoughts, Maximus” she said. “If you have changed your mind, I do not blame you.”
He looked at her, frowning. “Why do you keep saying that?” he asked. “I have not changed my mind. I will never change my mind, so you can put your fears to rest. I am simply thinking on how to approach your father with all of this. You have given me a good deal to think on.”
Courtly pondered the situation, watching him down two small, custard pies. She took a tiny bite of hers. “Do you want my suggestion?”
He nodded. “I asked you, did I not?”
Courtly sighed faintly and set her custard pie down onto the bench beside her. “Send your brother and his wife to ask on your behalf,” she said. “My father both respects and fears Gallus de Shera. He is greatly impressed with the man. If your brother will plead on your behalf, my father may consider it. Truly, with the earl making the approach, he may have little choice in the matter.”
Maximus looked at her, seriously. “I would be a poor man indeed if I sent my brother in to plead for your hand on my behalf,” he said. “I am not afraid of your father. If I do not ask for your hand directly, what manner of respect do you think he will have for me? Nay, love, I will not hide behind my brother, although I understand your position on the matter. When I offer for your hand, it will be directly to your father.”
She smiled at him. “My apologies,” she said softly. “I did not mean to ask you to be any less than you are. I simply meant to suggest a way in which my father could surely not refuse.”
Maximus reached out again and took her hand, holding it tightly in his big mitt. “I know,” he assured her quietly. “But this is between me and your father. Now, eliminating my brother as an intermediary, how else would you suggest I approach him?”
Courtly thought on that. “As you said,” she replied. “Approach him directly and forcefully. Be firm but polite. My father respects strong men, of which you are clearly one, so the best way to handle him is to be stronger than he is. It is my suggestion you tell him what your intentions are rather than ask him. If you simply ask him, I can promise you he will deny you.”
Maximus lifted his eyebrows in thought. “Then I will not give him the opportunity,” he said. “But if he denies me, then I hope you will like living on the run, because that is what we shall do.”
Courtly giggled until she realized he was serious by the expression on his face. Then, she was rather stricken. “But… but you cannot do that,” she said, somewhat passionately. “What of your family? It will reflect poorly on them. And what about you? You have a great reputation, Maximus. You cannot ruin that by absconding with a woman. That is no way for a man like you to live your life. You cannot throw it all away simply because you cannot have the woman you want.”
He didn’t like her reply even though he knew, deep down, that she was correct. He brushed the crumbs off his breeches, looking around to see if there was more food.
“Do you want anything else?” he asked her, utterly avoiding her statement.
Courtly could see he was putting her off. Because a man’s life was at stake, no matter how much she wanted to be his wife, she couldn’t let him ruin himself because of her.
“Maximus,” she said softly. “Listen to me. If you and I run away together and you forsake everything, eventually, you will grow to resent me. That is no way for a marriage to exist. Once it is done, it cannot be undone. Your mistake cannot be undone. I will not let you destroy the rest of your life because of me.”
He paused in the hunt for anything further to eat. When he looked at her, it was with uncertainty and sorrow.
“You would not leave your father and go with me?” he asked.
Courtly reached out and put her soft hands on his bearded face, looking him in the eye. “There is nothing I would want more than to go with you,” she whispered, touching the magnificent face of Maximus de Shera and feeling his bristly heat against her flesh. “I have known you less than a day and, already, you are under my skin. Your humor and generosity and good character has endeared itself to me. Would I go with you? Without question. But I could not have you ruin your reputation because my father denies your marriage suit. Mayhap in time, he will relent if you continue to ask him and demand he change his mind, but for us to run off without his permission… you will ruin everything you have ever worked for. It will reflect badly on your family. What would your mother say?”
He was in the process of being thoroughly hypnotized by her luscious eyes and full lips, but the moment she brought up Honey, he stiffened.
“You will not bring her into this,” he said.
Courtly didn’t back down. “Why not?”
He wanted to pull away from her but couldn’t. Those eyes had him within their grasp and there was no escape.
“Because…,” he said hoarsely. “Because she would possibly say the same thing you have just said. If my mother were of better health, I would send her to your father in my stead. My mother and no other. No one denies Honey de Shera, of anything.”
Courtly smiled gently. “I pray I have the opportunity to speak with her one day,” she whispered. “I would be deeply honored.”
Maximus smiled at her but the pull was too strong. Reaching out, he grasped her and pulled her against him, his lips slanting hungrily over hers. He could feel Courtly resist at first, startled by his action, but he wrapped his muscular arms around her and refused to let her go. She was sweet and warm and delicious, tasting like the custard she had just eaten. He could taste it on her lips. He kissed her slowly, with a purpose, experiencing her scent and taste and texture. It was intoxicating.
Maximus lost all sense of time as he gently suckled Courtly’s lips. She had stopped fighting him and was now collapsed against his chest, cradled in his arms as he feasted on her. Maximus had been with women in his lifetime, of course, losing his virginity when he was seventeen to the young women he had once described to Garran–She was the smithy’s daughter. When my father found out, he sent both her and her father away. I heard that she died later that year of a fever.Aye, that was all he really knew of love. He knew the pain of losing it before it even started.
As he nibbled on Courtly’s chin, he vowed that this love would be different. Already, it was stronger than he had ever imagined it could be. This love, he would not lose. As he began to suckle Courtly’s lips again, he heard someone clearing their throat softly.
“Maximus?”
