Page 37 of The Baronet’s Bartered Bride

“I must have you safe, Inez.” His voice rang low, roughened by emotion.

“I’m safer with you,” she said.

The moment twirled between them like a figure on a musical box, measuring out the beats of her heart. She stood on a bridge between one part of her life and another. Between the woman she was, and the woman she wanted to be.

Between the woman who could tempt Joseph Illingworth, and the one he could leave behind.

She very nearly reached out to kiss him anyway, forgetting she was clad as a boy, forgetting they stood on a public road with coaches nearing from one direction and a cart and horse plodding toward them from another. She ignored the rain pelting her cap and shoulders. She ignored how she couldn’t seem to draw a breath. She held his gaze and tried to reach inside him, to peer into his heart and see if there was anything, anything there for her at all.

He held out his hand. “You’ll just get into more trouble without me, won’t you?”

“Very likely,” she said, catching a great surge of air into her lungs.

“And I’ll only be obliged to come rescue you again.”

“Most assuredly.” She held back the sob of relief.

“You’d best come with me, then.”

She laid her hand in his, and he closed his fingers around her palm.

The bridge had been crossed, and there would be no returning.