Page 39 of A Lady of Conscience

He may as well have asked her how many pets she planned to keep when they were married. It was outrageously presumptuous.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I thought only to talk with you about what you love best.”

She cautiously returned his gaze. “That was very kind of you.”

“It was strategic. I didn’t want to make any mistakes this time. Yet, that’s exactly what I’ve done, haven’t I?” He gave a humorless huff. “It seems I can’t be in your company above five minutes without frightening you away.”

Her mouth tilted in a faint smile. “You haven’t frightened me.”

James gave her a doubtful look. “No?”

“I find conversation difficult with strangers,” she said. “But I’m not scared of them.”

“Perhaps that’s the trouble.”

Her brows lifted. “That I’m not scared of you?”

“That we’re still strangers,” he said.

“Oh.” Her cheeks colored. “I wouldn’t say we were. Not exactly.”

“But we’re not friends, either.”

She gripped the edge of the padded seat as the curricle bounced over an uneven patch of road. “Do you want to be my friend?”

“Very much so,” he said.

The horses’ hooves clip-clopped over the hard-packed earth of the road. The donkey’s hoofbeats sounded behind, lighter and quicker.

Hannah cast a fleeting look back at the little creature before returning her attention to James. “You’re well on your way. I can think of no one more deserving of friendship than a gentleman who would help an animal in need.”

“I suppose that’s a start,” he said dryly.

“It is,” she assured him. “I myself have never turned away an animal in need of rescuing. And…” She hesitated, suddenly shy again. “I don’t imagine I ever would, not even when I marry.”

James eyes briefly met hers. He felt the same surge of hope he’d felt yesterday when she’d confessed that she was glad he had returned to Bath. “Nor why should you.”

“You wouldn’t object to having a…a…”

“A menagerie?” He smiled slightly. “No.” He guided the horses down the Lower Bristol Road. “My family’s seat in Hertfordshire is sizeable. There’s ample room for animals, and plenty of staff to help care for them.”

“You surely wouldn’t wish to see it overrun.”

“Worth House has witnessed countless family scandals over the centuries. If my sole contribution to the cannon is a pack of crossbreed dogs, I shall count myself fortunate indeed.”

“Your sister has shared something of those scandals with me.”

James cut her a piercing glance. “Has she?”

“About your grandfather having been a highwayman.”

He suppressed a wince. Leave it to Kate to bandy about the worst of the Beresfords’ history. Then again, she was marrying into the Heywood family. And it wasn’t as if James’s grandfather’s infamy was a secret.

“Gentleman Jim, they called him,” he said flatly.

Hannah’s eyes lit. “Really?”

“Upon my honor.”