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William stepped back a little, tilting his head to the side and running his gaze over her. She felt his blatant analysis to her core. “Is it Emma?”
“Good heavens, no. You couldn’t be further from the mark.”
“Well, I can continue.”
“Please don’t. I should think I’ll dislike you excessively if you continue to presume names of that sort.”
His mouth ticked up in a smile. “Forgive me. I hadn’t known they were such offensive guesses.”
Motion drew her attention near the cottage, and she looked to find the blond man continuing to remove vines from the walls. Whoever these men were, they certainly appeared to be restoring the cottage for proper use. “Do you intend to stay here?” Pippa asked.
William looked in the direction of the cottage, though she doubted he could see it through the trees from where he stood. “For now, yes.”
“Then I suppose we are to be neighbors,” she whispered.
“What was that?”
Pippa needed to get home. She could wait in this tree for the man to leave, or she could take a risk. Her backside was growing sore from the branch, and if she did not climb down soon, her feet might fall asleep, and she would lose the ability to make it safely to the ground.
“Will you please turn around, sir, so I might climb down?”
He shifted away at once, and Pippa drew in a deep breath before turning on the branch and methodically climbing down the rest of the tree, peeking every so often to ascertain that his gaze was still averted. When her feet landed squarely on the hard-packed dirt, she straightened to her full height, tipping her head back.
William was tall, much taller than he appeared from above. His shoulders were broad, his waist lean, and when he turned to face her again, his eyes fastened on her like a barnacle to a rock. This had to be the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on, and she had seen a good deal of men when Mabel took her to London for a Season earlier in the year.
“It’s nice to be on level ground,” he murmured, the low timbre of his voice washing over her like an enormous, warm wave.
Oh, dear. Pippa was in trouble.
