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She was beginning to think he was a bedlamite—a very handsome, kind-hearted bedlamite. Nevertheless, she knew he would never get Emmeline inside.
Even now, having seen the two of them start toward the barouche, Emmeline stopped and stared uneasily at the carriage. She idly petted the dog for comfort.
But Mason smiled and held out his hand to her. “Miss Emmeline, your carriage awaits.”
She refused to move.
“Ah, I see the problem.” He pointed at the carriage floor. “It’s a tall step for such a little girl, and you don’t know how to get in.”
She stared at him warily, not budging.
Nora’s heart fell. Mason was wasting his time.
“Brutus,” he called out to the dog, whose ears pricked up. “Show Miss Emmeline how to get into the carriage.”
The dog gave an excited bark, then bounded across the courtyard and leapt into the carriage. He jumped up onto the seat and wagged his tail, panting proudly at Emmeline.
“See? Brutus wants you to climb up and sit beside him.” On cue, the dog barked. “Go on, Emmeline.”
When she hesitated, Brutus stayed on the seat, but he wiggled back and forth, whimpering and moving up and down on his forelegs, because he wanted to jump back down to be with her. He finally became so anxious that he howled, but the well-trained horses and the two men minding them never moved a muscle.
Yet slowly but surely, the shaggy hound acted like a magnet and drew her closer to the barouche, one hesitant and reluctant step at a time. She paused in front of the little door, one foot on the step and her eyes rapt on the dog, who bounced up and down on the seat with excitement but remained just out of her reach so she couldn’t pet him from the ground. If she wanted to be with Brutus, she’d have to step into the carriage—
She did. With a quick move, Emmeline darted up into the carriage and onto the seat with Brutus who rewarded her by slathering dog kisses all over her face. Emmeline laughed and flung her arms around him, burying her face in his golden fur.
Nora stared, her mouth falling open. Emmeline was sitting in a carriage! Not screaming or crying, not in terror or distress… No, she was simply sitting on the open seat, happily petting the dog.
Mason came up behind Nora and gently touched her elbow, then nodded toward the barouche. “Shall we join her?”
She nodded, unable to find her own voice beneath the knot of emotion tightening in her throat.
He helped her up, then settled onto the bench seat beside her. More grateful than she could express, she simply reached over to his hand as it rested on the seat between them and squeezed it.
She nervously held her breath, waiting for the tiger to release the team and join the coachman on his perched seat, for the coachman to flick the ribbons and set the team in motion. Emmeline would cry out, scream, jump from the carriage—
But the barouche didn’t move. Neither did the team or the two liveried men keeping them impossibly still.
“Is something wrong?” Mason asked, as if sensing the tension in her.
Unable to tear her eyes away from her daughter and the screaming fit she knew was about to be unleashed, dog or no, Nora said quietly so Emmeline couldn’t overhear, “Aren’t we going for a carriage ride?”
“Thisisour ride.” He folded his fingers around hers. “Isn’t it lovely?” He leaned close to her, and for one slamming beat of her heart, she thought he planned on kissing her again as he’d done yesterday. With the warmth of his breath tickling at her ear, shewantedto be kissed again. Instead, he said quietly, as if reading her fears, “The coachman has orders not to move the barouche at all.”
Could he hear the pounding of her heart? For heaven’s sakes! He was so close—could hefeelit? “What’s the purpose of that?”
“This.”
He straightened away from her, and immediately, she missed the nearness of him. Heaven help her, sheachedfor his closeness, in a way she never had for her late husband.
Before she could embarrass herself by leaning after him, he reached into his breast pocket. Across from them, the dog immediately came alert, sitting up straight and his ears pricking up. Brutus was suddenly more interested in Mason than Emmeline, and Nora watched curiously when Mason held up a small treat. He tossed it onto the ground beside the carriage, then snapped his fingers and pointed.
The dog slipped from Emmeline’s arms, jumped out of the carriage after the treat, and gobbled it up.
And Emmeline went bounding down after the dog.
Immediately, Mason called the dog back with another snap of his fingers and pointed at the seat across from them. The hound swung one look between him and Emmeline, then jumped up into the carriage again. Once more proudly and excitedly taking his seat, as if he were a Mayfair gentleman.
This time, Emmeline hesitated only a moment before scrambling back up after the dog, who rewarded her by holding out his paw for her to shake. Then the woolly creature promptly rolled over onto her lap, his large body nearly dwarfing Emmeline, who happily laughed and wrapped her arms around him.
Nora blinked. “You’re training my daughter like a dog?”
“Yes.” Then he reached into his pocket for a second treat and did it again. This time, Emmeline followed the dog down and back up without any hesitation at all.
Nora tilted her head to study Mason’s profile.The most unusual man…“You’re either the most brilliant man I’ve ever met,” she admitted, “or utterly mad.”
He grinned and stepped down from the carriage, then turned back and held out his hand to help her to the ground. Their ride was finished for the day.
