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He made a few strides toward her and took her hands in his. Annalise tipped her head back, so she could look into his eyes.
A loud mewling sound came from behind Blake. Annalise frowned before peeking behind him. Her mouth slacked open, and her eyes widened.
She ran toward her bed in a girlish glee and took the kitten into her arms.
“Wait!” Blake exclaimed, but she’d already picked him up and cuddled him close to her heart.
Blake raised an eyebrow. He had gone to Townsend’s house in the afternoon to discuss business matters. He’d needed to take his mind off the argument he’d had with Annalise. Instead, he wound up chasing a little black kitten around his cousin’s townhouse. It turned out, Townsend had managed to give away all but two of his mother’s kittens, and this one, the most problematic one, was at risk of being drowned.
Blake immediately decided to take in the little fiend from hell. Now the same angry damned animal that’d scratched Blake’s hands and face, snuggled tenderly in Annalise’s arms and purred.
Blake frowned. “I see he likes you.”
Annalise held him closer to her chest, and the kitten put his head on her soft breasts. Well, Blake couldn’t fault the damn thing; he’d be snuggling up on her breasts too.
“I was afraid he’d give you the runaround too. Townsend didn’t know how to dispose of the poor thing. Apparently, it made their lives quite difficult in the past few days. I didn’t think you’d forgive me if I let anything bad happen to a defenseless kitten, so here he is. Besides, we have a lot more staff than Townsend. I think we can manage one little animal.”
“This little thing?” Annalise smiled and sat on the bed. “I shall take care of him myself.”
Blake walked up to Annalise and stretched his arm out to pet the kitten, but he hissed and bared his claws.
“I’d rather not touch him,” Blake said with a frown. “I do not blame him. He picked the most beautiful lady to snuggle up to and is not letting anyone else touch him. I can empathize.”
Annalise raised her smiling eyes to his.
“Can you forgive me for the thoughtless entry in my journal?”
Annalise pursed her lips as she continued petting the kitten. “I have not decided yet.”
“Hmm, then I shall try harder to earn your forgiveness,” he breathed. At least, she was talking to him.
“Blake whatever you went through is terrible. Those scars, the memories you claim to not want to share with me… If you thought for a moment that I was responsible for any of that then we have a bigger problem than I initially thought. Is that why you were secretive of your past?”
“No, darling, trust me. Writing your name down was an impulse. A foolish act of a jealous man.”
Annalise paused before saying quietly, “Lavinia made Kensington propose to me.”
“Did she?”
“When I received a note about your demise… I was not only destitute—”
“I know,” Blake interrupted with a grimace. “Kensington explained to me that he was just doing a duty by offering you his name.”
“He is a good man.” Blake didn’t answer. “And Lavinia convinced me she wasn’t in love with him and sacrificed her own happiness for me.”
“She loves you,” he said. “I can empathize with that too.”
Annalise looked at him curiously, her eyes taking on a puzzled look. She looked down at the kitten then and stroked his fur.
Blake cleared his throat. “What would you like to call him?”
“Mm, I do not know.” Annalise’s features cleared instantly. “Well, he is pretty loud in announcing his presence, so perhaps, Sir Meows-a-lot.”
Blake let out a snort. “That’s… very clever.”
Annalise laughed softly. “That is not a very dignifying name, is it? Perhaps I need to think on it a little more.”
Blake grinned. “I like Sir Meows-a-lot.” He gestured to the corner and stood. “Well, there’s a basket with some rags for him to sleep in.”
Annalise looked at the basket while still petting the animal and crooning sweet words to its ears. Blake heaved a sigh. He’d give up his title to be in this ragged animal’s place.
“Did anyone feed him?” she asked.
“The kitchen help tried, but he was… not responsive.”
“Oh, the poor little one is hungry, is he?” she crooned and stood. “I’ll go and take care of him.”
She stepped toward Blake, stood on her tiptoes, and placed a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered and left the room.
Chasing around that fiend half the day, then driving home with it in a carriage, was all worth it for just one soft kiss from her and a smile.
