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Time to be free with her!
He peered over the wall that bordered Annie’s garden and waited, with his fingers pressed to the coarseness of the brick. The door to the back of the house opened, and a figure stepped out. In the sunlight, she tipped her head back and breathed in the morning air, wrapping a spencer jacket tightly around her shoulders.
Annie….
“Psst!” Luke made a sound, trying to get her attention. Annie didn’t take notice at all, not until he cooed like a bird, then she stumbled on the garden path and looked in his direction, just as he lifted himself higher over the wall, stepping up into a nook.
“Luke!” she said excitedly, her smile so great that it crinkled her eyes as she hurried toward him. “What are you doing here?”
“Stealing a minute alone with you where we will not be seen. Quick, is anyone looking from the house?” he asked, nodding his head at the windows. Annie looked round, but evidently finding no one there, she turned back and beckoned him over.
It was easy enough to climb, pressing his boots into the nooks of the wall and launching himself over to land beside her.
“We’d best be quick.” He took her hand and led her further down the garden so that he could be hidden by the density of trees if anyone did look out of the window.
“What are you doing?” Annie cried, playfully appearing to be angry as she swiped at his arm in reprimand. “Are you trying to get me caught? Think of what my mother will say if she sees us out here alone together!”
“What do you think she would say?” Luke asked in intrigue, passing Annie’s arm through his own, partly so that she couldn’t swipe at him anymore.
“Are you taking my arm because you wish to or to stop your reprimand?”
“Can the answer be both?” he asked, earning a soft laugh from her.
“My mother…lord only knows what she would say. She would be furious! I shudder to think what my punishment would be.” Annie put upon a great shudder.
Luke patted her hand as he drew her across the garden. They passed under sycamore trees and between borders of yew bushes, so hidden from the house that he felt they could have been on some vast estate in the countryside, far away from Lady Maybury or anyone else in theton.
What if it could be this way all the time?
“Would you be willing to bear her censure?” Luke asked after a second, earning a curious gaze from Annie.
“What do you mean?”
“I….” Luke struggled, unsure how to put it into words. They passed around another tall sycamore tree, reaching the far end of the garden. “Let me start again.”
“Very well, though you had barely started then.”
“I suppose not. Consider it my foolishness. I am barely able to string a sentence together this morning, it seems.”
“Then let me calm your nerves first.” Annie brought the two of them to a stop and reached up toward him, finding his lips with a sweet kiss. It was so tender that Luke felt all the tension seep out of his body. He stood there, certain his bones had melted, with his spine softened and his hand limp in hers. “Did that help?” she asked, stepping back.
“You know it did. I can judge that from your satisfied smile.” He gestured to her smile. “Now, I will begin again. I wanted to come and see you this morning because I find I miss you.”
“You see me quite often.”
“It doesn’t seem to stop me from missing you.” Luke had never uttered such words before. They made him nervous and fidgeted with his boots, moving back and forth in the grass beneath them. “I longed to see you, so decided to be bold and come and see you this morning before your mother could wake.” He nodded back in the direction of the house.
“Then your timing is good. My mother will not be awake for some time.” Annie slipped her arm through his and led him forward through the garden again. They circled some of the trees, back and forth as they talked.
“Do you ever wish that we did not have to sneak around so?” Luke asked quietly after a minute, paying close attention to her reaction. Annie smiled a little, but she didn’t meet his gaze. She kept her focus down on the dewy grass.
“Sometimes,” she whispered. “Then I consider what reprimand my mother would give me.”
“Are you afraid of what she and the rest of thetonwould think if you were to publicly consider a man like me?” Luke brought her to a stop, feeling his nerves were on edge. Annie looked up at him with her brows furrowed together.
“You seem to have a purpose in this conversation.”
“I do.” Luke nodded. He disentangled his arm from Annie’s in order to fidget more with his nerves. He cleared his throat and adjusted his tailcoat until Annie reached up toward him. She placed her hands on his chest. That touch was warm, even through the lapels of his tailcoat.
