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“Yes.”
She sniffed and turned her attention back to the fish, trying to wriggle a particularly stubborn piece of meat from the interior. “Very well, don’t tell me then. It’s better we don’t know anything about each other.”
The silence lasted no more than a heartbeat before he said softly, “They live in Scotland, all six. I had half a mind to drag them down with me, but they’re happy there. I’m more accustomed to the south than they are. Two are married, one engaged, and the other three unwed.”
Perdie tilted her head only enough to catch his profile. The day had given him a dark shadow over his jaw. Dangerously, brazenly, she wondered how it would feel if she reached out to touch it. The world narrowed to the two of them. She continued the conversation in a whisper, not wanting to break this fragile moment between them.
“Why are you more accustomed to the south?”
He gave her a crooked smile and said, “Cambridge. I attended university there. It’s why my brogue only comes out in the heat of the moment.”
The heat of the moment, when he was angry—or, like last night, when he wanted to kiss her. She ran her tongue over her suddenly parched lips.
“Why Cambridge? Why not attend school in Edinburgh or somewhere closer to home?”
He shrugged. “My father died before I was ten. I always knew I’d inherit my uncle’s estate and be dragged down south. They wanted me to be prepared.”
So he was landed, or would be soon. Probably not a large estate, given his manner of dress. A country squire or baronet, maybe. But it wouldn’t do to speculate. She would rather not know. Perdie could already feel the astonishing pull toward him. It was rather scary.
“Tell me about Scotland. What sorts of birds do you have up there?”
He chuckled under his breath and shook his head. He finished his fish and tossed down the stick in front of him before giving her a sidelong glance. “Come now, I think it’s my turn to have some answers.”
Her hunger sated, Perdie set her stick aside even though she hadn’t picked it as clean as he had his. She wiped her fingers on a handkerchief fished out of her bodice and answered without looking at him. “Not so much to tell. I have one brother, older. I was educated at home and I’m not in line to inherit anything. The curse of my sex.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to ask.”
Whereas her voice had been light and airy, his was low and starting to collect some of that Scottish brogue again.
“Oh?”
Her fingers stilled. The handkerchief was greasy, and she balled it in her hands. She acutely felt the stares of the three people across the fire. They could at least pretend at conversation themselves to disguise their eavesdropping.
Heedless to their audience, Thaddeus leaned close enough that she felt his breath stir the stray hairs by her ear. “Oh, indeed. I don’t think it’s too much for a husband to ask after his wife’s ambitions. You mentioned you wanted to see the world. Where would you go?”
Her heart ached so badly she found it difficult to breathe. It was a question her former betrothed had cast out the window rather than ask. It was a question that might never have crossed her brother’s mind. Here she was, seated next to a stranger she’d met by chance who cared more than men who had known her for years.
She was almost afraid to speak her ambitions aloud, lest he dismiss them too. They were fragile things born more of fancy than serious thought, because she’d never truly thought she would attain them. So she started small, with one he might share.
“I want to see those beautiful red parrots in their native land. You know the ones, with the red and blue plumage brighter than the most vibrant flower?”
“South, then,” he murmured. He spoke not a word of dissent, and that emboldened her.
Her next confession emerged stronger. “I want to swim in a lagoon so clear it looks like the water goes on for miles. The kind with colorful fish and sea turtles and the water as warm as a bath.”
She chanced a glance at him only to find him rapt upon her every word. Her heart quickened its pace, making her lightheaded.
“I want to see things that the ladies puttering about in drawing rooms can’t even dream about. I want to be in danger of losing my life a time or two, just to have the story.”
At that, his eyebrows shot up. “I think you’d be happy with your highwaymen then, lass. Seems to me you’ve no real need to be looking for trouble.”
She cleaned her dagger and stuffed it out of sight. “I wouldn’t look for it. But there’s no real living without some risk.”
She gathered up the shawl in her lap and stood to shake out her skirts. It was hard to tell the position of the sun with the cover of the clouds, but she pretended to find it. “We should hurry back to the road if we’ve any hope of reaching an inn before full dark.”
“You do not sound as if you want to go,” Thaddeus murmured.
“I have always wanted to sleep under the stars.”
