He could but stare at her. "Do you know everything about everyone in this town?"
"Naturally. I was born and raised here. Now, of course, for the past ten years we go to Scotland for the summer, to Kildrummy Castle. We all love it there. It is wild and barren and then, just half a dozen steps later, you see clumps of white heather, then purple, ah, so many colors, all of them so very brilliant that you want to weep. Have you been to Scotland, my lord?"
"Call me Thomas. Yes, I have been many times to Scotland, to Glasgow for business and up to Inverness to visit friends and to hunt."
Meggie leaned down to pick up some ancient hay that had probably moldered in the same spot for at least twenty years. She began to rub it over Survivor's back. Thomas did the same with Pen.
Without warning, Survivor whipped her head around and tried to bite Meggie's shoulder. Meggie jumped back just in time, tripped on the hem of her riding skirt and went down on her bottom. She was laughing. "Oh, I see the problem now. The straw is too stiff and it is irritating her. Beware, Thomas, Pen might not like it either."
Pen neighed loudly but didn't move.
Meggie grinned as she brushed some dirt and straw off her skirt. "Survivor tries to bite you only if you're grown up, never children."
Thomas leaned down and clasped her hand. He pulled too hard, and both of them knew it was on purpose. She slammed against him. She'd never before slammed against a man. It was heady, that slamming.
It was too soon, he thought, then just couldn't help himself. He leaned down his head and kissed her. Not much of a kiss, just a light touching of mouths. She didn't move, didn't do anything at all. It took him a moment to realize this must be her first kiss.
Good. No Jeremy. He must have been mistaken about him, which was a relief.
Her first kiss and he'd been the one to give it to her. Slowly he raised his head. She was staring up at him straight on, not blinking. She touched her fingertips to her mouth. Then, finally, she frowned and stepped back.
"How very odd," she said, as she shook out her damp skirts. "Of course you should not have done that, but no matter. I am only a bit damp now. It is still raining quite hard."
She watched him plow his fingers through his dark hair, nice and thick that hair, a bit shaggy for popular tastes. "Meggie, you're right, I shouldn't have done that, but it was just a kiss, after all, not a mauling or a serious attempt at seduction. I apologize for taking advantage of our situation." His voice softened and deepened. He couldn't help the dollop of masculine pride that crept in. "It was your first kiss. I gave you your first kiss."
"Ha," Meggie said. "Ha ha. You are mistaken, my lord. I have been kissed many times."
"Thomas," he said. "My name is Thomas."
"Yes, I know your name. Let me tell you, I have kissed so many boys I can scare remember all of them."
"This was all during your Season last year?"
"Well, no, to be honest about this, and I suppose that I must be honest since my father is the vicar and this business of honesty is quite important to him, all the boys were my dratted cousins. I asked them, you see, when I was thirteen years old, to kiss me. I didn't ask any of the older ones, only the dratted cousins who were my age or younger."
"Jeremy was older?"
"Yes, he was much older," and she thought, no, not Jeremy, never Jeremy. She'd wanted to, more than anything, but she'd known she'd probably sink into a puddle at his feet if he'd kissed her, and her father would have been appalled. Doubtless Jeremy would have been appalled as well. She said, "The older male cousins thought it a great jest, but I ignored them." Jeremy, she recalled, had laughed his head off. Why had he asked specifically about Jeremy? "What did you do?"
"I lined up all the dratted boy cousins. Each stepped forward when I called his name and puckered his lips and did it."
Chapter 8
HE COULD ONLY stare down at her. She was without guile. She also had an outrageous streak that was a good mile wide. She'd lined up her cousins? "You simply wished to experiment?"
"Well, yes. You see, Max and Leo, my brothers, absolutely refused to kiss me, so they announced that they would judge which cousin kissed the best. But as I think about it now, I think I should have been the judge, not two boys who knew nothing about anything."
"It makes sense to me. What criteria did Max and Leo use to choose the winner?"
Meggie thought back to that splendid day, at the line of dratted cousins, all of them nervous, afraid, knowing there was a lot on the line here, but each eager. "Hmm. They picked Grayson, my uncle Ryder's son. But the criteria-they claimed they awarded Grayson on form. But come to think of it, they might have picked Grayson no matter what the contest. You know, Grayson tells marvelous stories-ghost stories, adventure stories, really scary gnarly stories-and he'd told them a hair-raising ghost story just the night before about midnight. It was about this old man whose wife shoved him into a well and left him there to die, but his ghost came after her, did all sorts of gruesome things, and Max and Leo were so scared, so happy, wanting so badly to hear Grayson tell another story, that they didn't even hesitate. Do you know, they announced Grayson the winner before poor James was barely finished."
"This is an amazing story," he said slowly. He tried to remember a single evening in his growing-up years that could possibly have been as delightful as this one. He couldn't dredge a single one up. Then he remembered Nathan had taught him how to dive into the ocean from the cliff that summer of his tenth year. Nathan, who'd left, joined the army, and died in Spain so many years ago.
He shook this off. "Who is James?" he asked.
"He is my uncle Douglas's oldest son. He and Jason are twins, born only about thirty minutes apart. James will be the earl of Northcliffe someday. Did you know that they are quite the most beautiful young men in the world?"
"No, I didn't know. They weren't beautiful then? You weren't infatuated with one of them when you were younger?"
"Oh no. Both of them have very bad habits. I was always trying to make them better. Now it will be up to their wives to improve upon them, if they ever marry, that is. My uncle Douglas always despaired for their characters since they are so beautiful. In all fairness to other males, though, it's really unfortunate that today they are quite unspoiled-only male sorts of bad habits that one simply cannot eradicate-but in their hearts, they are not rotten at all."
"Not rotten at all?"
"No more rotten now than any of their contemporaries. You know, they curse and brag and steal their father's brandy, run races at midnight and nearly break their necks, lay wagers on who can spit the farthest, that sort of thing. They don't gamble or get sent down from Oxford or seduce local girls."
Thomas doubted that last sincerely. They were young men. That was what young men did, rotten or not. Hope fully, they really had outgrown the worst of it. "May I kiss you again?"
"Whyever for?"
He said slowly, even as he lowered his head, "I want to see if you compare me favorably to your cousins."
"But that was a long time ago and we were all children and-"
He kissed her. This time it wasn't just touching mouth to mouth. This time there was a bit of pressure, a bit more coaxing, and lots of warmth. His hands were on her arms, slowly bringing her closer. Then he opened his mouth.
He actually opened his mouth, Meggie thought, appalled, like he was going to speak or eat his dinner or butcher a high note like that Milanese soprano.
She felt his tongue lightly pressing against her lips, but she kept her mouth shut. Meggie blinked up at him. His eyes weren't closed. When he saw the shock in her eyes, he drew back.
She didn't jump back or slap him. She simply stood there, looking thoughtful, staring up at him. Finally she said, "That was very strange. Since you have lived outside England for a very long time, perhaps you have forgotten English customs, my lord. That, I am quite certain, cannot be one of them. You opened your mouth, you touched your tongue to my lower lip, my upper lip as well, and you sort of licked me. Surely that isn't done here in England, only in some foreign country where there is permission to explore shameless sorts of things."