Page 81 of The Wallflower Takes All

This was the moment to step back. Apologize. Withdraw. Let her gather herself. Instead, Gabriel heard himself say, “Go with me.”

She frowned. “Go with you where?”

“For a drive in the park.”

Lord Ketterham had promised her that. Such a small thing, really. An ordinary courtesy. The next expected step in being courted. Yet even that had been withdrawn from her.

Her brows drew together more sharply. “I beg your pardon?”

She stared at him. The silence lengthened. Then, slowly, she said, “Mr. Ashby.”

“Yes.”

“You are my solicitor.”

“I am.”

“You have just informed me that another gentleman will not call because my situation is too complicated.”

“Yes.”

“And your solution is to ask me to go riding in the park?”

The first flicker of life had returned to her face, and Gabriel seized upon it because his judgment had clearly abandoned the room. “Why not?”

“A ride in the park is not a solution.”

“No. But it might be enjoyable.”

Her mouth trembled. Not with tears this time but with…amusement. “You make a very poor romantic hero,” she said.

“That I can’t deny. But still, it should not preclude you from saying yes.”

“Are you offering this drive for legal reasons?” she pressed.

“No.”

“You want me to go with you to the park…where people may see us?”

He shrugged. “It is daylight.”

“That is not the protection you think it is.”

“Then we shall take Lady Montague.”

At that, she laughed outright. It was small, startled, and still threaded with irony, but it was real. “Mama would ruin us both within five minutes.”

“Then we shall take the dog.”

“Freddie is worse.”

“I doubt that.”

“You have not seen him with ducks.”

Gabriel looked at her, and something in his chest eased because the sadness had not gone, but it had loosened enough for humor to slip through. Enough for Poppy to look, for one moment, less like a woman measuring another loss and more like herself.

Whoever she was when no one required bravery from her.