Page 86 of The Wallflower Takes All

“A creed then.”

He cleared his throat. “I do not apologize for candor.”

“I did not ask you to apologize.”

“No,” he said. “You merely thanked me with enough courtesy to make displeasure perfectly plain.”

A reluctant flicker of amusement touched her mouth. “Perhaps I have learned subtlety from Mama.”

“I doubt Lady Montague has ever practiced subtlety long enough to teach it.”

“No,” Poppy admitted. “She finds it fatiguing.”

Freddie lifted his head abruptly as a pair of ducks waddled near the edge of the road. Poppy caught his ribbon before he could leap. “Do not even contemplate it,” she told him.

Freddie trembled with thwarted ambition.

Gabriel slowed the horse. Ahead, the avenue narrowed where several carriages had gathered, their occupants exchanging greetings, clearly delighted to be seen enjoying the weather. He guided the curricle onto a quieter lane beside the Serpentine.

Poppy kept hold of Freddie’s ribbon.

For a little while, the only sound between them was the soft beat of the horse’s hooves and the distant calls of the waterfowl Freddie had been denied the opportunity to terrorize.

At last, she said, “You might have told Lord Ketterham it was not your place to comment.”

Gabriel had expected the charge. But it did not make it easier to answer. “He asked whether the rumors concerning Lady Montague were exaggerated.”

“And you told him they were not.”

“Yes.”

Poppy swallowed. “Why would you do that?”

The question held more hurt than anger.

Gabriel kept his gaze on the road. “Because they are not exaggerated.”

Her fingers tightened around Freddie’s ribbon. “You could have declined to answer.”

“I had already declined to discuss confidential matters.”

“That was not the same question.”

“No.”

“You knew why he was asking,” she pressed.

“Yes.”

“You knew what your answer would do.”

Gabriel’s hands tightened on the reins before he made himself ease them. “I knew he wished for peace and quiet. I knew it would be dishonest to allow him to imagine marriage to you would provide it.”

Poppy went very still.

Marriage to you.

The phrase lingered after he had spoken it, far too intimate for a conversation that ought to have remained professional.