Page 40 of The Perfect Rose

Not my plan. “Did we ever really make a plan? All I recall is telling you to leave everything to me. So, do you trust me?” He looked to the side to see her. She wasn’t facing him, her gaze firmly locked on the road before them. He wanted to see her eyes, read what she wasn’t saying in words.

“You have given me no reason not to trust you.”

If that answer didn’t take a circular path around her answer, he didn’t know what did. But he had to begin somewhere. “So you will accompany me?”

He could feel her hesitancy as real as the horse beneath him.

“I will.”

It wasn’t the exuberant reaction he’d imagined, but he would take what he was given. From the sound of things, she hadn’t had a typical childhood. Perhaps this was one memory he could replace for her, switch out something awful for something fun. And he had to show her that if she chose a life with him, things would be different from what she knew now. “I’ll race you to the stables,” he challenged her with a raise of his eyebrow.

She jerked her head back in surprise before smiling and spurring her horse into a run. He gave Bug his head and started gaining on Lady Rose’s mount when her bonnet flew from her head. She didn’t slow or look back, so Frederick pulled his reins and retrieved the bonnet.

Stuart and her lady’s maid who had been riding a short distance behind caught up to him. “Do ya think iffen she knows she lost her bonnet?” Stuart asked.

Frederick considered the question as he threw his leg back over the horse.

Before he could answer, her lady’s maid piped in, “Was it a race?”

Frederick nodded.

“She knows very well then, I can assure you. She must have known you’d stop to retrieve it.” The girl covered her mouth with one hand and attempted to smooth out the corners of her mouth.

A light filled Frederick’s soul. “She’ll pay for that.” He chased after her distant form, knowing full well that if Lady Rose didn’t want him to catch her, he wouldn’t. But he also knew that if he had no hope, she wouldn’t be acting so playful.

He found her circling her horse around the tree next to the stables with a smile on her face, her beautiful brown hair falling in loose curls around her shoulders.

“It looks like I won, Mr. Hastings.”

Frederick smiled and held out her bonnet by the strings. She walked her horse close to his and reached out to grab the bonnet. He pulled it higher, and her lunge brought her closer still. He grasped her wrist and his heart thudded in his ears. “What would you like for your prize?” He lowered their arms but didn’t release her.

“My bonnet.” Her breath came out in a whisper, shaky and unsure.

“This?” He swung the bonnet back and forth. “I happened upon this on the side of the road. I thought I’d keep it.”

She laughed playfully. “It would look fetching on you, Mr. Hastings.”

“Call me Frederick.” Please, please, call me Frederick.

She blinked fast a few times. He could practically see her mind working.

Chapter Twenty-seven

‘Frederick’? Is he serious? First the remark about courting me, and now this? Rose had just told herself that she wanted more than Lord Hanby, and Mr. Hastings was sitting a breath away from her, giving her that opportunity. Something had happened when Rose was away, but what? It could have been scheming by Miriam, the Duke, and Frederick; but Rose didn’t want to believe it possible. She wanted to trust them, trust that they were telling the truth, and that Mr. Hastings was not a fortune hunter.

Deep down, she felt he could make her happy, and angry, and miserable, and elated all at once. And despite the desperate situation she was in at this house party, she wasn’t drowning in worry and fear as she’d suspected would happen. Mr. Hastings had been there to rile her up as well as clear the way for her success. If he wanted her to call him Frederick . . . she would.

“Very well, Frederick.”

He swallowed and his eyes moved to her mouth. “Will you . . . will you help me try it on? I don’t know how to properly tie on a bonnet.” He winked.

Rose held out her other hand. His fingers grazed hers as he handed her the strings, a tickling sensation buzzing through her when he leaned toward her, but his horse had other ideas. It sidestepped further away and he was jostled in his seat, his hands flying toward the reins to keep himself atop the creature.

“Perhaps we ought to try on the bonnet with my feet planted firmly on the ground. I don’t like the idea of falling off a horse and having someone find me in your bonnet.”

“Oh, but then they would see how becoming you looked. It would be quite an honor, I assure you.” Rose’s eyes crinkled in the corners.

They guided their mounts slowly toward the stalls to the sound of Frederick’s chuckle. He dismounted his steed, gave Bug’s reins to Stuart, and then came over to help her down. He reached up and took hold of her waist. Her breath froze in her lungs, suspended in time as he lifted her off her mare and set her down gently beside him. Rose tried to convince herself to breathe, but it was far more difficult than she expected. It would have been easier if Mr. Hastings, no, Frederick moved his hands, but he didn’t seem in a rush to do so. She forced shallow puffs of air in and out of her lungs until she had enough air to speak. “Thank you, Frederick.”