Lord Bryant shrugged and took the book. Diana leaned over and pointed to the paragraph she was on. He raised his forefinger and marked the spot on the page, their hands touching briefly before she removed hers from the book. He turned to catch her gaze. Their faces were mere inches apart. She was close enough to see that his brilliant green irises were outlined by a darker ring of gray.

A soft bang on the table, made with chubby little hands, interrupted her thoughts. “Read it,” Drue demanded.

Diana sat back and shook her head tenderly at Drue. Lord Bryant coughed, glanced down at the book, settled deeper into his too-small chair, and began to read. He tried the low growling voice, which, for some reason, felt much more convincing and much less embarrassing coming from him. “When you want to go very fast, you need to smack your lips loud and cry ‘Jip.’”

“Not like that,” Tommy said.

Oh no.

Diana covered her mouth with her hands as Drue smacked his lips loudly and bounced side to side in his chair. Heavens, but what she had done over the last few weeks to bring a smile to those boys’ faces, including traipsing about the room pretending to be poor Hans as he lost his horse.

“Diana always reads that part while galloping.”

“She does, does she?” Lord Bryant’s face blossomed into a smile. Whatever he was about to do, it wasn’t going to be good for her.

Diana straightened in her chair, trying for all the world to look like the epitome of ladylike behavior. “I wouldn’t say I gallop.”

“You do.” Tommy pursed his lips. “You gallop all over the room, and you smack your lips and say ‘jip’ over and over.”

Diana had no response to that. She couldn’t deny it. It was the reason this story was the boys’ favorite. She should never have made the mistake of reading to them while Lord Bryant was in the room, especially not this story.

“Perhaps she does more of a trot?” Lord Bryant asked. “A trot is more dignified than a gallop.”

Tommy scrunched his face. “But the book says the horse gallops.”

Lord Bryant stood from his chair. He smacked his lips loudly and did a skip halfway around the table. “Jip, jip,” he said before smacking his lips again. “Was it like that?”

Tommy also rose and, to Diana’s horror, smacked his lips before running about the room, waving his hands in the air, crying, “Jip, jip.” His right leg stayed in front as he attempted to imitate Diana’s galloping horse.

Lord Bryant raised that one blasted eyebrow and craned his neck slowly but deliberately in her direction.

Diana brandished her hands in front of her face. “Truthfully, Tommy is exaggerating. I don’t wave my arms about in the air like that. I’m usually carrying the book.”

As if to prove her wrong, Drue decided this was the perfect time to also gallop about the room, imitating his older brother as well as his three-year-old legs could handle. His arms were decidedly waving in the air.