She stepped into the cool night air, trying to find purchase again when she felt like her world had been spun directly off its axis. Drawing away from him, she moved to the low stone wall and gripped her hands there as she stared down into his beautiful garden maze.

If only she could gather her thoughts. She had to do so, and quickly.

“You know, that dress reminds me of one you wore the day we went riding in the park this spring,” he said. “Do you recall it? Just before we announced our engagement.”

Thomasina blinked as she continued to stare out at the garden. Oh God, he was bringing up events that had happened where she had not been witness. Had her sister gone riding with him before their engagement? Her father had been trying to push Anne toward Harcourt, even before the family as a whole met him. It was all a blur now, memories Thomasina tried not to revisit because the entire engagement brought an odd tightness to her heart.

“Anne?”

She nodded, still not looking at him. “Er, yes. Of course I recall it. What a…what a day that was.” She silently cursed Anne for never giving more details of her courtship with Harcourt. Thomasina hadn’t wanted them, but now she needed them.

“It was,” he mused. “I think you fell in love that day.”

She pivoted with a gasp and stared at him. “What?”

He smiled. “With my sorrel mare, Ember.”

Thomasina reached back to steady herself on the wall’s edge and nodded. “Oh yes, of course. A beautiful animal.”

“Indeed,” he breathed, and moved a long step toward her. He was crowding her suddenly, pressing into her space as she stared up and up at him. “Beautiful,” he repeated.

His hand came out. She watched it extend almost in slow motion and couldn’t breathe as his fingers fanned across her jawline. He tilted her face up a fraction, his expression focused in the moonlight. Then he slowly began to lower his mouth to hers.

For a wild, wanton moment Thomasina considered allowing the kiss. She wanted it. She could admit that in her own mind even if she would never say it out loud to any other living soul. She wanted his mouth on hers and his hands on her and a great many other reckless things that fit Anne’s personality more than her own.

But then the moment passed. And she recalled that this man wasn’t hers. That letting him kiss her was wrong, a betrayal. At the last opportunity to escape, she slipped to the side and dodged him.

“I, er, I should go inside,” she stammered, her entire body trembling as she refused to meet his gaze. “I ought to check on—check on my sister.”

She didn’t wait for his response. She merely turned and all but ran from him. And wished, in her deepest heart, that she didn’t have to do so.