“Still, they shouldn’t say it,” he said.

“It’s rude, I agree. But I have grown accustomed to their whispers, though I am sorry you are just realizing them now. Perhaps you would have chosen differently if you had known that simply linking yourself to us is yet another of your hated scandals.”

He pursed his lips at her response, which she gave with such an attitude that their whispers didn’t matter. And perhaps after hearing them all her life, they didn’t to her. But he found it wasn’t the scandal that bothered him about what had been said…it was that the words about his wife…his wife…were so cruel and untrue.

“You should not have been exposed to such falsehoods and slurs all your life,” he said softly.

She sighed. “Perhaps not. But I have been, so it is not new to me. And if you are going to shout at everyone who says something unkind about me or my sisters, you will be hoarse by the time the leaves change. It is best to ignore them, and to focus on those who know the truth.”

“That you’re not the same person, copied over and over,” he said.

She nodded. “Yes. Although I have never met a friend who could identify me immediately as you claim to do, I know many who can if I start talking.”

“And aren’t pretending to be your sister,” he said, arching a teasing brow as his defensiveness and heightened emotion began to fade a little.

She laughed, for which he was grateful. Not so many days ago, she would have blushed or apologized for her deception. “Yes, obviously when I am being deceptive everyone falls under my spell but you.”

He let his gaze flit over her face in the fading light of the sunset in the distance. “I am definitely more than capable of falling under your spell, Thomasina. I assure you of that. And very much look forward to proving it as soon as we can manage to get all these people out of our house.”

Pink tinged her cheeks and she laughed again. “I am glad we are of a mind. Interlopers, all of them. Just here to drink our wine and eat our food. I would much rather be alone with you.”

He could no longer deny himself, and with a broken sigh, he reached up to stroke his fingertips over her cheek. Her breath grew ragged and short with the action and her pupils dilated with a desire that made him rock hard in an instant. He leaned in, brushing his lips to hers.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, opening to him in that moment, and he let his mind empty as he kissed her. Lost himself in her. Drowned in her.

“We should go back inside before I do something imprudent on the terrace,” he said as he broke the kiss but not the embrace.

She stared up at him with a smile. “Perhaps we’ll save imprudent for another day. Come, let’s go pretend we actually like all these people.”