“Ye-es,” Lady Georgina said. “That did occur to me, too. But they can’t very well be anything else, can they? I mean, it wouldn’t do to have a copper horse or a lead swan.” She frowned and switched a mole with a sparrow.

He watched her thoughtfully. “Is that all, my lady?”

“What?” She didn’t look up from the little animals. “No, there’s lots more.” But she didn’t elaborate.

He pushed the remains of his supper away. “Are you going to tell me the rest?”

“No. Not right now, anyway.”

He got up from the table and took a step closer. He didn’t want to frighten her. He felt as if he had his own golden swan within reach. “Then, will you tell me why you’ve really come, my lady?” he asked. He could smell the perfume in her hair, an exotic scent like spices from distant lands.

She set a thrush next to a cat. The bird toppled over, and he waited while she carefully righted it. “I need to tell you something. Besides the fairy tale.” Her face was half turned away, and he could see the glistening trail of a tear on her cheek.

A kind man—an honorable man—would leave her alone. He would pretend he didn’t see the tears and would turn away. He would not trespass upon her fears and desires. But long ago Harry had lost what little honor he’d ever had.

And he had never been kind.

He touched her hair with a fingertip, feeling the soft strands. “What do you need to tell me?”

She turned to face him, and her eyes were bright in the firelight, uncertain and hopeful and as alluring as Eve herself. “I know now what I want from you.”

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Harry stood so near, his breath caressed her face. “And what is it you want from me, my lady?”

George’s heart beat in her throat. This was so much harder than she’d imagined back in her room at Woldsly. She felt like she was laying her soul before him. “I want you.”

He bent closer, and she thought she felt his tongue touch her ear. “Me?”

She gasped. This was what drove her on, despite her embarrassment, despite her fear: desire for this man.

“Yes. I . . . I want you to kiss me like you did before. I want to see you naked. I want to be naked for you. I want . . .”

But her thoughts scattered because this time she was sure of it—he was tracing the rim of her ear with his tongue. And while the idea of such a caress might seem rather odd, in reality it was divine. She shivered.

Harry’s chuckle puffed against her wet ear. “You want many things, my lady.”

“Mmm.” George swallowed as another thought occurred to her. “And I want you to stop calling me my lady.”