Lysander nodded and continued to efficiently unbuckle the rigging of the harness. "Have to. Can't turn it by himself."

She walked up to regard him across the pony's rough mane.

"The cart! Oh dear, I hadn't thought of that. I'm glad you did. I suppose you think he'll stay nearby."

This time Lysander noticed that she did not phrase it as a question. How long had she been doing that? It was true that he felt much less tension when not trying to answer a specific question. She was very clever to realize that, when he had never clearly understood it himself. Clever and understanding and generous.

He saw her eyes widen and her lips part slightly as if she had seen something startling. Except she was only looking at him. He raised a hand to his face in curiosity and found the remains of a smile disappearing.

IT WAS GEMMA'S TURN to be frozen in place by a smile. It might have been described as a poor effort by anyone else's standards but on Mr. Worthington it was miraculous. It entirely shattered her perception of him as a broken soul. How astonishingly handsome he was!

For a moment, she mused upon the probable character flaws such a powerfully attractive smile would bestow upon a young man. He'd been a charmer, she decided. Wickedly and carelessly unleashing devastating smiles on unwary female hearts. She decided quite firmly that she would not have liked him at all, that young wastrel. Except possibly if he had made her laugh. She had little defense against a genuinely attractive sense of the absurd.

Edmund had had an acerbic sort of humor, a rare but truly witty view of the world and humanity upon it. She'd seen little of it after his years as a battlefield physician, but she remembered it well. It was what had made the difference in their ages and their station disappear, that meeting of humor and wry understanding of the way of the world.

She laughed out loud now, for Mr. Worthington's expression was priceless. He actually looked down at his own hand as if it had somehow betrayed him by detecting a smile upon his somber features. She tried to cover her gust of laughter with her gloved hand but it only made matters worse, for now she was decidedly snickering. She clasped her hands before her, swallowed hard and pressed her lips together. One ought not to laugh at one's patients.

Except he was smiling again, the same rusty half smile that lit his face with a charming flash of white teeth and brightened his eyes. There was a wonder in those eyes as he gazed at her. Wonder and an awakening awe.

At her? Himself? At being able to smile again after everything he'd been through? Perhaps all three.

UNHARNESSED, BAD PONY HAPPILY stumped over to the grassy verge and plunged his oversize jaws into the greenery.