“No,” she admitted on a sigh. “I do not like it at all .”

“Just as I thought,” he said dryly. Richard opened the window and tossed the embroidery out.

Christiana gaped after the fluttering bit of cloth, and then turned to peer at him in amazement. “I cannot believe you just did that.”

“Believe it,” Richard said solemnly. “You do not need to do embroidery if you do not like it. I will not try to change you. You can be yourself with me.”

She stared into his face for a moment and then swallowed a sudden lump in her throat and shook her head. “You do not know me. What if you do not like me once you do? Dicky said I was—”

“My brother was an idiot,” he assured her solemnly. “He was selfish and self-absorbed and lacked the capacity to care about anyone but himself. In truth, I suspect all those efforts to try to control and change you were based in envy.”

“Envy?” Christiana asked with surprise.

Richard nodded. “You have something he never possessed and never could. You appear to have a basic optimism and joy in life. I’ve seen it. Oh, I’m sure you worry when trouble strikes and can have a sad day like anyone else, but you can also just as quickly shed your fears and worries and smile and enjoy life once those worries pass. I do not think George enjoyed a single day in his life. I do not think he ever felt hope, or happiness. Perhaps he was afraid that if he did find happiness it would be snatched away, but whatever the case, he just did not have it in him. I suspect that is why he liked to take it from others.” Richard peered at her solemnly. “From what I can tell he spent the last year trying to browbeat that happiness out of you.”

“And he tried to steal it from you by having you killed and taking your name and position in society,” she said quietly. “And yet as you say, he wasn’t happy.”

“No, he wasn’t,” Richard agreed, but his voice was distracted this time, his gaze suddenly fixed.

Christiana raised her eyebrows at the change in both his expression and the sudden tightening of his fingers on her arm, and then glanced down and saw what had caught his attention. She still stood in the half-bent position she’d taken when she’d tried to grab back her embroidery. It left her slightly bent at the waist, and her chest directly before his eyes with the neckline gaping to reveal a good deal of her bosom. Blushing furiously she forgot she was in a carriage and started to straighten, managing to bang her head on the roof, and then they hit a rut in the road and she stumbled forward.

Richard reached to steady her even as she caught at his shoulders and between the two of them she came to a halt with her bosom just a hair’s breadth from his mouth.