Chapter Ten #3
Katiana resumed eating, though she still wasn’t over the terrible death of Titus’ friend. “But you like to compete?”
“I do,” he said. “I’m good at it. I’ve been trained for it. And it has made me rich, so I will continue competing until I am so old that I can no longer hold a joust pole.”
He sounded rather firm about it. Katiana reached into the basket again to pull out some cheese, break it in half, and hand him the larger portion.
“I’ve never even been to a tournament,” she said. “Honestly, I live in a hole compared to the life you lead, Titus. I’m rather embarrassed.”
“Why?”
“Because I cannot tell you glorious tales of my great adventures.”
He smiled. “It will not be like that forever,” he said. “You will find a husband who will take you to great places, and then you will have many stories to tell.”
Katiana rolled her eyes. “Are we on that subject again?”
“What subject?”
“Of my not being married,” she said. “Now you speak as if it will be a certainty.”
“It will be.”
“You know I do not want to talk about it.”
He rolled over onto his stomach, looking at her. “I don’t know why you are so irritated by the subject,” he said. “Remember that I asked you to think about it.”
She frowned. “Think about what?”
“If you will allow me to court you.”
Her irritation was growing. “And I told you that it was impossible.”
She was digging around in the basket again, and he reached out, grasping the hand that was fishing. Katiana looked at him, wary, as he brought it to his lips for a gentle kiss.
“It is not only possible, it is probable,” he said quietly, his eyes glimmering at her. “I do not know why you resist. You told me yourself that you have no suitors.”
“And I told you why.”
“And I told you that I do not need a wife with wealth,” he said. “I want someone I like. Someone I can talk to. A beautiful, practical lass who will fall at my feet in worship.”
“I will not fall at your feet.”
“Then I will fall at yours.”
He wasn’t kidding. Katiana could tell by the expression on his face that he was quite serious. But that only made it hurt more.
“Titus,” she said sadly, squeezing his fingers as they held her hand. “Your family will expect a great marriage from you. I am not a great marriage.”
“My parents will love you.”
She held up a hand to stop him. “Wait,” she said.
“Before you go any further and we end up in an argument, I want you to stop this line of thinking. Please. You are fine and handsome and a joy to my heart, but I am not of your social station. A de Wolfe must have a properly placed wife, and that simply isn’t me. ”
“Then you are not opposed to it because you do not think of me in that way?”
“In what way?”
“As a lover and a husband.”
She snorted ironically. “I could only be so fortunate,” she said.
“Nay, Titus, if all things were equal and there was a chance at happiness, I would put my arms around you and never let you go. Marrying you would be the fulfillment of everything good I thought I would never have in my life, so nay, you are not lacking in any way. But I am.”
He pushed himself up so he was sitting on the grass, looking at her very carefully.
“You are not lacking,” he said quietly. “Katia, I’ve never wanted to marry anyone in my life.
Not that there hasn’t been ample opportunity, but I have always been too busy for it.
Too focused on my own wants and goals to have to worry about a wife and children.
But I am serious when I say that I want to court you. I have never wanted anything more.”
Katiana knew that. She could see it in everything about him.
Their conversation had moved beyond a gentle flirt to something serious, and she didn’t like it.
It made her heart race. Would that she could have had a chance with him, there was nothing she would want more.
There was nothing she wouldn’t do for the opportunity.
But she was being far more pragmatic than he was.
He was being reckless.
“Titus—”
He cut her off. “Please, Katia.”
“Titus, you are hurting me. This talk is excruciating.”
He backed off, sensing this was a situation he wasn’t winning. “I do not wish to do that,” he said. “I would never deliberately hurt you. But your argument is unsound. You are from a good family in the north. Our marriage would be considered a reasonable one. How can I make you understand that?”
She looked at him. “And you can see yourself married to me?” she said, incredulous. “Put aside the fact that I am unsuitable. You already know you want to marry me? We have only known each other for a few days.”
“I’ve known you since you were small.”
“You know of me, and we were acquainted, but you do not know me.”
“But I want to. Very much.”
“Why?”
It was an honest question that deserved an honest answer.
“I’m not sure,” he said truthfully. “All I know is that the past few days have meant more to me than I could have imagined. You’re beautiful and sweet and witty.
You have talent and grace. I look at you and you make me feel very strong and very weak. ”
“Weak? How?”
He shrugged. “Giddy, I suppose,” he said. Then he cracked a grin. “Does that sound strange coming from a man my size?”
She fought off a smile. “Strange but endearing.”
“Do… do I make you feel giddy?”
Her smile broke through. “You’ve never made me feel anything else.”
He had an expression on his face that suggested he was feeling giddy at that very moment. Standing up, he brushed his breeches off before extending his hand to her.
“Come with me,” he said softly.
Katiana put her hand in his. “Where are we going?”
He pulled her to her feet. “Over there,” he said, pointing to a group of dancers in the area near the musicians. “I feel like dancing.”
There was that impulsiveness again. Titus was actually a terrible dancer, but he saw an opportunity to interact with Katiana in something other than a conversation or on horseback.
He didn’t seem to be gaining much headway with his marriage talk, and he was trying to figure out if he was pushing it because she was resistant and he wasn’t accustomed to having his wishes denied, or because he truly was serious about her.
He believed that he was very serious, but this was new territory for him, and her resistance was something he wasn’t used to.
He was used to women, and men, obeying orders and wishes.
But not Katiana—she was trying very hard to convince him that marriage between then was not feasible.
Perhaps if they had a few moments to dance with one another, that closeness could accomplish something that conversation couldn’t.
He wanted to find out.
The villagers were having an ecstatic time dancing to the musicians that had evidently been playing all day, because they seemed positively exhausted.
The citole player had bloodied fingers from plucking strings for hours, but they weren’t to be given any respite in the next few minutes.
As Titus and Katiana walked to the edge of the crowd, dancing a simple carole dance, the musicians ended their song, and Titus boomed at them to continue playing.
This coming from a man who was well over six and a half feet tall sent the musicians into a frenzy as they picked up the pace with the next song.
Grinning at Katiana, Titus pulled her into the pack of revelers.
Fortunately, Katiana knew how to dance. She could do it very well.
Titus was too big and, simply put, uncoordinated when it came to moving his feet in any regular pattern, and Katiana could see that.
He’d already kicked one couple who had strayed too close and ended up stepping on some woman’s foot.
She was still off howling about it. Therefore, to spare Titus any further embarrassment, she had him stand in one spot while she simply danced around him.
Titus was good at keeping up with her. He held her hand when he was supposed to and let her spin in a circle around him gracefully.
He knew she was doing it to save his pride, and he thought that was rather sweet of her.
No one he’d ever known had tried to spare him in such a way, but Katiana did.
She was an elegant dancer and moved around him gracefully.
But the more he watched her, the more enchanted he became.
The more she touched him, and the more he touched her, the more he wanted.
They came to the part in the dance when the men lifted the women up, over their heads if they could get them that high.
It was no feat at all for Titus, who lifted Katiana up, straight up so she was over his head and her hands were braced on his shoulders.
It was an incredibly intimate position as her body draped against his, and at that moment, something changed between them.
The flirting, the witty banter, and the conversation that had gone on since they’d been reintroduced suddenly changed into something warmer and deeper and far more serious.
The mood changed.
When the men in the dance were to lower the women back to their feet, Titus simply lowered Katiana enough that she was face to face with him.
They were a mere few inches from each other, with Katiana’s body against his as she hung off the ground.
Her hands were still on his shoulders, but she was looking at him with a mixture of curiosity, doubt, and perhaps even a little excitement.
She seemed to be breathing unnaturally fast.
“You’re supposed to put me down,” she whispered.
The smile never left his face. “In a moment,” he said. “I do not know if I’ve ever been this close to you.”
“Of course you have,” she said. “We’ve been riding on the same horse for days.”
“Jesus hates that we are,” he said. “But, then again, Jesus does not approve of most things. He’s hell in battle, but he’s a very peculiar horse.”
“You will make sure that Jesus knows it was not my idea to ride on him.”
“He already knows. Jesus knows everything.”