Chapter 1
One
TILLY
“What are you really doing here, Tilly?” Leland’s demanding voice jolted through her, straight to her heart, down her arm, and out through her hand holding a glass of lemonade.
Not able to stop it, Tilly watched as the lemonade rushed the edges of the glass and dashed itself onto her frock leaving a nice large splotch on the fabric.
“Argh. Hold this,” she grumbled as she shoved the lemonade into his large hand.
“I’ll have Etta’s lady’s maid fix that later.”
“I don’t need your help, Leland.” All the while shooting him a death stare, she dabbed at the damp spot with her handkerchief.
It was a futile attempt, but it was something to do other than look into his intense eyes.
“Isn’t it enough that you have to insert yourself into the middle of a grand love affair in a foolish attempt to stop it?
Must you insert yourself in my business, too, Leland? ”
His derisive tone etched itself into her skin. “You call a rogue and a bookworm a grand love affair?”
“Your sister and my brother have been in love for ages. It’s about time they finally admitted it to each other.”
“And I suppose you’re commending yourself on that?”
She shrugged, throwing him a smug look over her raised shoulder. “Someone had to play cupid. Might as well have been me, considering you were throwing her to the wolves.”
“Ralph is hardly a wolf,” Leland referenced the jilted groom that his sister had just recently left at the altar.
Tilly scoffed, stood upright, and snatched her drink back from his grasp, ignoring the fire that burned her hand where they made contact.
“Think what you will. I’m going for a walk.
” She downed her drink and left it on the tray atop the table.
“Don’t bother following me.” She didn’t know why she bothered saying that last part.
Of course he was going to follow her. He didn’t care that she wanted space from him and his ethereally annoying presence.
Unsure whether to categorize him an angel or a demon, she marched down the steps onto the green grass.
“I want an answer, Tilly.”
To further provoke him, which put a grin on her face unbeknownst to him, she just kept walking but now at a faster pace.
“Tilly,” he called out. She would have thought his voice would have been further away, but it was just beyond her shoulder.
“Eep!” she squealed and broke out into a run.
He chased after her, and she couldn’t admit to herself whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Dashing across the field and through a copse of trees, she made for her favorite spot. A rope swing in a tree that Leland had put up for his sister, Etta, when they were younger.
After a couple of calming swings, she breathed out a deep sigh and closed her eyes letting the sun warm her cheeks.
Clouds must have covered the sun because—
“Tilly. Did you really think I wouldn’t find you here?”
Opening her eyes, she found him standing in front of her. He was just close enough for her to…
“Don’t kick your feet at me like a child, Tilly—
SNAP!
The swing that had once held her weight dropped her like a hot coal.
“Are you alri—”
“I’m fine,” she practically shouted.
“I’ll fix that for you later—”
“I don’t need your help, Leland. Just leave me alone.”
“I–”
“Please.” Mortified at her luck, she put her fists on her hips. “Just leave me alone.” She started to back away, one step at a time, keeping her eyes trained on him.
“Tilly, just wait.”
“No, Leland. I don’t want to—”
“But there’s—”
“Leave me—”
SQUISH!
Tilly’s head dropped as fast as her eyelids did. That was the unmistakable sound of her stepping in feces, most likely of the horse manure variety.
“Tilly—”
She put her hand up. Head hanging down.
“I can help—”
At the last word, for the third offer in a short span, she yanked her head up at him. “What don’t you understand, Leland? I do not want your help.”
“It really looks as though you need it today.”
“Yes. As a matter of fact, I do. But you’re the last man on earth I would ever ask for help from—”
“Why?”
“—again.”
“What do you mean again?”
Her cheeks heated in fury. Not from embarrassment at all. Nope. She was sure that by giving him some kind of death stare that he would remember. Alas, no such luck.
“You’ve never asked me for help in your adult life, Tilly. You’re Lady Independent.”
“Think again, Leland, Duke of Domineering.”
“What?”
And he truly looked stumped. Poor fool.
“You don’t remember when I came to you last year asking—”
“Oh my God, Tilly. Please stop.” Now his hands were up in the air and he was shaking his handsome head. “You can’t be serious.”
“I asked you—”
“I know what you asked me for.” His eyes pinned her to the bark of the tree behind her. Penetrating. If his gaze hadn’t been locking her in place, the pain of the past rejection—so deflating, so humiliating, so devastating—would have surely sunk her to the ground already.
“And you said no.”
He laughed. Unamused. “Of course I said no.”
Tilly shrugged. “There you go. For that, I’ll never ask you for your help again. You’re free of me.” She thought those words would feel good to say aloud and directly to his face, but good never felt so hollow.