“Oh,” Leticia groaned half-heartedly. Again, she hurriedly searched her mind for a reason she couldn’t accompany the gentlemen on their ride. As Harry had selected the one activity she loved most in the world, she would need to come up with something solid if she had any chance of convincing them that she couldn’t ride by their sides. “After I take these bluebells in the house, I have an appointment.”
“Do you?” Richard asked, and his dark eyebrow lifted quizzically.
“Yes,” Leticia replied. “It is a very important one, in fact, so I best—” And since she ran out of steam at that moment because she couldn’t conjure any such appointment that she might have this afternoon, she simply nodded at both men and began walking away. She moved as quickly as she could, but that did not help her escape her cousin’s words or Richard’s reply as they floated after her.
“Is it just me, or is Letty behaving in a peculiar manner today?” Harry asked.
Richard gave a deep, rich laugh. “When is Leticia ever normal?” She laughed at his comment as it was she who was currently playing the role of the modest maiden while he was the rakish duke.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE
Imust control myself. Leticia is just another lady…no, she means more to me than any other lady, and because I respect her as I do, I will conquer my impulses and treat her properly moving forward.
Richard told himself that all throughout the early afternoon as he went for a ride with Harry around the property as had been suggested. The sun shone brightly on his back, and when they reached the stables, having made an entire tour of the park, Harry ventured away, saying he needed to bathe before dinner, but Richard sauntered toward the river. He’d never been as strong a swimmer as either Harry or Leticia, but now, after the long, hot ride, he could think of nothing finer than taking a dip in the rushing waters.
“What are you doing here?” He spotted Leticia at once and asked the question merely because it was the first thought that came to his mind. She stood, ankle-deep in the water, not even bothering to hoist the hemline of her white skirt but allowing it to become saturated.
“Oh, bother,” she said, turning at the sound of his voice and giving him a rueful smile. “And here I thought by coming to the river, I might escape you.”
He trod carefully down the riverbank but did not venture into the water. “Have I really made myself such a nuisance?”
“Of course not,” Leticia replied as she gave him a teasing smile. “But I do think it best for our union if we only pretend to do the things lovers do.”
“Yes,” Richard murmured, “we are still pretending, aren’t we?”
“I am,” she answered in a singsong voice. Then, she skipped deeper into the water so that it came up to her waist. He watched the way the current swirled around her, and more than anything, he wished to wade out to her and take her in his arms. But now that they were agreed on the matter of their relationship, and he had seen the error of his ways, he would not even entertain such a notion. Instead of moving into the river, he picked up a handful of pebbles and tossed them lightly, watching as they skimmed across the surface of the water. “Why don’t you come in?”
“No thank you. I’d prefer to stay ashore.”
Leticia scoffed. “I sincerely doubt you came all the way down to the river just to skip a few rocks. Besides, you look hot.”
He turned toward her and intentionally crooked one eyebrow higher than the other. “Do I?”
“I only meant to say that it is an unseasonably warm day, and I know you went out for that ride with Harry. You ought to allow yourself a moment of refreshment.”
“It is tempting,” Richard admitted as he let the granules of sand that had accumulated in his palm when he picked up the pebbles float toward the ground, “but I do not think it would be proper for me to join you in such a state.”
Leticia glanced downward. “I see no trouble with it. There’s plenty of space here in the river. So long as we do not touch one another, there should be no issue.”
“I—” Richard began as he sought to find a reason why he could not step into the river, but his mind went blank as he gazed once more at Leticia who had sunken further down into the pooling water. Now, only her head and chin were visible.
“Come on,” she teased. “Just when I have begun to think that you might have flung all your rules and guidelines out the window, you act this way. You can be so very boring when you are like this, you know.”
“Boring?” Richard questioned. “You spent a great deal of time lecturing me about my virtues, and yet, it was you who backed away from me in the garden. And—if I’m not mistaken—you were the one who said we shouldn’t kiss each other anymore.”
“Perhaps we are more alike than we understand,” Leticia said coyly. Then, she began to emerge from the water. Her flimsy white day dress clung to her body, and Richard turned away at once to give her some privacy. She giggled. “What are you doing? You look as though you are prancing about on the shore?”
“I was just…I wanted you to feel as though you could get out of the river without having me ogle you.”
“Interesting…oh!” was Leticia’s reply. And when he dared to glance back in her direction, she had disappeared. He spun in place, frantically gazing up and down the riverbank in search of her.
I know she’s quick, but she can’t possibly have moved that swiftly.
His eyes drifted across the landscape, but she was nowhere in sight. When he turned back toward the river, he saw one of her hands. It was clawing at the air, and he knew at once that she was in distress. He peeled off his coat but did not waste time taking off his boots. In his rush to disrobe, her hand disappeared, and he panicked.
He splashed through the water, scooping at the rushing river with his hands, trying to part it and clear a path. When he got so that he was waist deep, he dove below the surface. Opening his eyes did not feel like the natural thing to do as the water was murky in this area, but he did it anyway because he knew he had to find Leticia.
Unable to spot her in that first plunge, he resurfaced. “Leticia!” he shouted, hoping that wherever the current had dragged her, she would be able to hear him and would make some noise of her own to respond. Richard sucked in a deep breath, and just as he was about to go under once more and continue his search, he felt a tap on his shoulder. The inhalation he took choked him as he turned to see Leticia standing in front of him.