Pru’s eyes widened but he was not done.
“Have you ever heard of a man longing for a woman whose stomach is growling and who looks as though she’s one missed meal away from starvation?”
Pru blinked, her lips parting in surprise, no doubt at his passion for this particular topic.
“Do you think any man in his right mind would prefer a skin-and-bones miserable old stick like your aunt to someone who is as lush and vivacious and beautiful as you?”
Her eyes were so wide he nearly drowned in them, her lips were so soft and full when they weren’t pursed or pressed together in a thin line of disapproval. She was so utterly beguiling when she wasn’t—
“That was entirely inappropriate,” she breathed.
He choked on a laugh. She was beguiling when she forgot to be priggish Pru. Although, he couldn’t quite stop his grin because her words lacked heat and it truly was fantastically diverting to get a rise out of her.
If she were to simper or giggle or heaven forbid flirt after such a phenomenally forward speech like that—
Well, that just wouldn’t be Prudence, now would it?
And where would be the fun in that?
He watched her profile as she watched the crowds milling along the path before them. Honestly. When had she become so pretty?
Or had she always been pretty and he’d been too thick to notice?
He nodded to himself. Probably the latter. He’d been a remarkably stupid boy. Well, perhaps not stupid, but definitely selfish. So caught up in his own grief and the wild emotions that came from being uprooted from his comfortable world as the son of society’s outcasts. In one moment he’d gone from being a society scandal to the marquess’s one and only heir.
Not even his father had believed he would actually inherit when he’d been the heir presumptive, but as each year passed and his uncle failed to remarry, it was becoming alarmingly clear that he might really be stuck with the title and role he did not want.
If only his uncle’s first wife hadn’t died. If only he’d had a happy marriage. If only he were anyone but Damian, the thought might not be so abhorrent. But he hadn’t been born to this life, and he certainly never wanted it.
He found himself lost in memory until her voice brought him back to the present. “It’s been so long since I’ve been to a fair like this one, I almost forgot they existed.”
He let out a short burst of air, halfway between a laugh and a scoff.
“The last time I came to this one—”
“You were miserable,” he finished on her behalf. He’d meant it to be teasing. Though she had been miserable. Sometimes it had seemed like she was always miserable, and she’d never been content to revel in misery alone.
He glanced over now, expecting to see her rolling her eyes or sighing in exasperation. He was surprised to find her blushing. A mottled red streaked her neck as she dipped her head but her eyes were unfocused, lost in thought.
Lost in memories, just like he’d been.
“That’s true,” she murmured. “I was miserable.”
And all at once, he was ready to kick himself. Of course she’d been miserable. She’d been living with the Dowager Demon back then, too. Her parents had never been around, as far as he knew. She’d been stuck in that awful stuffy house with that horrid, cruel woman.
He winced as the full weight of his childish self-absorption hit him upside the head.
Of course she’d been miserable...and he’d done nothing to help. “I’m sorry, Pru.”
She whipped her head to the side to face him. “Pardon me?”
He cleared his throat. “I, er...I wanted to apologize.”
Her eyes were wide again. Wide and unblinking. “For what? Bringing me here?” She laughed softly. “I’ll admit, I’m worried about how I’ll explain this to my aunt, but I’m rather pleased to have a break—”
“No,” he interrupted. “That wasn’t what I meant. I meant that I’m sorry for when we were kids. I’m sorry for teasing you and playing pranks.”
Her brows knitted together in confusion. “You’re sorry?” Suspicion like he hadn’t seen in days lit her eyes. “Why?”
He flinched. “Er…”
Her eyes narrowed.
“It’s just that now, as adults, I realize that…” He cleared his throat. Oh curse it. He was toeing the line of pity again, and that would not do. He spit it out quickly. “I realize that your life must not have been easy living with the Dowager Demon and I’m sorry for my part in making your situation more uncomfortable.”
She stared at him for such a long time he started to fidget. Then she burst out in a laugh, clapping a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound that brought countless heads turning in their direction, startled birds flying out of the tree overhead, and her chaperone peering over with a glare.
She recovered quickly. “You should not call her that, you know.”
He merely tipped his chin in acknowledgement since the chastisement sounded like something she uttered out of habit more than anything.
“Still,” he said, a smile teasing his lips as he watched her settle, her whole body seeming to soften with that laugh, her features going from pretty to stunning with that rare display of joy. “You could not have had it easy as a child in that house.”
She cast him a quick sidelong look and what he saw there made his heart ache. He felt sorry for Prudence today but the thought of her as an innocent child in that house that held no love, only criticism and scorn…
It made him want to pull her into his arms and tell her all that she was worth, give her everything that she deserved.
The urge came on so fast, so insistent, it left him temporarily stunned and speechless.
“You are hardly to blame for my childhood woes,” she said, her smile wry and just a bit cynical. “There is plenty of blame to go around and none of it belongs to you.”
He shifted toward her. He had
