“He...he was...I caught him with my best friend.” He could not tell whether the water now spilling down her cheeks was from her soaked hair or whether she was crying. He hoped she was not crying.
Then he’d be forced to feel sorry for her.
“You caught him with Sybil? As in caught talking to her? So what?”
“They weren’t talking. He was with her.”
Bollocks.
He supposed it was too late to simply set her safely on the grassy bank and swim away. He was too incensed by the way she’d been treated by Yardsley, that selfish prig. Nor had he ever liked her supposed best friend. “Sybil was never to be trusted. I warned you about her.”
She sniffled as she frowned at him. “And she warned me never to trust you.”
“And you believed that lying witch?” He had a mind to let go of her and watch her flail for a few desperate moments before taking her back in his arms. He would have. He should have. Except her body felt surprisingly good against his and he was not eager to let her go.
“Why shouldn’t I believe her? You were a terror as a child and an impossible rake as you grew older. You did nothing to improve your reputation. What was I to think?”
He tried to concentrate on their conversation and ignore the fact that she was no longer a skinny rail but had lovely, soft breasts that were now rubbing against his chest. “Even so, Sybil was no better. She was just sneakier about it.”
“I learned that lesson the hard way. I caught them together in the clerestory. Yardsley did not even have the decency to wait until after the wedding to be unfaithful. He and Sybil were...” She inhaled raggedly and released the breath in a sob. “They were...cavorting...in an intimate manner in the church. In the church. Less than an hour before we were to marry.”
“So you ran off.” Her legs were entwined with his and her thigh was now rubbing against his private parts, although he was trying his best to avoid that contact.
Not that she realized what she was doing.
Or that he was naked.
Katie always was a naive widgeon.
In truth, it was perhaps the only thing he liked about her. Well, he’d now add her breasts to the short list of things he liked about her.
In truth, she was a good, sweet girl.
He’d been the bad one, and too much of an arse to appreciate how nice she was.
“They laughed at me when I caught them. Yes, I ran off and never looked back. They are welcome to each other for all I care.”
“Good for you. That took courage. I’m proud of you.”
Her eyes rounded in surprise. “Why do you say that? I thought you hated me.”
They were now approaching his side of the river and he knew he’d soon have to release her. “I never hated you. Yes, you rankled me. I disliked your perfect manners and your always perfect behavior. There were often times I wanted to push you into a mud puddle just to knock you down off your pedestal.”
“You did push me into a mud puddle once.”
The accusation surprised him. “When? I don’t ever remember doing that.”
“I was fifteen and you were twenty. You showed up drunk and soaking wet to my birthday party. It had been raining hard earlier in the day so the ground was wet. You were too cobbled to find the front door, so you stumbled around to the back and passed out on a bench in our garden. I ran out to fetch you and bring you inside before you caught a lung infection and died.”
He hoisted her onto a grassy patch of the bank, briefly wondering when she was going to realize he was naked and start screaming again. “Why did you run out to me? Why didn’t you send a footman?”
“I didn’t want you to get in trouble and thought I could sneak you in myself. But when I tried to help you up, you tumbled off the bench and took me down with you.”
“Into a mud puddle?”
She nodded.
“If one were to be precise about it, I didn’t push you into it then. We simply fell in because you were foolish enough to try to lift me.”
“I was only trying to help. I wanted to protect you so that you would not get in trouble with your family.”
He laughed. “That’s rich. My family? My father and grandfather would have clapped me on the shoulder and asked me how many girls I’d...entertained that night.”
Katie looked as though she was about to cry again.
“Blast. What’s wrong now?”
“Is that what you were doing on the night of my party?”
“No, I wasn’t. I was merely drinking. I’m nothing like Yardsley.” Not that he was a saint, but even he would have had the decency not to cheat on his bride on his wedding day.
“My parents assured me you were worse.”
“They just assumed I would be since I’m a Jameson. But Yardsley’s reputation is no better. They were willing to overlook his because he is one of the richest men in England. I’m sorry they pushed you into marrying him. I could have told them it would never work. A girl like you needs to marry for love.”
He started to get out of the water, but thought better of it. Katie, despite being the most irritating girl in existence, had just endured a bad scare and narrowly avoided drowning. He would take it easy on her today. “Close your eyes, Katie.”
“Why?”
“Are your senses so addled that you have not noticed? I’m wearing no clothes. And by the way, that twitching thing you felt against your thigh wasn’t a fish.”
She shrieked and rose to scamper away, but her slippers were wet and the grass was slick. She tumbled back into the water, panicked and began to flail even though the water on this side of the
