Page 30 of Victorian Bride

Mya stifled laughter, and wondered if she ought to speak to Kayden. In truth, though she had made him wait, she did not wish to torment him beyond reason. Only enough that she was certain he meant his apology.

Lottie must have decided the same thing, because the next morning when Kayden came to the door, she let him in without consulting Mya.

“Kayden is here,” she said when she walked onto the veranda for breakfast. “I told him he might come in today.”

Mya looked up from the toast she was buttering. “Where is he?”

“Waiting in the sitting with a bouquet of geraniums and Love Lies Bleeding.” She laughed softly. “I believe he has given up entirely on subtlety and moved on to desperation in the hopes that you will take pity on him.”

“I will speak with him,” Mya decided. He had waited long enough.

Rising from the table, she found Kayden waiting, as Lottie had said he would be, in the sitting room, staring down at the flowers in his hands.

“Kayden,” she said.

His head lifted. “Mya.” Relief was light in his voice. “I thought perhaps you would refuse to see me again, even with Lottie to intervene on my behalf.”

“I have decided to allow you a chance to speak to me,” Mya said, crossing the room and taking a seat on one of the couches. “The bouquets were a lovely touch, I must admit.”

“I spent entirely too long deciding what must go in each,” Kayden said in return. “I thought if you would not hear me, perhaps you would know what they meant and understand what I was trying to say without words.”

“Lottie and Eleanora explained them to me.” Mya looked at the cascading red flowers in his hands, sharing space with the pink geraniums. “This one, I think, hardly needs it. Love Lies Bleeding is not a name that is difficult to determine the nature of.”

That earned a quiet chuckle. “I thought perhaps if I stopped attempting to be so delicate about it, you might take more notice.”

“You have my attention now.”

The smile on Kayden's face faded, his expression gone pained, and sincere. “I am sorry, Mya, that I spoke to you in the manner that I did. You did not deserve it, and it was absolutely terrible of me to say such things. I will do whatever you desire to make it up to you.”

It was a tempting offer. Mya considered.

“Whatever I desire?”

“Whatever you might choose.”

“It is a lucky thing for you that you are so handsome,” Mya said finally. “Very well. I will accept your apology.”

Chapter 13

“There is something I wish to speak with you about,” Kayden said later, when they were walking together in the field behind the garden.

Mya turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. “Yes?”

“I will not say that it excused my behavior toward you, but I would appreciate it if you would not press me on the matter of my family. It’s a delicate subject for me.”

“I hardly pushed,” Mya protested. “All I did was ask you the kind of question that anyone might ask, and then ask you why you did not answer it when you brushed me off. Had you said that you simply did not wish to speak of them, instead of going immediately on the defensive, it might have ended differently.”

Kayden took a deep breath in and let it out on a rush. “Mya. Please. I’m not accusing you of anything, or yelling at you. I am only asking that you consider my feelings on the matter.”

“You are accusing me, though,” Mya pointed out, stopping in her tracks and turning completely to look at him. “I’m happy to leave matters of your family to the side, though I do admit that I wonder what you will not say to me, but I hardly acted outside the bounds of propriety.”

They began walking again. Kayden said nothing. He was staring straight ahead of them, jaw tight. The warm summer wind rustled in the bushes, filling the air with the faint sighing of leaves. Otherwise, there was only silence. It weighed heavily on Mya's shoulders. This was not the way she had intended their post-apology conversation to go.

“Kayden?” she ventured.

“Yes?” he asked without looking down at her.

“Are you going to refrain from speaking to me at all now? Have I offended you that badly?”