Page 48 of The Duke’s Defiant Love

"I was under the impression quiet was what you preferred from me at present."

"I did not say that."

"You did not need to. You’ve scarcely said a word since we left the house." She kept her eyes on the window, on London sliding past in its ordinary, indifferent way, entirely unconcerned with the wreckage of her own reputation. "And after this morning I thought perhaps we had already exhausted everything you wished to say to me"

"I am attempting not to make matters worse."

She glanced at him then, and something in her voice softened despite herself. "You are allowed to speak to me, Sebastian"

"Given our conversation this morning, I thought silence the wiser course."

"Since when have you preferred the wiser course?”

His mouth twitched. “Since discovering the consequences of the alternative.”

A ghost of her old humor crept back into it, and she felt some of the tightness in her chest ease at the sound of it, familiar despite everything that had gone wrong between the library and this carriage. "You were remarkably eager to agree to my terms, for a man who claims to prefer arguing every point I raise."

"I did not think refusing you again would improve my case."

"No," she agreed. "It would not have."

The silence resumed and Sebastian looked out of the window. Amelia looked at her hands.

After a while, he looked at her. "You may stop looking as though marrying me is quite so dreadful."

"I am not."

"You are."

"I am merely thinking."

"That is generally more dangerous."

Her mouth twitched.

"There. You see? You can still be insufferable."

"I was beginning to fear you had forgotten."

"I have forgotten very little about you."

The words came out more quietly than she intended. Sebastian turned toward her and she immediately looked away. He watched her for a moment.

"I am glad."

She glanced at him.

"Why?"

"Because I was afraid yesterday had made you forget everything good."

Her expression softened.

"It did not."

Some of the tension left his face.

Then she added,