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He had spoken very quickly, and he looked away from her as he finished talking, clearly not sure of what her reaction was going to be.

She wasn’t sure herself. For a long time, she couldn’t seem to find words.

Then, finally, they came. “You were offering an annulment for my benefit?”

“For who else’s would I offer one?”

“I thought it was because you didn’t want to be married to me anymore,” she said.

“After all I went through to finalize our marriage, you thought my mind had suddenly changed for no reason?”

“It wouldn’t have been no reason,” she reminded him. “It’s the reason you mentioned already. The kiss. I thought you didn’t want to be married me after that…perhaps because it was a disappointment to you in some way.”

“That’s what you’ve been walking around believing? That I was unhappy with the kiss, and as a consequence I wanted to end the marriage?” He shook his head. “You can’t possibly think that I would give up on things so quickly.”

“I don’t understand,” she admitted. “You were going to give up. I didn’t bring up an annulment; you did. You were the one who came to me with the idea, so how could I possibly be expected to think that you weren’t ready to give up?”

He sighed. “Amanda, one kiss wouldn’t have ended a marriage from my end. I thought it would be what was best for you.”

“I thought it was that you weren’t happy with the kiss. That I wasn’t any good at it.”

“Kissing isn’t something for one person to be good at. It has to do with the connection between the two participants.” He met her eyes. “And if the connection is not there, it should be given a chance to grow.”

“I still don’t understand. How could it grow? What does that mean?”

“For heaven’s sake.” He reached across the carriage and gripped her hand, pulling her toward him.

She hadn’t been expecting it, so she fell forward easily. He caught her in his arms and pulled her onto his lap.

“Sampson,” she gasped.

“Shh.”

He cupped the back of her head, pulled her close, and kissed her.

Amanda felt as if her heart was going to burst right out of her chest.

She didn’t resist him. Whether she could have or not was perhaps a matter for debate, but she didn’t want to try. She wrapped her arms around him and leaned into the kiss, relishing the taste and the smell of him, the firm hold he had on her. Even though she was sitting in his lap and should have felt a little unstable, everything was easy. It was because he was so big, she thought distantly, and so strong. The carriage could rock, but Sampson was able to hold her perfectly still.

And the kiss was intoxicating. It was like sliding into a perfectly warm bath, the way it seemed to give way and welcome her into it. She pulled back slightly, but kept her forehead pressed to his. “Am I doing it right this time?”

“You did it right the first time,” he said hoarsely. “It was never a matter of me not liking the way you kiss, Amanda. Goodness.”

“Then what?” She wanted to push away the questions, to return to the blissful feeling of the kiss and forget about everything she was wondering. But she couldn’t do it? What if tomorrow led to another conversation she didn’t understand that caused her even more upheaval than the first one had? She couldn’t go through that again.

I want to kiss him, but before I can, I need to know why we’re doing it. I need to know what it means.

He eased her down onto the seat beside him. Her heart broke a little at the distance, but he kept hold of her hand.

“I just feel such uncertainty,” he murmured. “Such guilt. I wanted to atone for the loss of George. I know you don’t blame me, but I think I’ll always carry the weight of it. And I did think that caring for you might be the right price to pay. I never thought…that I would fall in love with you.”

She sucked in a breath.

“It feels as if I’ve betrayed him twice.” Sampson’s voice was raw. “He lost his life because of me. And now I’ve come home and taken his wife.”

She was quiet for a moment. “You know,” she said, “George’s family turned me out of the home because I hadn’t had a child. There was no heir, and to them, that meant I wasn’t one of them.”

“It was a cruel thing to do.”