The next morning Prince Brad rose from his slightly damp bed and dressed under the interested gaze of the frog.
“Pervert,” he said, scooping up her basin and walking swiftly down to the breakfast room.
“Your Highness,” said a courtier, bowing low on his entrance. “The ladies have arrived for your inspection.”
“Inspection?” murmured the frog.
“I’m to be married,” said the prince, “and I need to choose a bride.”
“Oh, good,” replied the frog. “I’ll help.”…
—From The Frog Princess
Sarah stared at him and for a second looked utterly betrayed.
Then she burst into a flurry of movement, shoving at him, kicking, trying to escape from his arms.
Adam dodged a flying hand and then caught it. She arched her back and he wrapped his other arm around her middle, pulling her up against his chest.
“Sarah,” he said.
She stopped all at once, sagging back.
He didn’t let go of her. “Sarah.”
She turned her head away from him.
He sighed. “If you don’t tell me, I’ll let you go. But know that I cannot continue with you like this—me advancing, you retreating. I need to know why.”
Slowly her head turned to him, and he saw that she had tears welling in her eyes.
His heart swelled at the sight. Whoever had done this to her would pay. He’d find the man and destroy him.
“I was sixteen,” she said in a small, precise voice. “I’d gone to stay with a friend for a month. Her family was hosting a house party and many people came. Among them was an older gentleman—a man of seven and twenty. He…”
Her voice trailed away, and she closed her eyes as if she couldn’t bear to look at him while she told her tale. “He was a well-known man about town in London, but his notoriety only made him more interesting to me. I used to sneak glances at him, watching him as I thought in secret. But he knew, I think. He knew.”
Adam let go of her arm and raised his hand to her cheek, stroking over the soft skin there.
He knew when a woman watched him as well. He’d hunted women who fluttered with interest about him.
But they’d never been so young as Sarah had been.
The man who had hurt her was without honor. Without common decency.
“He began looking back,” she whispered. “At first I thought I imagined his glances. It was so exciting. So wonderful. I spent every moment thinking about him, wondering with great anxiety if he truly returned my regard. The smallest thing became of great significance. When he held the door for me as I entered the room. If he nodded as I passed him in the morning. At night I couldn’t sleep for my excitement. I was a fool. Such a fool,” she murmured as if to herself.
He brushed a kiss over her cheek. “You were young. It’s not entirely the same thing.”
She inhaled shakily. “One day he found me in the garden alone. He said things—grand, flowery things—and they were everything I’d been dreaming of. When he kissed me I was completely his.”
Adam closed his eyes, cursing this nameless man who had taken her girlish hope and trembling awareness.
“He…” She swallowed. “He touched me. Raised my skirts and revealed my legs…and more. I think he was opening his breeches when my friend, her mother, and half a dozen more of the house party came upon us.” She chuckled, but it sounded broken. “If ’twere possible to die from chagrin I would’ve done so then. I tried to hide behind him, but he stepped away, exposing my shame to all that were there. My friend’s mother was shocked, but she accused him of seducing me. He…he told her—told them all—that I was no innocent. That I’d come to him and made an assignation with him in the garden. That I’d enticed him.”
He opened his eyes, looking at her, this self-possessed, strong woman. “What happened?”
“They believed him,” she said simply. “I was sent home in disgrace. My friend’s mother wrote a note to my parents informing them of my terrible conduct. Mama burned the letter. She really was quite wonderful.”
Her smile was sad.
He inhaled. “I’m glad that your mother is a levelheaded woman.”
She nodded. “I missed the next three London seasons. There was too much talk. When I did return I didn’t receive any suitors—the few who came calling didn’t have honorable intentions.”
Eleven years ago he had probably been too busy whoring to worry about society gossip. Or at least, if he had heard rumors about her, he’d long since forgotten them.
He looked down at her small, delicate hand. “What became of the cad?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged. “He continued to be a man about town in London. He continued to be invited to country house parties. He continued to be popular with hostesses.”
“And does he live in London now?” Adam asked softly.
“I don’t know.” She looked at him, her light-brown eyes sad. “But that no longer matters. What matters is you and I.”
“What about us?” he whispered, stroking a lock of her hair back from her face. It was like silk. Spun golden silk.
“What do you want from me?” she asked simply.
“I want you.” He fought to keep his voice level. Civilized. “In every way.”
“In marriage?” Her words were soft but held an edge of steel.
He stared at her, feeling wild. “I don’t know.”
Her sigh was inaudible. “You must understand why I cannot do this.” She gestured in the small space between them. “I don’t wish to risk my reputation again.”
“You don’t trust me not to expose you to gossip,” he said, and it felt like a slim stiletto slipped between his ribs.
“I…” She looked at him, but to her credit she did not prevaricate. “No. I’m sorry. I can’t.”
Adam could’ve argued. Could’ve said that he wasn’t the cad from her youth. That he’d never seduced an innocent before. But he doubted mere words would win her trust.
So he opened his arms and let her go.
Three days later, Sarah sat with Megs in her rooms, watching as her sister-in-law attempted to fit into a dress with the aid of Daniels, her maid.
“I don’t think it’ll do, my lady,” Daniels said, surveying the gap at the back of the dress.
“Pooh,” Megs said, wrinkling her nose in the vanity mirror. “I don’t understand why my upper body should expand along with my lower. After all, it’s the lower that has a baby in it.”
She frowned down at her bosom, which was indeed fuller than it had been before her pregnancy.
“Although,” she mused, “Godric is awfully fond of my body this way.”
“I don’t think I want to know that,” Sarah muttered.
“Don’t you?” Megs turned sideways to view her tummy in the mirror. “I really look rather like a boiled pudding, don’t I?”
“But an attractive boiled pudding,” Sarah said loyally.
“Oh, thank you.” Megs began the process of taking off the dress. “Now tell me, what will you be wearing to the Christmas Eve ball?”
Sarah shrugged, glancing down at her hands in her lap. “Perhaps the pink brocade or the blue stripe.”
There was a silence until Sarah glanced up curiously.
Both Megs and Daniels were staring at her, though Megs was the only one with a frown. “Really? Those are both years old. What about the new forest green you had made when you came to visit us in London last?”
“I suppose I could wear that,” Sarah conceded. Would Adam like her in the forest green? She’d thought the dark, lush color had set off her pale complexion…
Except she didn’t want his attention anymore, did she?
“Darling.” She glanced up to see Megs looking at her worriedly. “Are you feeling quite the thing? You’ve seemed down these last few days.”
Sarah burst into tears.
She was horrified, absolutely horrified, but try as she might, she could not stop.
Warm arms enclosed her as Megs pulled her down to sit with her on the side of the bed. “Oh, my dear.”
Sarah inhaled shakily and looked up, mortified, but Megs must have sent Daniels away. It was just the two of them in the bedroom.
Her sister-in-law got up and brought back a glass of water and a handkerchief and pressed both into her hands.
Sarah gratefully accepted them from her and sipped the water. “I…I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“Don’t you?” Megs asked very softly. “I noticed that ever since Lord d’Arque arrived you follow him with your eyes. Has he done something?”
Sarah choked back a bitter laugh. “No. It was I who did something—I told him that I did not wish to be alone with him anymore.”
“Ah.”
She looked up at Megs’s noncommittal reply.
The other woman was watching her with a small frown. “Did he hurt you?”
“Oh no, quite the opposite,” Sarah said, sounding depressed even to her own ears.
“Then…?”
“He’s a rake.” Sarah waved the damp handkerchief. “You know that. Everyone in all of England knows that. And you’re aware of how I feel about rakes.”
“Ye-es?” Megs said slowly, but she bit her lip. “But—”
Sarah blotted her eyes. “What?”
Megs sighed gustily. “It’s just that you’ve never let a gentleman court you. You don’t dance at balls and you’re so abrupt with gentlemen that most run away with their tails between their legs rather than try any more discourse with you.”
“I don’t…” Sarah’s words trailed away as she thought about what Megs had said. Was that how she truly behaved with men? Sarah felt a twinge of hurt. Megs’s description made her sound like a harpy. She met the other woman’s eyes. “I’m not that bad, am I?”
“No,” Megs hastily assured her. “It’s just that most men are rather cowardly. It seems to me that a gentleman who persists despite your sometimes daunting exterior must be very interested in you, don’t you think?”
“He’s a rake,” Sarah whispered, staring down at the sodden handkerchief in her hands. “I can’t. He can’t even tell me if he wants to marry me or not. How can I let him flirt with me, kiss me, when I don’t know if I can trust him?”
“My brother Griffin was considered a rake by many,” Megs said. “He never considered marriage. Yet once he met Hero she was all he thought about. I truly think he’d rather cut off his right hand than hurt her in any way.”
Sarah glanced at her. “You think I ought to encourage him?”
“Why not?” Megs asked gently. “As Lord d’Arque becomes more familiar with you, perhaps he will decide it is marriage he’s after. Or he may not, in which case you can turn your back to him then. But if you never make that small step of faith, never let a man try to learn your heart, you’ll never find the marriage you want. The marriage you deserve.”
Sarah looked down at her hands. “Perhaps I should simply forget Lord d’Arque altogether and settle for an ordinary man.”
“Tell me, are you at all interested in the gentlemen your mother invited for the Christmas house party?”
Sarah winced. Mama had the best of intentions, but her ploy appeared to be obvious to everyone. “They’re all nice men, of course—”
“Of course.”
“And I should find one of them interesting…”
“But?”
“I don’t,” Sarah confessed with a sigh. “I simply don’t.”
Megs smiled, looking beautiful and wise. “Then follow your heart.”