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“Blue,” he replied.

“Why don’t you attend balls?”

“I love my privacy,” he replied stiffly.

He was startled when she let out a groan of frustration.

“Percival, I am not conducting an interview,” she said, her voice laced with barely leashed frustration. “Please desist from answering my questions like I am conducting one. I ask these questions to get to know you better, so I do not particularly care for your superficial answers.”

“Does a groom who replies with more words make part of your list of requirements for marriage?” he asked, an amused smile curving his lips.

She burst into laughter. The melodic sound was a balm to the turmoil in his soul that he had carried for the past few years.

“I might have to add it,” she quipped when her laughter died down. “You never told me what else you require of me as your wife.”

“I will do that, but I’d rather have the conversation back at my manor. My requirements might include rules about where you can or cannot go,” he said.

“Why? Am I to become a prisoner in my own matrimonial home?” she asked hotly, her eyes narrowing.

“Absolutely not. I only seek to ensure your safety, which will become my responsibility once we are wed,” he explained quickly. “However, I can be particular sometimes and require things to be done in a particular way. Routine settles my mind, so I do not like to flout that order. We will speak on this later.”

“Do you have other expectations? In the bedroom?” Louisa asked, her cheeks flushing a deep red.

The question seemed to make him uncomfortable, as he adjusted his stance.

“I require nothing else, my dear. I would never force you to uphold vows you don’t mean or make you do anything that would make you uncomfortable. I would honour any other additional requirements you make.”

“There is nothing particularly dramatic. I just require that we at least spend some time together. If we do not, I am positive it will get very lonely. I do value my sanity and yours profoundly,” she said in a wistful tone.

“And?” he prompted.

“I would like to have something sweet every day as well. I have developed quite a sweet tooth, you see,” she continued, flashing him a bright smile that he could not resist returning.

“I will do my best, Louisa.”

“Thank you, Your Grace,” she said, laughing and bobbing a mock curtsy. “I might add more requirements as time goes on.”

“I am yours to command, Louisa. I accepted all your requirements earlier, remember?” he reminded her.

“You did. Forgive me if I dismissed it as the usual promises gentlemen make to get what they want.”

He leaned closer to her, and she tried to maintain her position and not blush further under his heated gaze.

“In the future, dear Louisa,” he murmured, his eyes roaming over her face then settling on her lips, “you would come to realize that my word is my bond.”

Louisa could feel the most delicious tingle starting in her lips. She wondered vaguely what it would feel like to kiss him.

“It is all I have left,” he whispered, raising his hand as if to touch her face then dropping it at the last moment.

The movement snapped Louisa out of her trance, and she swallowed thickly, stepping back to regain her composure.

“What are your plans for the wedding? Would I finally see your family?”

“I barely have any family. Just the Baron Gillingham, a relative of mine, and Lieutenant Colonel Weston, a superior in the army who became a dear friend,” he said with a reminiscent smile that soon became somber. “I wonder if he’ll receive the letter on time.”

Or if he is alive.

If there was something his stint in the army had taught him, it was the fragility of life, and in their line of work, it took so little for a body to go from being living to being lifeless. The transition could occur in a second.