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Her mother raised an eyebrow. “And two more months will not be a hardship.”

Anything could happen in two months. One of her fiancé’s had died within two months of accepting the title. “But we only need the bans posted for three weeks to marry.”

“Regina.” Her mother’s tone was a warning, but Regina didn’t care.

“I don’t want to wait.”

“People will gossip if you marry too quickly,” Her mother pointed out.

“People will gossip regardless, aai.”

“So why make it more of a spectacle? It is better to move at a slow and steady pace, it will give us time to plan a lovely wedding worthy of your new rank and send out the invitations to the families of the ton.”

“No.” She could bend on anything else but not this.

“Regina, it is marriage it cannot be rushed.”

“It didn’t take us two months to marry,” Her father commented, and her mother glared at him.

“You keep a tight lip this whole time and now you say this?” She turned to Leo’s mother, looking for an ally. “Mrs. Kingston surely you agree.”

Regina looked to her new mother-in-law who was watching the exchange with a measured expression that closely mirrored her son.

Naomi leaned forward and sighed. “I can see both your points. Eight years is a long march down the aisle, but on the other hand this is something entirely new. The unique legacy you are both creating deserves due consideration especially at the beginning.”

“Precisely.”

Regina turned to her father. “I cannot wait that long, baba. I cannot.”

“I apologize Mrs. Kingston, she is not normally this disruptive I promise you,” her mother murmured.

Naomi shrugged. “She is eager, I can’t help but take that as a compliment.”

Her mother turned to Leo. “My lord, you agree with me do you not?”

Regina looked at Leo who was watching her with a steady gaze and a contemplative expression.

“I don’t think we will come to a conclusion tonight,” he said carefully.

“Let us post the bans this Sunday, as we are agreed there is no time to waste for that and discuss the rest further. Either way we have three weeks at least.”

Not exactly the ringing endorsement she wanted but he hadn’t agreed with her mother either.

“How very diplomatic.” Captain Mason said, hiding his smile behind his teacup.

Her eyes were burning and the dress which had made her feel so beautiful at the beginning of the evening was now suffocating her. She rose to her feet refusing to look any of the occupants in the eye. “Excuse me,” she murmured and left the room.

*

She wasn’t happy with him; Leo knew that well enough. The fear he’d glimpsed in her face the night he’d come forward was there now and somehow he was to blame. Which was how he found himself wandering in the garden instead of sleeping in the very comfortable bed awaiting him upstairs.

Like his mother, he understood both arguments and knew better than to wade into such a sensitive subject.

The man in him wasn’t about to argue against a shorter courtship so he could make love to Regina sooner.

The feel and taste of her, the soft sounds she made when she let herself go in his arms haunted him day and night.

Yes he certainly wanted to get his hands on her as soon as possible.

But on the other hand, if he was going to take up this title and the whole point was to earn Regina more influence among the nobility with their new status, then they could not be hasty and haphazard in their wedding preparations.

They would have to learn the game before they could conquer and lead it.

Frankly, he was surprised that his little general hadn’t come up with the idea herself let alone disagreed with it. If anything, she had seemed ill at the idea, panic sprouting in her beautiful eyes.

Like a specter from his imagination, she appeared in the moonlight.

For a moment he wondered if he was imagining her, as she walked out onto the lawn clad in only her nightgown.

He shouldn’t have kept staring. Conceptually she was no less covered than any other time he’d seen her, or when he’d visited her in London after the ball, or earlier in the day when she was wearing her saree to dance. But in London she’d worn her wrapper.

Now there was nothing between her dark soft skin and the gentle summer breeze save for the thin lawn of her night gown and the dark tumble of curls that flowed over her shoulders and down her back. Watching her with that knowledge before he was her husband made him feel reckless.

“Regina?”

She turned her head and smiled softly. Nothing as exuberant as all the other times. He wondered if something had changed for her. “Hello,” she said turning her face up to the night breeze. “I love night here.”

“It is a beautiful place. I thought you’d gone to bed,” he said wondering if he should walk over to her or stay where he was a good ten feet away. He wasn’t sure what he would do if she was close enough for him to touch.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Me neither. What is keeping you awake?”

“You,” she replied.

“How ungentlemanly of me.” It was meant to make her laugh or cut the tension between them. Somehow neutralize the odd energy swirling around. Instead, she stared at him with that peculiar expression, as if she were trying to decide what she wanted to say to him.

A breeze blew again sweeping a lock of her hair swept across her neck, tugging on her night gown until he could make out the curve of her hip, the swell of her full breasts, her slightly rounded stomach. “You were upset earlier.”

“I was,” she agreed.

“Would you tell me why? I know you don’t want to wait months to marry, and I am not opposed to a quick wedding. But there is a wisdom to taking our time and approaching such a crucial event with caution.”

She walked towards him, and with some alarm he noticed the faint sheen in her eyes.

Was she crying? “I’ve spent my whole life trying not to feel too much.

Not to want too much. I always had to remember what I was meant to be, who I was meant for, what I couldn’t have.

Then I met you and you were… you were bad for that. ”

“Likewise.”

She smiled and bit her lip but it didn’t reach her eyes. “You are my fourth fiancé did you know that?”

“I did.”

“And you are the first one I want. The first one that makes me feel excited at the prospect of being a wife. The only one. I can’t help but wonder if my previous intendeds were swept away by divine providence or if I am cursed to lose you as well.”

Was she afraid? “I am not an easy man to kill.”

That smile came again, but the tears were filling her eyes. “If I lose you I don’t think I could bear it. It was different before, when I didn’t know what this felt like. I can’t shut myself off again, I can’t go back to that.”

“I can’t either.”

“I keep having nightmares, horrible dreams where I’m waiting for you, and he comes for me instead and I can’t get away.”

The tears spilled over her cheeks and his heart splintered. “Sweetheart—”

“—Sometimes he just drags me away, other times he hurts me. Sometimes I wake up before the worst of it.”

“That is not going to happen.”

“I have been waiting for most of my life and I can’t do it again. I don’t need a large wedding, I just need one that makes me your wife and turns that nightmare into an impossibility.”

“Regina, it’s just a dream. I am right here, and I promise you that I won’t allow anything to happen to me. I won’t risk you in any way.”

“You cannot promise that.”

He wanted to argue but there was a truth to her words he couldn’t argue against. Of course he couldn’t make any promises. He had no more control over whether he lived or died than his predecessors did.

“Have you gone any further into the garden as yet?” she asked suddenly.

“No, not yet.”

Wordlessly she took his hand and led him further across the lawn, past the short stone wall and onto a stone path past hedges and rows of trees.

It felt like she was pulling him towards some unknown destiny.

Like he’d wandered off the path set before him and handed over the direction of his life to this earthen goddess with warm, soft hands.

This small creature who drew him inexorably forward to some alien yet powerful end.

“Where are we going?” he asked, just as the scent of jasmine caught his attention. “Regina?”

“The night garden.”

“What?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him and smiled.

This one held less sadness, but it made him more nervous.

There was an energy in her he couldn’t quite place and it was as intriguing as it was unsettling.

Everything within him urged caution while he couldn’t help but seek the unknown.

Couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps it would suit him better.

In the moonlight he could just make out the small white flowers dotting the verdant walls of the enclosure.

A place of secrets only revealed by moon shine and starlight.

She turned to him, her hand still in his, her eyes shining with a thousand emotions. “If I asked you to make love to me tonight, would you.”

His body flushed from head to toe. His throat clamped shut as his mind processed her words. Of all the things he’d expected her to say, that hadn’t even entered his mind. “We shouldn’t,” he croaked out.

“I know.” She took a step forward and he swallowed hard to lubricate his arid throat. “I know it’s unfair to ask. You are a man of integrity—”

“It would be disrespectful to your parents,”

“I know—”

“The banns haven’t even been posted.”

She stepped forward again and slid her hands over his arms. His shirtsleeves were a poor defense against her touch. “I know.”