Page 134 of Snowbound Surrender

“No.” He shook his head and rolled his glass between his fingers. “This may be true. But I hope that will not be the case for much longer. There are … places, Scarlett, that you cannot even imagine. Where children work harder than a grown man should. Where prisoners or the insane are treated worse than pigs. And why? Simply because someone has been given the authority to treat them so? These people must be protected. And who else can do so if not us?”

Scarlett stared at him in shock. He was not the man she had thought he was, not the man she had assumed him to be. She had thought he simply enjoyed his role in the House becauseit was a sort of prestige above most others. But he actually appreciated his capacity to do something with his position.

“You are wrong,” she finally said.

“What?”

“I have seen some of these places myself.” She leaned forward on the table toward him though sat back hastily when she saw Hunter’s eyes dip near level with the table and she suddenly recalled her rather low neckline. She cleared her throat. “You are right, Hunter. We are born to play a role. And I believe a part of that role is to help others who are less well off than we are. I have been to hospitals, to orphanages, and visited with the men, women, and children, have seen what they needed, have provided what I can. And I think that what you are doing is admirable.”

He blinked, clearly as shocked by her words as she had been by his.

“So what you are doing with my tenants — that is an extension of charity work you have done before?”

“I suppose.” She shrugged. “It is a start, anyway, though I should like to do more.”

He nodded. “Scarlett. We seem to have similar goals, similar ideals. What do you say we stop working against one another and try to do this together?”

She stilled, her fork halfway to her mouth. Did he mean it? It was more than she would have expected a man to allow for his wife. She paused. Was there a reason for his offer? In her experience, when a man gave a woman something she desperately wanted, it was only because there was something he needed from her in turn.

“I would say,” she said with some hesitation, “we could discuss it.”

“Very well, then!” he said, a smile breaking across his face, lighting his handsome features, and it seemed as though herheart flipped over in her chest. “Tomorrow, after our visit? Before I return to London?”

“Ah, yes,” she said, disappointment crashing over her. One cordial conversation and she completely forgot the nature of their relationship and their two distinct lives, separate from one another. She well knew that the House didn’t sit again until March. Was he really that eager to get away from her once more? She should take this opportunity, however, to take hold of what he offered her. “Tomorrow.”

What would the day hold?

CHAPTER 7

Hunter knew better nowthan to look for his wife in the house. Sure enough, after he trampled through the fresh snow that had fallen overnight and entered the stable, there she was, making her rounds from one horse to the next. The woman loved the animals, that was for certain. He didn’t recognize the mount she had ridden the other day, and he assumed she had brought the horse with her.

“Of course,” she said when he asked that very question as he strode into the barn, causing her to whirl around at his voice and the sound of his footsteps through the straw. “I could never leave Star behind. Why, he would have no way to understand what was happening or why we were being separated. We have also been together long enough that no other horse knows me as he does.”

“He’s a fine horse,” he agreed, coming to stand next to her, as he stroked the horse’s mane, his hand less than an inch from Scarlett’s, their shoulders brushing. He could feel her stiffen beside him, and she stepped back, but not before her scent washed over him. She smelled like … spruce trees, he thought, and something akin to frankincense. For all he knew,it could have been some kind of love potion, for the way that it captivated him, pulling him toward her.

“…take the sleigh?”

Hunter shook his head, realizing that he had been so focused on watching her walk away from him, her hips swaying back and forth beneath her riding habit, that he hadn’t listened to anything she was saying.

“I asked if you would want to take the sleigh out this morning.”

“The sleigh?” What was she on about? “Why in heaven’s name would we want to take the sleigh? It’s old and it’s cumbersome, and it will take us much longer to travel from one place to the next.”

“Not today,” she said, turning to him with a raised eyebrow. “Did you not just walk across the same yard that I did? It’s covered in a foot of snow! The wheels of the carriage are likely to become stuck and then you will never find your way back to London. We cannot simply ride the horses as I have items to take with me. Besides,” she said, chewing her lip and a wistful look came over her eye. It was then he knew that she had him. How could he say no to a face like hers, the one time she asked something of him? “It’s near Christmas, and a sleigh ride is always fun this time of year.”

It was his turn to bristle. She had shown him not an ounce of warmth, but suddenly she was the type of woman who became nostalgic over Christmastide celebrations? “Christmas is but another day on the calendar, Scarlett,” he said, shaking his head. “There is nothing significant about the day, besides the fact it is a religious holiday, and all the sleigh rides and dinners won’t change that.”

He had said it nonchalantly, but when he looked over at her, he was shocked by the incredulous expression she wore on herface. Her hands were on her hips, her eyes wide and her lips parted slightly.

“What?” he asked, running a hand through his hair, which he never allowed Spicer to wet on his head, despite the current style. He didn’t have time to worry about vanities like that. “Did I say something to offend you?”

“That’s … so sad,” she said, her voice just above a whisper. “How could you not care for Christmas?”

Pieces of dust and straw circled her head in the light that entered through slats in the wood of the stable, highlighting the beautiful planes of her face, and she looked so crushed that he felt guilty for a moment — which was ridiculous.

“It’s just never been important,” he said, brushing by her, not wanting to discuss it any further, and seeing her staring at him so, those hazel eyes boring into him, made him want to tell her anything she wanted to know.

“Well,” she said following him as he went to find the groom. “It is to me.”