Then Came You by Lisa Kleypas Page A

refusal. Had he participated in their outing, it would have made things rather tense.
    The threesome set off in an open-air carriage. Zachary handled the ribbons expertly, occasionally looking over his shoulder and grinning at the comments made by his two passengers. Lily and Penelope sat together, their smiling faces shaded by straw bonnets. They came to a fork in the road. At Zachary’s suggestion they took the less-traveled avenue, until they reached a particularly beautiful section of country. Zachary pulled the carriage to a stop. They admired the wide green meadow before them, fragrant with violets, clover, and wild geraniums.
    “How lovely!” Penelope exclaimed, pushing an errant blonde curl away from her eyes. “Might we go for a walk? I’d love to pick some violets for Mother.”
    “Hmm.” Lily shook her head regretfully. “I’m afraid my ankle still pains me a little,” she lied. “I’m not up to tromping through fields today. Perhaps Zachary would volunteer to escort you.”
    “Oh, I…” Penelope looked at Zachary’s serious, handsome face and blushed with confusion. “I don’t think that would be proper.”
    “Please,” Zachary entreated. “It would be my great pleasure.”
    “But…unchaperoned…”
    “Come, we all know Zach’s the perfect gentleman,” Lily said. “And I will keep my eyes on the two of you the entire time. I’ll chaperone from a distance. Of course, if you don’t wish to walk, Penny, I would be delighted for you to sit here with me and admire the view from the carriage.”
    Faced with the decision to walk unchaperoned through the meadow with the man she loved or sit in the carriage with her sister, Penelope bit her lower lip and frowned. Temptation won out. She gave Zachary a small smile. “Perhaps just a short walk.”
    “We’ll return the very moment you desire,” Zachary replied, and leapt eagerly from the carriage.
    Lily watched in fond amusement as Zachary helped Penny to the ground and the two began a slow trek across the meadow. The two of them were perfect for each other. Zachary was an honorable young man, strong enough to protect her, yet boyish enough that he would never intimidate her. And Penny was exactly the sweet, innocent sort of girl that he needed.
    Putting her slippered feet up on the velvet-upholstered seat, Lily reached for the basket of fruit and biscuits they had brought. She bit into a strawberry and tossed the green stem over the side of the carriage. Untying her bonnet strings, she let the sun shine on her face, and reached for another strawberry.
    Once, long ago, she and Giuseppe had partaken of a picnic lunch in Italy, reclining in a meadow very much like this one. It had been in the days just before they had become lovers. At the time Lily had thought herself to be quite sophisticated. It had been only later that she realized how stupidly naive she had been . . .
    “The country air is splendid,” she had declared, leaning her bare elbows on a blanket and biting into a buttery, ripe pear. “Everything tastes better out here!”
    “So you tire of the jaded pleasures of the city, amore mio?” Giuseppe’s beautiful eyes, long-lashed and liquid black, regarded her with sensuous warmth.
    “Society is as much a bore here as it is in England,” Lily said reflectively, staring at the hot green grass. “Everyone striving to be witty and sought-after, everyone talking and no one listening…”
    “I listen, carissima. I listen to evert’ing you say.”
    Lily turned and smiled at him, resting her weight on her elbow. “You do, don’t you? Why is that, Giuseppe?”
    “I am in love with you,” he said passionately.
    She couldn’t help laughing at him. “You’re in love with every woman.”
    “Is that wrong? In England, per’aps. Not in Italy. I have special love to give every woman. Special love for you.” He plucked a succulent grape and held it to her lips, while his eyes bore into hers.
    Flattered, feeling her heart beat