was so useful in society. “You do look the part, and sound it to my ear.”
“I’ll consider that the highest compliment of my life,” he promised placing his free hand over his heart.
Fanny laughed, clinging to his arm. The man was outrageous.
They strolled along side by side, Mr. Dawes peppering her with questions about the family and her childhood home. But he was constantly looking about them. “Is something wrong?”
“It’s eerie under so many trees.”
“I’ve always thought trees romantic. I had my first kiss in these very woods,” she admitted with a laugh.
Jeremy looked at her with one brow raised high. “May I ask who the lucky man was? Or was it your late husband?”
“A lady never tells,” she said with a coy smile.
“Not your husband then,” he guessed, correctly too. “So is the fellow at liberty still, or did your father lock him in his dungeon for his daring?”
Fanny laughed. What would he say if he knew Fanny had been the one to take liberties? People always assumed she had been a good girl, which was a mistake on their part, really. “My father isn’t a tyrant, and he doesn’t have a dungeon, either. Papa never knew about that kiss and he never will.”
“Ha! So you were kissed by a scoundrel, and he got away with it. Lucky devil.”
“I suppose,” she murmured. “I am actually very glad I never had to marry him. Scoundrels make terrible husbands in my opinion.”
“And that is the only opinion that matters today,” he promised.
She looked at him curiously. “So, where did your first kiss take place, Mr. Dawes?”
“Oh, no. I’m an innocent still,” he promised with a sly wink. “Never been kissed.”
Fanny laughed outright at his boast. “By all means, keep your own counsel. I don’t mean to pry.”
Jeremy’s grin widened. “Yes, you do, my lady. You’ve been prying into my past since the day we met.”
“It’s your own fault for being so mysterious,” she complained.
He looked ahead. “There’s nothing about my past that a proper lady needs to hear.”
Fanny disagreed, but Jeremy was stubborn about certain things. It had taken her a month to find out he lacked any family or home other than the theater.
They finally came to a trickling brook with stepping-stones across it. It was a pretty hidden spot deep in the woods. “Here we are.”
Mr. Dawes looked around, his eyes narrowing. “Is this where your infamous first kiss was stolen?”
“Enjoyed, and yes, I was on my way back from a party and got a stone in my slipper. I had to stop to remove it and had lagged behind.”
“And the scoundrel took advantage of your lack of chaperone.”
She couldn’t continue to lie when the truth was more fun. She shook her head. “It was I who took advantage of him.”
Jeremy Dawes blinked but then his eyes lit up with delight. “You did?”
She shrugged. “I was a precocious sixteen-year-old and determined to get my first kiss before my young sisters did. When it was over, I felt decidedly smug for weeks.”
Ordinarily she wouldn’t confide her past conquests to anyone. However, she had a part to play and becoming comfortable with each other would help their performances. She was a smitten lady from today. Walking along with a handsome man she admired. Tongues were meant to wag enough when they were seen together so that her real would-be suitors would think twice before interrupting.
Jeremy shook his head. “My first was with a whore.”
Fanny winced. First kiss or sexual encounter? He didn’t clarify further, and Fanny wouldn’t ask. She suspected they might very well be the same for a man of his background. But she felt bad for him. He did not sound as if his first kiss was as happy a memory as hers had always been.
“I knew you’d be repulsed.”
She lay a hand on his arm. They were very different, but she would not let that taint her opinion of him. “Mr. Dawes, I do not intend for one moment to criticize you, but I regret the encounter for the obvious lack of affection in your voice when you spoke of the experience.” She studied him a moment and then, since they were alone, stretched up on her toes to kiss him on the cheek.
He smiled shyly. “That wasn’t bad, but I think you could do better.”
“Oh,” Fanny complained as she swatted him with her hand. “Are you going to now coach me on kissing, too?”
“Kissing in front of an audience is different than real kissing,” he informed her.