was standing by the water’s edge and gave no indication he heard her approach. She halted several feet away.
“Luke,” she called tentatively.
He spun on his heel. “What are you doing outside?”
A wave of heat that had nothing to do with the summer air engulfed her. “I saw you from the window. I brought you a blanket so you don’t have to sit on the grass.” Instead of offering it to him, she held it close, realizing how ridiculous she sounded. “Do you want to be alone?”
“Does it matter?” There was a touch of humor to his voice.
“I’ll go.” She edged back toward the house but pointed at the blanket. “Would you like it, Your Grace?”
He closed the distance between them and took it from her arms. “Thank you. That was thoughtful. You don’t have to go.”
But she should. Instead, she helped him spread the blanket over the ground then sat with him, but she stayed as close to the edge as possible for propriety’s sake. Vivi rolled her eyes. She had crossed that boundary long before now.
Luke lowered down beside her and sprawled on the blanket. He appeared unaffected by their proximity while she struggled to quiet each breath, fearing she sounded like a windstorm.
“Is the heat making it difficult to sleep?” he asked.
“Hmm.” She didn’t trust herself to speak.
He looked over at her. “Everything would have been easier for you if your brother had allowed you a Season.”
She started at his unexpected comment. “Easier how?”
“There would be no need to engage in this pretense. It would have been easier to choose a suitable husband in London. Ashden left you no choice but to accept the gentleman he had selected when he should have allowed you a Season.”
Vivi lowered her gaze. That wasn’t completely true. She was to have her coming out before Mrs. Honeywell had called too early in the day and discovered her with the groom. She had tried to explain the situation to her brother when he arrived, but Ash had blistered her ears for being too tempting to Owen. Her brother had gotten it all wrong. The groom had been fond of her, but Vivi had been the one to dangle after the handsome, older servant. He had always treated her like a younger sister.
When Mrs. Honeywell had discovered them together in the stables, her hair mussed from spending the night in a stall, Vivi had already given up her ridiculous dreams of one day marrying the groom. Ladies didn’t marry lowborn servants, Owen had told her. And he’d had a sweetheart in the village.
Nothing she’d said made a difference to her brother. Owen had lost his position, and she had become Ash’s greatest disappointment.
He had never treated her unkindly before that day. He had been rather permissible when he’d taken on the onerous task of being her guardian. Their relationship had altered, however, after he wed Muriel.
“I don’t mind that Ash chose on my behalf,” she said. The alternative of life in a convent was no life at all.
“You don’t mind having no choice in whom you marry?”
She shrugged. Did anyone really have a say? Her brother had married to save them from financial ruin. He had had no choice for himself, but he had chosen well for her. Perhaps it was her brother’s way of apologizing for sending her away to live with Patrice. The only trouble she faced was in convincing Luke that they were well suited.
She hugged her knees and lightly rocked. “At some point, you have to trust what is meant to be will be.”
He made a bitter sound at the back of his throat.
Biting down on her lip, she forced herself to stop talking. She was being selfish, thinking only of herself and how she would benefit from their union. Luke had said he didn’t wish for a match between them, and she hadn’t cared. Now she had goaded him into kissing her. What if he felt duty-bound to marry her?
He dropped back on the blanket with a heavy sigh. “How can you be certain everything works out for the best, Viv?”
“I didn’t say things always work out for the best. Just that life happens no matter what we think or want.”
She stretched out on her back, too, and stared into the dark sky. The same stars that had been there last night and the night before and the night before that winked down at her. Nothing much ever seemed to change in the heavens.
“I don’t worry what the future