know a better way to forget your thoughts.”
“I don’t want a drink.”
A grin split his face. “Close, but not what I had in mind.”
The hairs shot up on the back of her neck. She yanked her hand away and stepped back. “I’m not interested in that either.”
“You really have to stop thinking seduction is around every corner. Plenty of that to be found elsewhere. Paris is the city of love, after all.”
The weight from earlier dropped into her stomach. Love. A grandiose phrase for obligation and unrealistic expectations. She’d had enough of that to last another lifetime and didn’t need that four-letter word heaping on more.
“Don’t worry. Wasn’t talking about that noose either.” Reaching for her hand once more, Barrett looped it back through his. “Your honor is completely safe with me.”
“What a relief.”
Crossing the terrace, they descended the steps onto the expansive lawn and strolled along the eastern path beneath the towering linden trees. Thick green leaves wove together over their heads, creating a shady reprieve from the sun’s glare.
Barrett fiddled with the buttons on his waistcoat. The small movement rippled down his arm to flex the muscles beneath where her hand rested. “I don’t know if I should be offended or not by that.”
Kat curled her hand in hopes of ignoring the tingling sensation of his warm skin beneath hers. Goose bumps sprang up on his arm where her fingertips brushed. “Not. As our time together is brief, I prefer to keep all personal issues out of it.”
“I’d call your sister in the middle of all this a wee bit personal.”
“She can’t help it. Or rather, she doesn’t not want to help it.” Kat forced her focus onto the path in front of them and not on the hardened muscles rippling under her palm. “My point is we’re here and we need to get out and safely back to England.”
“Sounds rather simple when you put it like that, but your case is far from it.”
“Two English women should hardly make a blip in the grand scheme of things.”
“You really don’t know, do you?” Pulling the fedora from his head, he fanned it in front of his face. “You are the daughters of a retired colonel who now reclines in the high circles of British government. Your father sits behind closed doors, discussing secrets to make or break this war. Do you know what the Germans would do to gain access to that kind of information? They’d take a young girl and seduce her in hopes she’d open the doorway for them.”
Kat’s fingers crimped the edge of his sleeve. “Ellie would never do that.”
“How do you know she hasn’t already? Whether she meant to or not? The two of you together could provide the blackmail of a king.”
“Rubbish. My father has never breathed one word about any of that. All he talks about are his glory days back in the war.”
His hat twirled on his hand, distracting the fat bees from their yellow daisies and purple rhododendron. “Germans don’t know that, and they’ll use any measure at their disposal to break you. Or hold you for ransom.”
“If abating worries is a part of your job, you’re terrible at it.”
“You told me never to lie to you.”
“A statement I’m starting to regret.”
Dropping her arm, he stopped and turned to face her. The tiny scar above his lip shone white against his tan skin. “All right. From now on, I’ll tell you life is as good as those red roses on your dress.”
“They’re poppies.”
He looked down at the printed flowers. A frown creased his brow. “They look the same.
“That’s because you’re a man.”
“Aye, we’re not an observant bunch.” His frown eased into a smile that had surely stopped more than one woman’s heart. “In Scotland, the only things to stare at are wooly sheep.”
She smiled. “Quite a change for you, coming here.”
“I go where the job is.”
He’d crashed in on her like a bomb, blasting her well-laid plans to shards and scattering them to the four winds. As she rushed to piece the fragments back together, he strutted around with all the confidence of the world weighing on his shoulders. Yet that night at the pub she’d seen the seriousness burning in his eyes and the deft manner in which he’d played around his enemy patrons. How little she knew of this man.
“Do you see much of your mother’s family here? You must worry terribly for them.”
He placed his hat back on his head, shading his eyes. “She left no family