The Major Meets His Match

‘I thought you said she cared for you.’

‘Oh, she does. But then...’ She shrugged, as though the action was self-explanatory.

‘And you said your own father never once told you that you are pretty,’ he growled. ‘What is wrong with them all?’

Lady Harriet shrugged again. ‘My parents were content with the three sons they already had, I suppose. They didn’t really know what to do with a daughter.’

‘That’s family for you,’ he said with feeling. ‘My own father never had a good word to say about me, either.’

A stricken look came across her face. She reached out and touched his hand, just briefly, as though understanding, completely, what it felt like to be the runt of the litter.

For a moment, they sat there in silence. For some reason, he couldn’t take his eyes from her hand, though she had withdrawn it and tucked it underneath the posy now, as though she couldn’t believe she had lost control of it so far as to reach out and touch him.