The graceful curves of the lithe figure provoked me. There was a challenge in her manner, and my blood beat with a surge. I made a step or two toward her.
“And yet?” I repeated, over her shoulder.
One by one the petals floated away.
“There was a time——” She spoke so softly I had to bend over to hear.
I sighed. “A thousand years ago, ’Toinette.”
“But love is eternal, and in eternity a thousand years are but as a day.”
The long curving lashes were lifted for a moment, and the dancing brown eyes flashed into mine. While mine held them they began to dim. On my soul the little witch contrived to let the dew of tears glisten there. Now a woman’s tears are just the one thing Kenneth Montagu cannot resist. After all I am not the first man that has come to make war and stayed to make love.
“’Toinette! ’Toinette!” I chided, resolution melting fast.
“And y’are commanded to love your neighbours, Kenn.”
I vow she was the takingest madcap in all England, and not the worst heart neither. I am no Puritan, and youth has its day in which it will be served. My scruples took wing.