Frederick sighed before finally admitting, “I have already proposed, but?—”
Ariella stopped walking.
And then she began to laugh with her entire body, tears in the corners of her eyes formed quickly with each gasping breath she took, trying to steady herself.
Maxwell looked away, though his shoulders shifted as though he fought the same reaction.
Frederick did not find it amusing.
“Ye were refused?” Ariella managed between breaths.
“Aye.”
That only made it worse.
She laughed harder, one hand bracing against Maxwell’s arm as though she might lose her balance entirely.
“I am glad,” she said at last, wiping at her eyes. “It was needed.”
Frederick’s expression did not change. “Ye find this entertaining.”
“I find it appropriate,” she corrected.
He exhaled slowly, already turning to leave.
“Frederick.”
He paused.
Ariella’s tone had shifted again.
“Ye should court her. A proposal without any meaning behind it just tells the lass that it is a marriage for duty. Nae that she needslove,but perhaps she needs interest. She has made it this far without ye… give her a reason… or a few reasons.”
He frowned slightly. “I have nay need for games.”
“It is nae a game,” she said. “It is what should have come before the proposal.”
He considered that.
“I offered her security,” he said.
“Aye,” Ariella replied. “And she refused it. That should tell ye something.”
“That she is stubborn.”
“That she does nae trust what has nae been earned.”
The words settled.
Frederick looked ahead, his thoughts shifting as he considered them.
Court her.
He had approached Iona as he approached everything else. Directly. Without ornament.
And he had failed miserably.
He did not like it, but he also could not deny the truth of it.