“Surely I would recall something as impossible as that.”
“You doubt it?”
The way his unnerving eyes raked from my burning cheeks down to my skirts and back again left my stomach quivering. “You do not appear to be the type of woman who would get her pretty dress dirty, let alone touch a slimy fish.”
I knew I should let the past go. Leave it behind me where it belonged. But for some reason, I found myself climbing to my feet and tying my skirts between my knees the way I had four years ago. Caiman didn’t say a word about the bits of grass clinging to my bare toes, only watched as I ducked beneath the wooden railing at the side of the bridge.
I smiled right at him and dropped into the frigid water with a splash. My feet sank deep into the muck at the bottom. Had it been this sticky and slimy the last time? Water dampened my tied skirts, cooling my overwarm skin beneath.
Caiman shot to his feet, clutching the railing, his gaze sweeping from the path to the pond and back again. “Have you lost your mind? Someone may see you.”
“Not if you keep your voice down,” I shot back, bending forward and letting my fingers dip into the pond the way my father had taught me when I was small. The fish avoided me at first, an unfamiliar form in their tranquil home. I stayed perfectly still, allowing them to grow accustomed to my presence. One swam close, its tail tickling the back of my hand. Still I waited, knowing moving too hastily could spook them.
An orange fish with black smudges down its fins slipped lazily through the water. With a burst of fae speed, I caught the wriggling monster between my hands, heaving it into the air with a victorious smirk. It had to be at least two feet long. Caiman rolled his eyes. I considered throwing the beast at his insufferable head, but the fish hadn’t done anything wrong and didn’t deserve that sort of torment.
Something brushed my ankles. I knew it had to be another fish. It was only logical, after all. But in that moment, my mind conjured images of a heinous sea serpent, and I let out the most unladylike sound I’d ever made and jumped like a fool. The fish slipped, its tail flapping in my face, sending me careening backward.
My arms cartwheeled, but there was nothing to grab onto, and with no hope of catching myself, I sucked in a breath and braced for the icy splash. I managed to find my footing quickly, resurfacing with a sputter, only to find a scowly prince in soaked black breeches cursing as he reached for my hand.
“If you wanted to go for a bloomin’ swim, you should’ve gone to the seaside. How do you plan on explaining this?”
“I’ll just tell everyone you pushed me.” I laughed, letting him help me upright.
He yanked me against him and clamped a sopping glove over my mouth. When I struggled, he only tightened his hold, hissing at me to be quiet as he dragged me beneath the bridge.
I thrashed and struggled, but he held firm. How could I have so easily forgotten Alrec’s warnings about never letting myself be alone with him? All the hellish tales of Caiman’s wickedness came flooding back as he forced me down until only my head peeked out of the water.
“Keep quiet. Someone’s coming.”
If I screamed, they could save me. I inhaled through my nose, prepared to shout for help.
“If anyone finds us like this, there will be hell to pay,” he whispered. “For us both.”
Realization struck like lightning.
He wasn’t trying to attack me. He was trying to save me from the scandal of being caught unchaperoned with my fiancé’s brother. The moment I began to relax, he let me go. I stared at the man next to me, hating that I noticed the way the drops of water ran down the column of his pale throat. The way they clung to his lips. That the humid air only enhanced the scent of sage and bergamot emanating from his skin. That I knew what he smelled like at all.
The water surrounding us turned glassy. I peered through the cobwebs on the underside of the bridge, listening to the unmistakeable sound of male voices as they came close. Voices I recognized. Alrec and Lord Kerrington chatting about a tennis match.
I tried not to think of what would have happened if Alrec had been the one to find us. Like me, he would’ve assumed the worst.
“You cannot tell him that I pushed you,” Caiman whispered in earnest, his eyes wide and searching.
“I was only joking when I said that.”
He didn’t appear convinced.
“I will simply tell anyone who asks that I dropped something in the pond, and when I went to retrieve it, I slipped.”
I expected him to leave, but instead he stepped closer, until I could feel the heat from his body warming the water between us. “About yesterday.” He bit his lip, a war raging in his eyes. “I . . . I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to you.”
I swallowed again and again, trying to get my heart out of my throat. “Why do you care?”
“I shouldn’t. You’re not my problem, you’re Alrec’s.”
“I’m a problem, now, am I?”
“You were always a problem.”