Bewitched by His Kiss (May Day Mischief) by Barbara Monajem Page A

“Lord Elderwood renewed his offer more than once when I was in London for the Season.” She halted at his expression. “Please don’t be angry with me, Alexis.”
    “All this went on behind my back. You can’t expect me to laugh it off.”
    She slumped. “I suppose not.”
    “I gather he has now asked you again,” Alexis said. “And you refused once again—not because he lacks intelligence or charm or any of the usual attributes that win a lady’s heart, but rather because of his belief in magic.”
    She nodded.
    “No wonder he’s been looking so out of curl. He’s used to getting his own way, particularly with women.” Alexis reddened. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
    She huffed. “I know all about his reputation. He says it’s due to something magical about him.” She paced away between the hedges and back again. “He sees magic in everything. He says our...mutual attraction is due to magic.” That was as close as she would come to admitting any warm feelings for the Earl of Elderwood. “He interprets getting lost in the wood as magic, and finding one’s way again as more magic. He’s as bad as Peony.” She flushed. “I shouldn’t have said that. Peony has the right to believe what she chooses. She has never tried to force her beliefs on me, and I—” Damn.
    “You’ve tried to convince her that she’s mistaken. I know. Everyone has.”
    “I felt obliged to do so. My mother caused her own death due to superstition. Surely you understand.” She was pleading now, and she hated it. Elderwood despised her, and now Alexis felt the same. Had she done nothing right?
    “I do understand,” Alexis said. “Nevertheless, Peony and David have the right to interpret the universe as they choose.”
    “David. Is that his given name? I didn’t know.” How irrelevant, seeing as she would never have the opportunity to use it.
    “At heart, he’s an excellent fellow.” Alexis regarded her gravely. “It seems to me that you and he have a great deal in common. If you expect me to support you in refusing him, I’m sorry, but I can’t. That is something you will have to sort out with him.”
    “I don’t know what I want,” she said.
    “He fell in love with you three years ago, and he’s still in love with you,” Alexis said. “What does it matter whether he believes it came about through magic? The important question is, do you love him?”
    Stunned, she stopped. “I—I don’t know.”
    “If you love each other enough, you’ll find a way to deal with the issue of magic.”
    She threw up her hands. “Impossible. We’ll never agree.”
    “Not if you don’t even try.” Judging by his terse tone, he had lost patience with her. In his polite way, he left her to ponder his advice and strolled along the path, gazing up at the windows of the house. Numbly, she followed. Why had she never thought to ask herself whether she loved Lord Elderwood?
    Perhaps because he had never spoken of love, or perhaps just because of the magic. All she’d thought was how to avoid him. How to prove that he was wrong.
    She hadn’t succeeded. All she’d learned in three years was that one couldn’t prove anything either way. So much work for nothing. It was enough to make her weep.
    Except that she despised fear and weakness and weeping, so she didn’t indulge in them.
    Alex broke into her dazed thoughts. “Which is the haunted room?”
    Distractedly, she showed him, and they went indoors to breakfast. David—too late, she’d begun to think of him by his given name, as if she knew him well—offered her nothing but a cold bow. Peony looked as cheerless as Lucasta felt, but Alexis seemed confident enough, and why not? No girl in her right mind would refuse to marry him.
    The men rode away to tour the estate and view a hunter that was for sale. Maybe Lucasta couldn’t prove that magic didn’t exist...but perhaps if she could find the mossy glade where she and David had made love, she would feel a little