Margaret McPhee - A Magical Regency Christmas - Christmas Cinderella / Finding Forever at Christmas / The Captain's Christmas Angel

Ah. Here was the rub, then. ‘And would that bother you if our positions were reversed?’ he asked quietly.

‘Not now,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve learnt better. But before? When I was wealthy?’ Her cheeks flamed. ‘Probably, yes.’

Her bone-deep honesty and humility seared him. ‘Your aunt would have set the dogs on me, anyway,’ he said.

She managed a smile. ‘Yes. Warned me that you only wanted my money.’

He snorted. ‘Like your cousin?’

She flushed and guilt lashed him. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I shouldn’t have reminded you.’

She shook her head. ‘It doesn’t matter. Not now.’

‘Then do I have your permission to court you?’ he asked.

She blinked. ‘My permission to court me?’

He smiled. ‘Who else should I ask?’

Courting was something a gentleman did to a lady. After asking her father or guardian’s permission. Only her father was dead and she didn’t have a guardian any longer. She had her independence and he had asked her permission.

‘You want to court me?’

‘Yes.’ Alex felt that he was on fairly firm ground here. ‘It’s what a man does when he wants a woman as his wife.’ He’d watched any number of courting couples over the years. Then married them. Rather often the christening was significantly less than nine months later in the village and farming community. He slammed a lid back on that pot of thought at once.

‘What does courting entail?’

Polly’s question had him mentally scrambling. ‘Ah, well, I call on you,’ he said. ‘At respectable hours,’ he added hurriedly. ‘I can bring you small gifts. Flowers in season.’ Please God, by spring they’d be beyond courting.

‘That’s all?’

He blanked out the image of leaving flowers on her pillow. ‘We can walk together.’ That should be safe enough for her. It was far too cold for tumbling maidens in the woods.

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