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He shook his head, while an answering smile broke out on his face Daisy noticed that his s, they vanished as quickly as they appeared It was like catching sight of so star, brief and striking
"If you tell anyone about this, you little i in his tone…an erotic softness…sent a hot-and-cold chill down her spine
"I’ to tell anyone," Daisy said breathlessly "The situation would reflect as badly on me as it would on you"
Swift reached into his discarded coat, extracted a sination, or had his fingers lingered an extra second on the surface of her palm?
"What’s this for?" she asked uneasily
"To cut the string fro Be careful--it’s very sharp I’d hate for you to accidentally slice open an artery"
"Don’t worry, I won’t hurt hioose" He slid an assessing glance over the ioose, "you’ll be pate by suppertily toforward in a deliberate step, Swift placed one foot on the line, shortening the goose’s range offor athe decision to hurl itself forward Swift seized the goose, cursing as he tried to avoid the driving beak A flurry of feathers rose around the pair
"Don’t choke hioose’s neck
It was perhaps fortunate that Swift’s reply was lost in the explosion of ed to restrain the bird until it was a writhing, spitting mass in his arlared at Daisy, "Get over here and cut the line," he snapped
Hastily she obeyed, dropping to her knees beside the grappling pair Gingerly she reached for the goose’saway
"For God’s sake, don’t be tirab hold of the thing and get to work"
Had there not been thirty pounds of furious goose caught between thelared at Mattheift Instead she seized the goose’s tethered foot in a firrip and carefully slid the tip of the knife beneath the line Swift had been right--the blade ickedly sharp With one nick it cut the line cleanly in two
"It’s done," she said triu the knife "You may release our feathered friend, Mr Swift"
"Thank you," came his sardonic reply
But as Swift opened his areance, bla its captor for all its woes, the creature twisted to ai position, clutching a hand to his eye while the goose sped aith a triumphant honk
"Mr Swift!" Daisy crawled over hied at his hand "Lethis eye
"Lethis head in her hands
"I’ her turn his face to the side
"You will do no such thing" Daisy gently inspected the tiny wound at the edge of his dark eyebrow and used her sleeve to blot a drop of blood "It’s bad forhter ran through her voice "Fortunately the goose had bad ailad you find this a," he muttered "You’re covered with feathers, you know"
"So are you" Tiny bits of fluff and spars of gray and white were caught in his shiny brown hair More laughter escaped her, like bubbles rising to the surface of a pond She began to pick feathers and down froers
Levering hiun to fall froentle as he pulled feathers fro black strands
For a silent minute or two they worked on each other Daisy was so intent on the task that the impropriety of her position didn’t occur to her at first For the first tiated blue of his eyes, ringed with cobalt at the outer edge of the irises And the texture of his skin, satiny and sun-hued, with the shadow of close-shaven stubble on his jaw
She realized that Sas deliberately avoiding her gaze, concentrating on finding every tiny piece of down in her hair Suddenly she beca coth of hiainst her cheek His clothes were dah wherever it pressed against hers
They both went still at the saether in a half-embrace while every cell of Daisy’s skin seemed to fill with liquid fire Fascinated, disoriented, she let herself relax into it, feeling the throb of her pulse in every extreently lacing her fingers through the dark waves of his hair
It would be so easy for hi her into the dah layers of fabric, triggering a primitive instinct for her to open to him, to let him move her limbs as he would
She heard Swift’s breath catch He clamped his hands around her upper ar on the grass beside hiather her wits Silently she found the pen-knife on the ground and handed it back to hi the knife back into his pocket, hefeathers and dirt fro in such an oddly craled to her feet "Well," she said uncertainly, "I suppose I’ll have to sneak back into the h the servants’ entrance If Mother seesback to the river," Swift said, his voice hoarse "To find out how Westcliff is faring with the reel And maybe I’ll fish some more"
Daisy frowned as she realized he was deliberately avoiding her
"I should think you’d had enough of standing up to your waist in cold water today," she said
"Apparently not," Swifthis back to her as he reached for his vest and coat