“I thought we had agreed you would not be so formal with me,” she murmured, carefully smoothing a particularly stubborn knot. She looked up at him, and stilled at the look on his face. It made the breath catch in her throat. “Wh-why do you look at me so?”
“I don’t know how else to act around you,” he stated by way of explanation, before stilling and hurriedly averting his eyes. He attempted to feign nonchalance, before deciding to simply admit the truth. “I’ve never seen a beauty so rare and true, and I have travelled across many a land, Miss Summer.”
She ducked her head, hiding the shy smile behind a fall of hair. “If you must praise me so unfairly, you must use only my name. It’s not so hard.” Peeking back at him, she thought again how very handsome he was, and hoped the heat of the fire would cover the heat of her face.