Honor Before Heart. Heather McCorkle

picked up a stick, waved it before the hound, and tossed it toward the riverbank. Emitting a soft woof, Cliste bounded after it, tail flinging a last round of droplets on them as it wagged. The lengthening shadows of twilight soon swallowed her big gray silhouette.

      A long sigh filled with regret eased from Sean as he rose. “Well, ’tis gettin’ dark; it would be ungentlemanly of me not to get you back to your tent.”

      Rather than offer her his arm, he offered his bare hand, proving he wasn’t completely against being ungentlemanly. Smiling, Ashlinn accepted it and rose to stand closer to him than was ladylike. Another step and they would be pressed together. It was all she could do not to take that step. Whatever had come over her, she decided she liked it. From beneath her lashes, she gazed up at him.

      “Being completely gentlemanly is overrated at times,” she said.

      He draped her arm around his and pressed her hand against his forearm. “Perhaps it is,” he said as they began to walk.

      With her free hand, she fussed with her skirt, using the excuse to keep their pace slow. Not only was she in no hurry to get back, she didn’t want him overexerting himself. All too soon, they were picking their way through the muddy patches that dotted the pathways between tents. Candlelight glowed from within a few of the tents already. Thankfully, the paths were empty of people for the most part. Cliste pushed her nose through the canvas door of their tent and dashed inside, leaving them alone.

      Arm withdrawing from hers, Sean took a step back. Before they lost contact altogether, he caught up one of her hands, raised it to his lips, and kissed the back of it. The heady sensation of a man’s lips—this man’s lips in particular—upon the bare flesh of her hand was entirely new. Men had kissed her hand before, but always with a glove upon it. A thrill vibrated all the way down to her core. Her eyes shot open and she gasped at the pleasure of it. From beneath his dark brown locks, he gazed up at her from where he bent over her hand. Muscles low in her abdomen clenched, widening her eyes even farther.

      “Guess I’m not a complete gentleman after all,” he whispered.

      The husky tone of his voice touched things inside her that she longed for his skin to. Her face was afire with the scandal of her thoughts, and she couldn’t care less.

      “Like I said, overrated,” she said in a breathy voice.

      Slowly, and with obvious regret, he let her hand slide from his and took a step back. “Until tomorrow night then.” He bowed and shot her a devilish grin before turning toward his own tent less than ten feet away.

      Harmless flirting, she reminded herself. Just harmless flirting. Pushing the boundaries like that made it feel like something almost scandalous, which was fine by her. A scandal her heart could survive; a courtship that ended with a dead suitor, it could not. As she undid the remaining ties that held her tent flap closed, she watched him out of her peripheral vision. He gave her a wink before ducking into his tent, flushing her face with heat yet again over having her staring discovered. Definitely scandalous.

      Not wanting to risk the doctor “happening” by again while she was alone, she quickly retreated inside her tent and tied the flap closed. The thump of a tail against the ground greeted her. Cliste seemed to smile up at her from where she lay upon an old blanket at the foot of Ashlinn’s cot. It amazed her how pleased with itself a hound could look.

      Not even bothering to loosen her corset, she flopped onto her back on the cot, letting out a long breath that she felt all the way down to her toes. Never had she been a lady prone to swooning over a man—not even as a young girl. Medical papers, studies, and practice had always been what intrigued her most in life. Men and relationships were a thing she had made little time for. But here this man came out of the blue, capturing much more than just her attention.

      This was neither the time nor the place to allow herself to be distracted by matters of the heart. Not to mention, there was the issue of every man in her life having died or disappeared. She wasn’t exactly lucky where they were concerned. For both of their sakes, she needed to keep her heart guarded. While she tried to convince herself of that, she couldn’t help but long for the hours between now and the ball to pass as quickly as possible.