“Can you even imagine how many of your relatives and friends will line up to challenge me if they find out what we were doing just now?

“Oh, no, that’s right,” he continued as he stood farther away to look back at her. “I forgot—I’m not worthy of a sword or a pistol, am I? So will it be an ambush in the dark and a good whipping or two in order to teach me not to tilt at windmills?”

“Not on my account. I’m quite capable of standing up for what I want and I’m not sure I like being called a windmill.”

“Don’t make a joke of it, Isabella,” he said rather painfully. “I know you’re an independent woman of means who thinks she knows her own mind, but I won’t let you be ostracized and mocked for the sake of a by-blow other ladies used to toy with in secret. You might think you could dare to be a pariah and a laughingstock with such a lover, but I won’t let you risk it,” he said grimly, and she could see from the stubborn set of his mouth he believed it.

“Do you really think I care what the scandalmongers think of me?”

“You might not, but I do.”