Florida Knight (44 page)

In the past few days, including three rather miserable nights as she tried to sleep in a lounge chair next to Michael’s bed, Kate had had plenty of time to think. There was no way she could imagine a future without Michael in it. Even if she was the one who’d defeated the Enemy, he was her knight in shining armor. The man of her dreams. Lover. Husband. Father of her children. The happily-ever-after-guy she’d been so sure didn’t exist.

What if he didn’t want her?

What if she was just one of his conquests? And it was now time for him to ride off into the sunset, mission accomplished. What if . . .

“Hey, woman, are you blaming yourself again?”

Kate managed a grin, shrugged. False fronts were an accomplishment she had mastered as a child.

“Good.”

Kate gave him a sharp look. Michael was sporting the smug, self-satisfied look of a cat who’d been first to the family’s rare roast beef. Odd, very odd. Every other time they’d talked in the last few days he had scolded her, assured her she was a heroine, that she had absolutely no reason to blame herself for anything,
anything
that had happened. He was even glad she’d been the one to capture the Twerp. And now he was saying it was
good
she was blaming herself?

“You see,” he said, “I figure this is a good time to ask you to marry me. You feel so damn guilty, you’re bound to say yes.” With a tiny jerk of his head, he beckoned her closer. “I mean, it isn’t every day a woman defends me with a dagger to the perp’s throat. I ought to keep you around, don’t you agree?”

Kate bent down, rested her lips on his ear. “Don’t push it, Turco,” she growled. “I’m dangerous.”

“Yeah. I know.”

She couldn’t let him see the tears trickling down her cheeks.

Why not? Wasn’t that what marriage was all about? The sad as well as the happy. The bad as well as the good.
For better or for worse. In sickness and in health.
All that stuff she’d scorned for so long.

“You haven’t answered me.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kate mimicked. “I haven’t heard anything about love, lieutenant. Aren’t you a believer?”

Michael wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulled her face close to his. “A new convert, that’s me. A positive fanatic. Love makes the world go round, and all that sh—” Dark eyes dancing, Michael broke off. “Okay, Lady Knight, I confess. I love you big time. The question is, ‘Do you love me?’”

“Just try and get away!”

Michael raised one dark brow. “Kate?” he admonished.

She closed her eyes, made him wait.

Michael suffered. It was taking her a damned long time to find an answer.

“Okay, here it is,” Kate declared. “I just had to find the right way to tell you.” She held up her right hand as if swearing an oath. “Even if you asked me to give up fighting . . . even if you asked me to give up LALOC, I’d still love you.” Did he realize that was absolutely the most solemn vow she could make? Did Michael truly understand?

He did. His response required the use of both arms, even the one with the IV in it. Pulling Kate closer still, he confronted his lady knight eye to eye. “You’ll give up fighting when you’re pregnant,” he affirmed, “even when you
might
be pregnant. But give up LALOC? You know I’d never ask you to do that.”

“The sleeping bags stay zippered together forever?”

“You know,” Michael murmured just before he sealed their bargain with a kiss, “mayb
e those flower children of the sixties had it right. ‘
Make love, not war.
’
”

~ * * * ~

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to extend a hearty thanks to the Society for Creative Anachronism who allowed a voyeur among them for over three years before this book was written. More information about the
SCA can be found at
http://www.sca.org/
.

A most particular thank-you to Charles Abbott, Florida Highway Patrol (Ret.), for his expert and unstinting information about the FHP. Any mistakes are purely my own. Also, a special thank-you to Robert A. Duncan who graciously allowed me to include material from his “Definitions and Rules for Leching.”

The background of FLORIDA KNIGHT is authentic, although a few changes have been made to fit the story and to emphasize that this is a work of fiction. The scenery is real; the characters entirely fictitious.

About the Author:

Believing variety is the spice of life, I also write traditional Regency, Regency Historicals, Suspense/Thrillers, Mystery, and Futuristic. (Below is a list of my books currently available.)

The Golden Beach (GB)books are not a classic series. Some have connected characters; others, only a connected setting, a very real Florida Gulfcoast resort and retirement community whose name has been changed because the residents would like to keep its uniqueness a deep, dark secret.

I am always delighted to hear from my readers. I can be contacted at
[email protected]
. My website is
http://www.blairbancroft.com/
. My blog:
http://mosaicmoments.blogspot.com/

Twitter: @blairbancroft

Blair
’
s books currently online:

Romantic
Suspense
, Thrillers & Mystery

Florida Knight
  (GB)

Death by Marriage
(GB)

Limbo Man

Orange Blossoms & Mayhem
(GB
)

Paradise
Burning
(GB
)

Shadowed
Paradise
(GB)

Regency & Historicals

Airborne - The
Hanover
Restoration

O’Rourke’s Heiress

Mistletoe Moment

Christmas Kisses (a
paperback anthology)

The Sometime Bride

The Captive Heiress

The Courtesan’s Letters

The Temporary Earl

The Harem Bride

A Season for Love

A Gamble on Love

Lady Silence

Steeplechase

Tarleton’s Wife
(
e
-book
& paperback)

Contemporary
Romance

Love At Your Own Risk