"You're lucky I didn't bite you," Emmeline said quickly though it was a stupid thing to say and she instantly blushed. She pulled her hand back and shook her head. He was infuriating.

"Probably," she said with a shrug, "Clearly I need to assume the worst of everyone I meet anymore." A sad realization but one she'd come to nonetheless at the ripe old age of seventeen. Yep. She was going to end up a spinster, she decided. Men weren't worth the trouble.

---