Page 73 of Forget Me Not

Their loud conversation and boisterous laughter broke the spell. Julia pulled back, smiling at the others as she told them how he had bravely retrieved her scarf. Before he could even call her back, she continued up the trail with his friends.

He rubbed at his neck, unsure what to do, struggling to focus his thoughts. Things between the two of them were better but still so uncertain.

Aldric passed by.

“Is this part of your plan?” Lucas asked, motioning to Julia talking with Henri up ahead.

“Are you losing faith in us?” Aldric’s nostrils flared, and his lips pressed in a line of disapproval.

“In your sense of timing.” He pushed out a breath. It clouded in front of him. The temperature was dropping. He eyed the sky. Leaden clouds were moving in fast. He moved hastily forward, weaving around his friends until he reached Julia. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, sweetheart, but we need to get off this mountain.”

“We haven’t reached the top yet,” she said. “The view is so lovely from there.”

“I truly am sorry.” He set his hands on her arms. “The weather is turning. We don’t want to be up here when it does.”

She, too, looked up at the gathering clouds. “Are we in danger?”

“Not yet. But mountains are not the best places to be in a storm.”

“This happened the first time we were up here,” she said. “Fate does not seem to approve of these excursions.”

Digby dropped a hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “You don’t seem overly anxious to getusoff the mountain.”

“I like her better,” he answered.

Julia hooked her arm through Lucas’s. To the gathered Gents, she said, “Bad luck, boys. You can shelter in the shepherd’s hut.”

Lucas met Aldric’s eye. The man actually smiled, something he seldom did. Julia was weaving her spell, and Lucas couldn’t have been happier about it. She was becoming increasingly knit into the fabric of his life. He simply had to find a way to make certain that didn’t change.

***

Julia’s head hurt. It often did during inclement weather. She’d returned to Brier Hill soaked to the bone, her toes so cold they’d actually stopped aching. She was so exhausted she’d taken her evening meal on a tray in her room and was, despite the early hour, sitting in bed, tucked under the blankets, letting her pillows do all the work of holding her up.

Yet, her heart had seldom been lighter.

The Gents had welcomed her with open arms. She had friends. Brothers.

Lucas had been so attentive and affectionate. He’d enjoyed her company. Her entire heart belonged to the Lucas she’d spent the last twenty-four hours with. He looked out for her without looking down on her. He included her in his larks and adventures without making her feel as though she held him back.

TothisLucas, she wasn’t a weight. TothisLucas, she wasn’t an unwanted obligation. With the Gents taking her in as one of their own, she could worry less thatthisLucas would forget all about her the first time a new adventure called to him.

There was hope.

A light knock sounded at the sitting room door. Her heart flipped over. Only one person would come to her room from there.

“Come in.”

The door opened. It was, in fact, Lucas. “You didn’t come down for dinner. Is anything the matter?”

“My head aches, and I’m still cold from the rain.”

He came inside and crossed to her bed. “Are you ill?”

“I don’t think so.”

Lucas sat on the edge of her bed, his concerned gaze studying her. “Are you certain? There is a physician a few villages away. I’ll send for him.”

She shook her head. “I truly do not think I’m ill. Mostly, I’m cold. The rain soaked all the way to my bones.” She leaned more heavily against her pillows. “Mrs. Parks had the fire lit. I’ll warm up soon enough.”

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