Page 52 of Tempting Fate
His words brought a very different sort of tears to her eyes, and she stared up at him with a longing she couldn’t at all identify. When he was near, when he touched her… she didn’t feel so hollow. She could believe that she possessed courage.
He made her brave.
“Can we forget what happened the night of the ball?” she blurted, silently pleading with him to melt the fortress of ice between them. “I don’t want there to be this uncomfortable distance. I miss the ease of what we had before.”
Severity and relief sat strangely on features such as his. “I do as well,” he admitted.
“Then let us chalk it up to a strange and dangerous evening. One we needn’t think on further.”
“That seems best.”
“Thank you.” She threw her arms around his middle, careful not to press against his wound.
He did not return her embrace, but she understood her uncharacteristic surge of affection was neither appropriate nor expected. Pulling away, she bent to retrieve her watering can. “After I finish this, will you stand with me while I break the news to the staff?”
“Whatever you need.” He glanced around at the flowers and ferns, whose leaves and blossoms reached from their pots as if in hopes of touching him like adoring devotees. “May I help with your plants?”
“No one has ever offered to assist me before.” She handed him the watering pot and retrieved a much smaller misting tool.
He lifted a shoulder and pivoted, almost upsetting a ficus. “If you are in need of assistance, you can always call upon me. Even if it’s something you worry I might find menial.”
Touched, she turned away so he wouldn’t see the glow in her heart shining out through her eyes.
She’d lied to him, of course. There was no forgetting what they’d done at the ball.
Just like the sight of a giant like him tending to her beloved flora…
That kiss would stay with her forever.
Chapter 10
It surprised Felicity just how quickly her house emptied beneath Gareth’s watchful eye. By the time the sun went down, only Pickering and Bartholomew were left, and Gareth had gone below stairs to the kitchens to supervise a delivery of food and preparation for their evening meal.
The four of them ate together in a small nook off the kitchens with a lovely view of the courtyard and garden.
Felicity quite enjoyed the pelt of rain on the windows and a simple dish of roasted squab and charred asparagus. She’d always been quite fond of Mrs. Pickering, and the woman made her feel better as they spoke of Emmaline and darker things.
The housekeeper even toiled to pull Gareth into the conversation, asking about his childhood and such.
Though he was polite, he didn’t seem inclined to divulge.
Felicity had the sense his was not a childhood worth remembering.
The chime at the door interrupted their evening card game, which Felicity had a sneaking suspicion Gareth was letting them win.
He stalked Mr. Bartholomew to the door like a menacing shadow, his body tensed and ready for just about anything the night could bring to their landing.
Anything, but two screaming twins and a harried nursery maid.
“Effie? What’s happened?” Felicity rushed down the corridor toward their entry, where the maid wouldn’t even relinquish her coat.
“Me mam’s gone missing,” she sniffed, rainwater dripping from her cap. “She gets lost sometimes, see. Sir and Lady Morley left these little bitties in my care while they gone off to some to do wots thrown by the police and politicians and it is most of the household’s ‘alf day. I can’t take ‘em to the doc and Lady Nora on account of her bedrest and he’s cutting out some other woman’s little ‘un. I thought maybe since you had a household full of staff—”
“Of course, you were right to bring them here.” Felicity plucked little Charlotte from the double-slotted pram and thrust her into Gareth’s arms before she turned back to gather up little Caroline. “Go see to your mother, Effie; we’ll be fine until their parents return.”
Effie, a bosomy, wiry-haired woman who might have been thirty-five or fifty, eyed Gareth with a suspicious sniff. “You sure everything is all right here?” she asked.
Felicity had been torn about what she should divulge to her sister and Morley since they’d returned only two days prior from the Continent. She was supposed to see them for a family dinner on Saturday, and decided to introduce the family to Gareth— and her predicament—all at once.
