Page 42 of By the Sword
‘Don’t be such a Puritan,’ he said. ‘By the way, I like your brother-in-law. He has excellent brandy.’
He looked across at her, just making out her features in the dim light. Suddenly sober, he reached out to touch her face. She did not draw back.
‘You’re very beautiful,’ he said. ‘Has anyone ever told you that?’
‘Many times,’ Kate replied. ‘I am not without suitors, you know.’
‘Really? Is there someone special?’
He held his breath in the pause before she replied.
‘No,’ she said. ‘Now go to bed.’
‘Yes, bed,’ he said, looking doubtfully towards the door. ‘I don’t think I can make it.’
‘You are not staying here. My reputation is probably in tatters as it is.’
Kate slipped off the bed and hauled him to his feet. Putting his good arm across her shoulders, they staggered back to his bed-chamber. She pulled off his boots and rolled him still half dressed under the covers. Jonathan heard the door close behind her and lay for a moment while the world spun dizzily around him.
‘Kate. Kate Ashley, I love you,’ he whispered to the dark.
Words he could never say to her face.
***
Kate looked up from her book as Jonathan collapsed into a chair by the window.
‘You and my husband make a fine pair,’ Suzanne remarked through tight lips. ‘You should both be ashamed of yourselves,’ she continued. ‘On the Lord’s day as well.’
William managed a weak grimace of indignation. ‘Yon lad didn’t have to endure Parson’s sermon this morning.’
‘Did I miss much?’ asked Jonathan with a sideways glance at his fellow sufferer.
A grunt was all the reply he got. William sat in a large chair, his hands folded across his stomach and his eyes firmly closed.
Jonathan closed his eyes as well and let the warmth of the sun wash over him.
Kate looked at her sister and her slumbering spouse and set down her book. ‘Suzanne, I think I should take Jonathan for a walk. He seems in need of fresh air,’ she said.
Jonathan opened his eyes and sighed. ‘Kate, have some pity on a man barely out of his sick bed.’
Kate snorted and held out her hand. ‘If you were well enough to indulge in a drinking session with William, you are well enough for a stroll in the garden, Jonathan Thornton. It is a beautiful day and the Barton garden is a particularly fine one.’
‘I think your sister disapproves of me,’ Jonathan said once they were clear of the house.
Kate smiled. ‘Small wonder. You and William drank yourself into quite a state last night. But don’t take it to heart. William has a very comfortable approach to religion which does not always accord with the Puritan sensibilities in poor Suzanne. She loves him too much to stay angry.’
‘And how are your Puritan sensibilities? Mortally offended by my improper behaviour last night?’ he asked with a grimace.
Kate glanced up at him, wondering if he remembered anything of their conversation. She had lain awake for a long time, remembering the touch of his hand on her face and his words. She had lied. No one, since Richard, had told her she wasbeautiful. Her suitors were far more interested in her land and her inheritance than in her.
She sniffed. ‘I’m surprised you can remember last night.’ She gave him an impish look. ‘How is your shoulder this morning?’
Jonathan shrugged his good shoulder. ‘Tolerable. William says he has Amber in his stables. Can we walk around to check on her?’
Kate nodded and they strolled across an elegant expanse of lawn toward a high, stone wall.
‘It’s a lovely view,’ Jonathan observed, pausing to look down the slope of the garden to the rolling lands beyond the wall. ‘You must have known a very happy childhood here, Kate.’
