Page 28 of Seven Swans a Swimming

Nathaniel was shy. He was unaccustomed to company, let alone young ladies, and spent far more time here with the animals and birds that he cared for.

This was a part of himself, a part he had not thought he could share with another. Not even his parents knew, he told Arabella, though when she thought of the way that his mother had been concerned about his absence, she wondered whether he had underestimated the mistress of the Oxcaster Lacey.

“Here, look!” Nathaniel said eagerly, taking Arabella’s hand once more and pulling her toward one end of the barn. “My fox! He had a broken leg when I found him, and the groundsmen were going to kill him, but I have managed to nurse him back to health.”

Incredible pride radiated across his face, and Arabella was overwhelmed with a rush of affection.

Was this not precisely what she had wanted? To understand Nathaniel, to grow close to him, to share his life entirely?

“You have managed to nurse all these animals back to health?” Arabella asked as she meandered back to the swan. Of all the birds and beasts he had shown her, the swan was by far the prettiest.

Nathaniel looked a little abashed. “I mean, not all of them make it. I would greatly love to learn more, perhaps become an animal surgeon myself, but…”

His voice trailed away and his gaze fell. Arabella felt a prickle of sympathy for him. What on earth could have prevented a gentleman—one with means, a title, power—from doing something he wanted so desperately?

After all, it was not as though he was a woman.

“My parents,” Nathaniel said simply. “They have no wish for me to have a profession, they consider it common.”

Ah. Arabella sighed. Well, it would be a little radical for a gentleman with a title to go out in the fields and work with his hands. Had not she been astonished by Nathaniel’s initial appearance, in the garb of a farmer? And that had been merely his clothes.

Could she honestly say she would have had no prejudice if she had known, before meeting him, that her future husband preferred laborer’s work over sitting at tea?

“I see,” said Arabella slowly. “So…so you never went up to university, then?”

Nathaniel shook his head. “My father said it was for second sons and gentlemen who had no fortune. No, a few of my friends at Eton went, but I returned here. I have been here almost ever since.”

“You…you have not been to London then?” Arabella asked, attempting to remove the incredulity from her tones. It did not seem possible. Everyone went to London.

But now she thought about it… Nathaniel had not. Why else would she need to come here and visit, meet him for the first time? If he had always been in Town for the Season, they would have met countless times.

“No, I could not leave my creatures,” Nathaniel said with a dry laugh. “You probably think I am a fool.”

“Not in the slightest,” Arabella said swiftly. Her hand was still clasped in his, and now they had been in the barn a length of time, her fingers had defrosted. She squeezed his hand with a smile. “Nathaniel, I…I am honored that you have been willing to show me all this. You do me a great honor by including me in your secret.”

His smile was worth every word of praise she bestowed upon him, and more. Arabella shivered, conscious he would somehow feel her desire through the contact of their fingers.

But then, who could blame her? She had expected a cold, aloof, entitled—in both senses of the word—gentleman. One who would consider her beauty and her name and little else. She had been ready to try to build connections with a man with whom she was to spend the rest of her life, but for it to be difficult.

But Nathaniel…conjuring up feelings for Nathaniel was not difficult. It was a struggle to hold them at bay. He was kind, gentle, caring—far more caring than any gentleman she had ever met.

A little eccentric, perhaps, but what gentleman wasn’t? He did not gamble or bet on the races or fight in back alleys—

And then Arabella began to laugh. How could she have been so foolish?

“What is it?” Nathaniel said, his smile faltering. “You…you are amused? I amuse you?”

Arabella nodded as she giggled, her laughter echoing around the barn. “Yes, but not about this. Well, sort of. Oh dear, you will think me so strange.”

Nathaniel’s shoulders relaxed. “I show you a barn of animals that I am secretly nursing back to health, and you think you are the strange one?”

“Well, you will have to be the judge of that,” Arabella said with a smile.

Her gaze returned to the swan. Arabella wondered whether it was one of the parents, the pair who had been distant from each other but had eventually found each other.

They were separated now. Were they lonely? Did they feel the absence of their mate as keenly as Arabella knew she would feel the absence of Nathaniel once she was forced to return to London?

“What is it?” Nathaniel’s voice was urgent, and Arabella could see she had not succeeded in calming him.

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