I’m falling in love, Jace thought. Falling in love with this woman who looks at me as though I’m twenty feet tall. She looked at him through her thick lashes, and he felt as though he could do anything. Julie had looked at him like that. And when he was married to Julie he could do anything. And since her death he had been able to do nothing.
But now, with every minute he spent with Nellie he was feeling more alive.
Nellie was trying to tie up her hair, but she had no pins or string.
“Leave it down,” he said, looking at her and wanting to touch her, but it was too soon yet. He knew he needed to go slowly with Nellie. And he was willing to go as slowly as needed.
“All right,” Nellie said softly, and she put her hands at her sides.
He led her up a little hill, then pulled her down to sit beside him, and when Nellie was seated he turned and put his head in her lap. Nellie was, for a moment, too shocked to respond.
“Mr. Montgomery,” she at last managed to whisper, “I don’t think…” She trailed off. Somehow, in the lessening afternoon light, it seemed right that this heavenly man should rest his head in her lap. The whole afternoon had been magical, and this was just part of the magic. Tomorrow she would be back to cooking and cleaning, but today she was going to participate in the magic.
He closed his eyes, and, tentatively, she put her fingertips to his temple to touch the soft hair there. He didn’t open his eyes but gave just a bit of a smile, enough to make the dimple in his cheek show. She ran her finger along that dimple.
“Did you get your dimple from your father or your mother?” she asked softly. For this moment she could pretend she was like any other young woman and this man was hers.
“Father’s family,” he said, not opening his eyes. “Montgomerys now and then have dimples, and sometimes the girls get red hair.”
“And your mother’s family? What are they like?”
Jace smiled as Nellie’s hand softly stroked his hair. “Talented. All the Worths are reeking with talent. My mother sings, her sister paints, my grandfather sings, my grandmother and her father paint.”
“And what do you do?” Nellie was growing more bold as he lay there, his eyes closed. When Terel was small Nellie had held her and cuddled her, but as Terel grew older she’d wanted to be independent and hadn’t allowed Nellie to mother her. Today Nellie was beginning to remember how pleasant it was to touch another human being. She ran her fingers through his hair, feeling it curl as she mussed it. She touched his eyebrows, his chin, felt the whiskers just under the surface of his skin.
“A little of both,” Jace said, his voice husky. It was difficult for him to remain quietly in her lap, difficult not to take her in his arms. Not yet, Montgomery, he told himself, not yet.
“My mother tried to teach me to sing,” he said, “but I never had the discipline. I’d rather be on a boat. My grandmother taught me some about drawing, and I was able to use that to design a few boats for my father’s company, but mostly I just did what I could.”
Nellie suspected he was being modest. Just as she’d sensed his loneliness when she’d first met him, she now knew he was not telling her all the truth. “No doubt your father paid you a salary in spite of the fact that you are a wastrel.”
His eyes flew open. “I earned my keep. In fact, I designed a yacht that outran everything on the eastern seaboard. Neither of my brothers could design a rowboat, and I have some medals at home that—” He broke off, then grinned and settled back in her lap. “I’ll owe you for that, Nellie,” he said, smiling. She’d made him act like a bragging schoolboy. He picked up her hand and kissed the palm. “Now tell me about you.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” she said honestly. “I have no talents, no accomplishments.” Except eating, she thought. One day she ate three whole cakes.
“Music?”
“No.”
“Art?”
“No.”
“You can cook.”
“So can a great many women.”
He opened his eyes and frowned up at her. “You’re not telling me the truth. There must be something you like more than anything in the world.”
“I love my family,” she said dutifully, but when he kept frowning at her she sighed. “Children. I’ve sometimes thought I’d like to have a dozen children.”
“I would love to help you,” Jace said solemnly.
It took Nellie a moment before she understood what he meant, then she blushed furiously and pushed at his shoulder. “Mr. Montgomery, you are wicked!”
He leered at her, wiggling his eyebrows. “You make me feel wicked, Nellie.”
She laughed. The sun was setting, and the day was growing dim. She didn’t know how it was possible, but he was even better-looking in the fading light.