A quick gasp from both of them was followed up by a delighted cry in unison.
“Jack!”
“Katherine!”
Katherine laughed at the ludicrousness of it. “I can’t believe it’s really you, Jack!” When the seeking hand came in contact with her cheek, Katherine gripped his wrist to hold it in place as she raised her hand to feel for his face.
Of course, it was terribly unladylike behaviour, and had there not been the mantle of darkness lending their reunion such an air of familiarity and unreality, she’d not have been nearly so forward. But, with their hands on respective cheeks and around waists, such a greeting seemed quite natural.
“I can’t believe it’s you, Jack. I haven’t seen you for five years, and I certainly didn’t expect to see you tonight.”
“That’s because my mother is visiting Quamby House, but as we arrived late, she decided to remain at home while I said I needed activity after the long drive.”
“Mama said nothing about you coming. I knew she was expecting visitors and I do remember her mentioning your parents, but then she said you’d not be accompanying them so I lost interest, and in fact didn’t even consider the visit might be this weekend.”
“You lost interest? Do you mean you were interested before?”
“Of course!” Katherine laughed. “I wanted to see if I could still make you do whatever I told you to, now that you were grown.”
He laughed too. Katherine had been notorious for sending Jack on all sorts of errands when he was just the foundling child visiting Quamby House before he was adopted by the well-to-do Eliza and Rufus Patmore. She and Jack had spent a great deal of time together as children before Jack had left the district with his parents. Katherine’s last visit to Patmore Farm had been when she was twelve.
“Is that what you thought, eh?”
“I could always make you do what I wanted you to, Jack.” She heard the edge of wickedness to her tone and tensed in expectation of having her hair pulled. There’d been a lot of chasing and tumbling on the ground when Katherine had been seven and Jack eight. Even during that last visit, when she’d been on the cusp of adolescence, seeing Jack again was like having a lamp turned on, warming the little heart that was in danger of becoming too caught up with adult cares.
“You’ll never know, will you?”
“Are you daring me?”
“Of course.”
Katherine thought. She ran her hand over his cheek, the pads of her fingers keenly attuned to the light dusting of stubble. Then she slowly contoured his jawline. She felt him shudder slightly though he didn’t move. With a flat hand, she gently contoured his shoulder line. It was a broader shoulder than she remembered. The cloth of his well-cut coat was smooth and rough at the same time, and she felt the sharp line of his collar.
He seemed to hold himself rigid. Rapt. She was sure a small sigh of disappointment escaped him when she removed her hands.
“All right, but you must promise you will do as I say before I tell you what you must do.”
“Hmm.” She felt his breath in the cold air between them, and her mouth stretched into a smile of anticipation as she waited for him to reply. Jack had been her willing slave, fulfilling her every demand with the utmost good humour until he’d reach a point where he’d declare his chivalry was at an end and she could ask until the cows came home, but he’d not pick another apple or climb to the highest branch of the fir tree at the bottom of the garden of Quamby House before his next visit from the foundling home.
“I’m afraid I’m old enough and wise enough to no longer agree to carry out promises that are not reasonable ones. You taught me a lot, Katherine, including that I must be wary of what I promise. Otherwise, I could end up plunging my hand into a basket of spiders or a hornet’s nest.”
“I never made you thrust your hands into a hornet’s nest!” Katherine was indignant.
“But you did have me thrust my hands into a basket full of spiders. I do remember that.”
Katherine remembered it well. It had been at the pinnacle of her power when she was eight and Jack was going through a stage of wanting to prove how brave and strong he was. This was just after the Patmores had adopted him. “All right. What if I promised that my request would be something I knew would be good for you. What if I said that, like you, I’m no longer a foolish child but an adult of good sense who would only order you to do something that I knew you would not regret, or cause you harm.”
“Hmmm.” The considering tone came again. “Yet you want me to first of all promise you that I will do the thing you request of me.”
“Yes. I’ve never done you harm. So it’s not an unreasonable request, is it?”
“Knowing you as I do, it’s not unreasonable at all. And taking very large risks is something I pledged I’d a
lways be prepared to do for you, right from when I was a boy. You know I’ve always been your slave, fair Katherine, so yes, I will promise to carry out this request, or at least attempt to. And now I wait in anticipation to hear what it is. Even if it means going back into the ballroom and being chums again with Young George, which I know I should be. He’s not a bad fellow, but tonight I think he’s out of his depth. He doesn’t know how to behave when he’s all at sea and becomes quite ridiculous.”
“I won’t send you back to George.” Katherine smiled into the dark, her heart starting to hammer as she considered the very big request she was about to make of him. It hadn’t occurred to her until just this moment, but the intimacy between them, based as it was on a lifelong friendship, didn’t make it seem outrageous in the slightest. “I want you to kiss me.”
“Kiss you?” He laughed. “That’s very brazen. Can I first ask you why? You haven’t seen me for five years. I might have ghastly spots all over my face, and lost my front teeth and cause shivers of revulsion to run down your spine if you were observing me in the lamplight right now. Why, I might even be more unprepossessing than Young George.”