Retrieving a blanket from the boot, he took her by the hand and drew her down past a copse of willows to the water's edge. He spread the blanket on the grassy bank, and when Aurora was seated, settled beside her.
For a long moment she simply sat there, staring in awe at the lovely, shining lake. "It's beautiful."
"Yes."
He wasn't looking at the water, but at her; she felt his scrutiny like a caress.
She wrapped her arms around her knees, looking up at the moon. A silver ring of mist surrounded the rim. Aurora drew a slow, deep breath, drinking in the serene beauty. The night air smelled of damp earth and sweet grass. "Thank you for bringing me here."
"My pleasure." He paused. "I did have an ulterior motive. I wanted to show you how much you're missing by locking yourself away in your prison."
"Indeed?" she murmured, less vexed than usual by his presumption.
"I would bet half m
y fortune that once you have a taste of freedom, you'll find it hard to return to your dull, proper existence."
She couldn't help but smile at his persistence. "You are still laboring under the misguided apprehension that I am discontent with my life."
"I don't believe it's a misapprehension. I think you are far lonelier than you will let yourself admit."
Aurora winced inwardly at the truth of his charge. No matter how she tried to convince herself otherwise, she couldn't deny the deep ache of loneliness inside her.
Nicholas was still watching her. She could feel his penetrating gaze, probing her secrets.
"You would be happier if you opened yourself up to risks now and then," he said gently. "If you dared to take chances and damn the consequences."
Aurora stirred uncomfortably, wishing she could change the subject. "Like you do? Risking your life simply by being in the country?"
"Even that."
"I hardly think courting danger is the key to happiness."
Nicholas shrugged. "For me it is. Danger makes you feel alive, makes you appreciate living. You should celebrate it, not fear it."
She rested her cheek on her knees and studied him in turn. She already was risking danger simply by letting him near. Nicholas was danger. He was excitement. He was intensely alive. It was what set him apart from other men, she realized: his keen lust for life.
"Have you always been this way? This reckless and daring?"
"I'm afraid so. I was the bane of my father's existence."
"I can well imagine."
"I was rather wild in my youth," Nicholas admitted.
"Far beyond your youth, if the tales are true. Raven says you were the black sheep of your family until only a few years ago."
"Have you been talking to her about me?"
Aurora felt herself flush. "I asked her to tell me more about the stranger I married. It was a way to honor you in death, I suppose."
His smile was charmingly sensual. "I'm gratified."
"So what caused your transformation?"
"My father's death."
Nicholas stretched out on his side, facing her, and propped himself on one elbow. His handsome features looked thoughtful in the moonlight. "I always knew I would inherit the Sabine shipping empire one day. Almost from my cradle my father groomed me to take over his holdings, and I spent much of my youth crewing his ships and learning to sail anything that floated. I relished that part of the business, but I resented being controlled and having my entire future planned out for me in infinite detail. When I was twenty, I finally rebelled and went in search of my own destiny."