She blinked back the surge of emotions that flooded forward.
“Sweet girl,” Father would say with a smile as he tweaked her chin, “you needn’t study medicine to practice it. You can heal others with nothing more than your smile.”
Father, I miss you more than words can say. I promise to make you proud, to live worthy of what you taught me. In every way.
Mindful of her surroundings, Kitty ran her fingers over the thick books on the corner of the desk and cocked her head when one familiar book peeked out from under a rather precariously placed oil lamp. Excitement bubbled. It looked just like a book her father had studied. Curiosity snuffed out the last remaining urge to leave, and after a hasty look around the room she lifted the lamp and slid the book from its resting place.
The clomp of footsteps thumped on the ceiling above. Kitty gasped. The lamp slipped from her hands and crashed to the desk, the glass slicing her finger as it fell.
“Who’s there?” Nathaniel’s deep voice drove through every nerve in Kitty’s body and screamed at her to flee.
He was supposed to be gone!
Kitty stumbled backward, dashing for the safety of the back door just as Nathaniel ran down the stairs.
She caught only a glimpse of him as she escaped. His shirt, untucked and untied revealed his sculpted chest. His hair, though held behind his head, looked so handsomely disheveled her stomach turned weightless. She should never have come! If Thomas had anticipated such an encounter he would get more than an earful come supper.
Kitty darted down the back steps and toward the road, but not before Nathaniel’s strong hand grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him.
“Kitty!” His fingers held firm yet gentle, and his hazel eyes scanned her in one quick sweep. “What in heaven’s name are you doing here? Are you all right?”
Nathaniel peered at her with such unreserved concern her knees turned weak. His freshly shaven face looked smoother and more angled than she’d ever seen it. His gaze threaded with hers, striking down any power she might have exerted to resist him.
Once her mouth opened to respond it refused to shut and her words strung together into a giant, tangled mess. “Nathaniel, please forgive me. Thomas promised you wouldn’t be home and he asked me to deliver your shirts for you since Eliza wasn’t able to do it—and I assure you I wasn’t snooping, I was simply intrigued by your medical books and then when I heard you upstairs I was so startled I dropped your lamp—oh! Your lamp! I’m so sorry, I promise to replace it and your medical books—”
“Slow down, Kitty.” Nathaniel’s disarming smile reached out and bathed her distress in its gentleness. “I don’t care about the lamp or the books. I was just surprised when I heard—” He stopped mid sentence and tugged at her hand. A frown pulled at his brow. “You’re bleeding.”
Swallowing, Kitty did her best not to think about the warmth of his skin against hers. She felt not even the slightest pain. “’Tis nothing. I shall bandage it when I get home.”
“No. We shall bandage it now.”
***
The feel of Kitty’s delicate skin against Nathaniel’s rough hands stilled the earth as he took in her wide eyes and red cheeks. The last thing he’d expected to hear was someone in his study, but the very last thing he expected was for that person to be the woman who had occupied his mind ever since the patriot party at Andrew’s.
Her wounds from that night’s attack—the cut on her head and the redness of her jaw seemed improved already, and if the ever-heightening color in her face was any indication, she felt much better, thank the Lord. He wanted to laugh, but kept it tamped down. Kitty looked so bewitching when she blushed.
He took her elbow and led her inside, directing her to the small room off the study where he conducted procedures.
“Sit down and allow me to have a look at that cut.”
Helping her to sit, he grabbed his stool and scooted it in front of her before reaching for his ample supply of ready-made bandages. “So,” he said, allowing a smirk to grow across his face. “You claim you weren’t snooping, and yet you were deliberately looking through articles on my desk. Very suspect, I must say.”
She refused to meet his gaze and he strangled the chuckle that wished for escape. He had to tease her a bit more. “I’m surprised at you, Kitty. I thought you were above such things.”
Kitty tried to tug her hand away and her tone tightened. “I really wasn’t, Nathaniel, I—”
“Quiet now and stay still.”
Keeping a stern look in his eyes he allowed a small quirk at the corner of his mouth. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and looked away, and suddenly the desire to scoot his stool closer swelled beyond the bounds of its levy. With a quick shake of his head, he ignored it. Nearly.
Nathaniel pulled her injured hand closer. Lost in the feel of her skin against his, every sense of teasing faded. He took a long inhale of the scent of cinnamon that always seemed to follow her and regained focus on her injury. Fairly deep, and though the blood oozed steadily, ‘twas nothing serious. With a flick of his wrist he opened the bandage with one hand, applied pressure, and started wrapping.
Wriggling, Kitty sat straighter. “I’m... I’m so sorry, Nathaniel. I feel simply terrible about the lamp, and soiling your books and papers with all that oil. I do hope you can forgive me.” Her silken voice draped around him like a fond embrace.
Must she be so charming?
“Forgive you?” He pulled back, fighting the yearnings with a strong measure of humor. “I’m not sure I can.”