“We are taking Eliza home to rest.” The night air toyed with the curls around Kitty’s ears and the glow of the candles flooding from the windows kissed her soft cheek.
Trying to focus on anything but the slope of her neck and the tantalizing scent of cinnamon on her skin, Nathaniel aligned the words he’d just heard when blessedly his reason snapped back into existence. “What’s wrong with her?” He stared after the pair as they huddled together, his concern for Eliza and the child in her womb beginning to flare.
Kitty moved down the steps. “She is well enough, simply over-tired and needs to stop moving so she can keep food in her belly.” She peeked over her shoulder and her full lips pulled into a smile that lured him further from sensibility.
Nathaniel hurried beside her. “I shall go with you. If Eliza is unable to keep meals in her stomach, ‘tis no wonder she is weak.”
Kitty continued along the road, several paces behind Thomas and Eliza and only gifted Nathaniel with a quick look before she responded. “I believe she will be well. No need for you to leave your throng of women to care for a patient who needs only a good night’s rest.”
Her words dropped to the road and nearly tripped Nathaniel as he walked. Throng of women? He stared at her. No, ‘twas not his imagination. Indeed the tone of jealousy had been there, but why? She hadn’t concerned herself with him all evening—had she? Did she really harbor feelings for him as Thomas had long suspected? Nathaniel continued on in silence. Why did he have this sudden longing to be near her, to touch her? ‘Twas too dangerous to even consider. And yet, he could convince his heart to do little else.
Suddenly Kitty stopped and faced him. She lifted her chin and searched his face with her large eyes that in the moonlight looked like dark pools of midnight speckled with stars. “Nathaniel, I appreciate your willingness to help and I know Eliza and Thomas do as well. I know just enough about such things to be assured Eliza will be well in a few days time. Do not trouble yourself with us. You may return to your admirers.” The emphasis she placed on the last word and the tilt of a smile in her gaze undid him.
“The only admirer I’m interested in, Kitty, is you.”
***
Kitty’s pulse charged when her gaze collided with his. He couldn’t possibly mean what he said. She tried to wet her throat, but the way Nathaniel stared down at her...
With a light laugh, Kitty struggled to recall how to place one foot in front of the other but all attempts failed. She stared back at him, motionless, floundering to keep the jest in her tone. “What makes you believe I admire you?”
He didn’t answer. Not right away. His hand slipped around her neck, slowly trailing his firm, soft fingers into the curls behind her head. Pleasurable tingles trickled over her skin at the sensation, slowly winding into her chest where her heart beat like it knew what was to come—and wanted it.
He stepped nearer, words warm and caressing. “Do you not?”
Kitty couldn’t breathe, could hardly force her eyes to blink. Mercy! Nathaniel’s nearness and the dusty moonlight turned everything into a heavenly dream, the kind of dream she’d yearned to embrace, but never allowed. Crickets chirped their blissful melody and the leaves rustled in the breeze. But the only sound she heard was the breath they shared only inches apart.
Licking her lips, Kitty couldn’t stop her vision from straying to his mouth. His breath smelled of cider, and the ivory light from the moon shaped perfect shadows against the contours of his nose and jaw. She blinked. It wouldn’t happen. Would it?
Nathaniel stepped closer, his own eyes moving down until they landed on her parted lips and she licked them once again. Cupping the back of her neck he leaned down, just as Kitty swept her hands up his waistcoat. She closed her eyes...
“Kitty, are you coming?”
Jerking back, Kitty pushed away at the sound of Thomas’s call, breath heaving and body tingling. She should step farther away—much farther—but she couldn’t. The sudden shock of what had almost been ripped down her spine. Nathaniel’s chest pumped wildly as he gazed back at her, his mouth parted as if he too struggled to make sense of what they’d nearly done.
Finally able to look away, Kitty blinked. She had to answer Thomas’s question, but she couldn’t make her mouth move. With effort unlike she’d ever known, Kitty began moving again and somehow found her voice. “I need to be going.”
Nathaniel didn’t follow, though his gaze did, wide and wanting. “I understand.” His quiet answer pulled at the longing that still lingered in her heart.
Rushing now, Kitty hurried to fall into step with her sister and Thomas. Though her mind had finally found its place, her heart had been left behind.
***
Cyprian knocked gently on the door of Camilla’s room before pushing it open. He tried to keep the vines of worry from inching higher around his heart, but he couldn’t stop them. Camilla looked as if she hadn’t moved at all in the few hours since he’d seen her last. She still lay on her back, her arms straight at her sides as if she were already dead. A curse mumbled from his lips. If only he didn’t have this drowning tavern to manage he could stay by her side every minute and see to her every need.
; Nearing the bed, he checked to make sure her chest still moved up and down. It did. He closed his eyes and let out a ragged breath.
He bent low and kissed her soft forehead before turning his attention to the dying fire and adding another log.
A tap on the door caught his attention and he straightened when his son opened the door and peeked in.
“Jacob, what are you doing? I thought you were sleeping.”
Jacob stared at his mother from across the room, as if afraid of what his father might say if he stepped any further. “Forgive me, Father. I... I couldn’t sleep.”
Cyprian stepped to the door and pressed it open completely, his heart shredding at the recollection of how he’d treated his son in recent weeks. How did one father a child? After twelve years he still didn’t know.