Unsure how else to respond, Kitty’s lips tipped up at one end. “Thank you.”
He opened his mouth part-way as if he wished to continue, but didn’t. He looked ahead, then down into his twined hands.
Kitty ducked her chin as her pulse darted through her limbs and heated her face once more. I simply enjoy your company. Had he meant anything more by his comment? Surely not. She brushed the question from her mind.
But it wouldn’t leave.
She searched his face and somehow stumbled even though she was already still. Nathaniel’s eyes trailed her face and lingered over her hair, her neck and meandered downward, but skirted away before his vision met with her curves.
He coughed lightly and appeared to reawaken his usual swagger. “Tell me something about you I don’t know.”
“Heavens, Nathaniel, I’m sure you know everything.”
“I do not.” He rested his elbow on his one raised knee, while the other leg folded underneath it. “If I did, then I would have known all about the infamous James Pigley, so I must assume there are more secrets to you that need discovering.”
“Secrets?” Her voice cracked. Chest heaving, she turned away. Did he have to use such a word? She struggled to find something within her stalled mind to ease the suffocating silence.
“Come now Kitty, don’t play coy with me.” Nathaniel’s inviting timbre woke her from the shadows. The playful glint in his face pulled a full smile from her lips when he continued. “Here is what I know of Miss Katherine Campbell formerly of Boston. She enjoys Shakespeare and is a gifted cook. I know she is fascinated with medicine and I know her political standings. She loves God and family...” He grinned wider, a gentle kind of grin that sparkled in his eyes. “But I desire to know more.”
The warmth in his stare eased around Kitty as real as if it had been an embrace, soothing away the tension that clung to her neck and shoulders. She leaned one hand on the ground and rested against it. “You’re very kind, Nathaniel, but I don’t know what to tell. I’m quite ordinary.”
“Ordinary? I should say not.” Nathaniel reached for a small stick and played with it in his fingers before he snapped it in half and tossed the pieces in the water. He cast his eyes her direction and glared playfully. “No matter. If you choose to be so demure then I shall ask questions. Do you enjoy the ocean?”
“Aye, the seaside is very calming, but I don’t care for boats.”
He nodded with his lips pursed in thought. “I’ll keep that in mind. Do you play an instrument?”
“Nay, much to my mother’s disappointment.” She sighed and looked heavenward with a tiny laugh, remembering the hours of practice that produced embarrassingly little results. Kitty sat up and hugged her knees. “Do you enjoy reading?”
Nathaniel scowled. “This conversation isn’t supposed to be about me.”
“Well, do you?” She grinned wider.
He shook his head with a disapproving lift to his brow, but the smoldering grin expressed his merriment. “I enjoy reading. Especially Milton.”
“Milton? I adore Milton.”
Time passed and their conversation washed back and forth in a soothing rhythm, like gentle waves on the seashore. Easy, natural.
Nathaniel leaned back and rested on his elbow. A breeze brushed past and several ducks glided down to the water. “I know your given name is Katherine. So why does everyone call you Kitty?” He pulled a bag of dried apple slices from his medical bag. With a few pieces in his hand, he gestured to Kitty but she shook her head to decline.
She sat straight. “Do
you not know?”
Holding a piece of apple up to his mouth, Nathaniel prepared for a bite. “I’m waiting.” He flicked the morsel in his mouth and began to chew.
She grinned and played with the printed floral fabric of her skirt. “Father was in his study reviewing materials one evening, when Peter—”
Nathaniel raised his hand, his expression tender. “You mean your older brother... the one you lost.”
“Aye.” The pain of her brother’s death, though always fresh, receded as she prepared to share how her dear sibling had given her such a name. She brushed a blade of grass from her knee. “Peter must have been about two and a half years old, perhaps older. Father said Peter came rushing in babbling something about a kitty and pointing vigorously in the direction of the kitchen.”
Kitty imitated the motion, making Nathaniel’s handsome smile widen. “I’m intrigued. Continue.”
“Father followed Peter toward the kitchen where, inside the barrel of flour and covered from top to toe was none other than the baby of the family. So, from that moment on Peter, Father, Mother and Liza all called me Kitty.”
Nathaniel pelted the air with that buoyant laugh Kitty loved. “How did you get into the barrel without your mother’s notice?”