And now, standing just outside the golden glow of the fire, he felt like a green lad taking his first girl to a church social, stomach aflutter as he hovered on her parents' front porch.
It aggravated him. Terrified him.
Muttering an oath, he stomped into the ring of light.
He had resolved to be so prickly Ashleen would never be so foolhardy as to invite him to join them again. But at that moment one of Liam's potato peels struck her skirts, and she turned from where she had stood, stirring the contents of a black iron pot over the fire, to call out a laughing admonition.
Her face was flushed from the heat of the fire, her hair caught back so primly in a chignon that Garret's hands burned to pull out the pins that held it, letting it cascade, liquid gold, through his hands.
Then she saw him, and her eyes, glowing with welcome, made Garret's heart plunge to his toes.
"Mr. MacQuade!" she cried, hastening toward him with a dazzling smile. "We were just wondering if you'd ridden off to the stream again."
Garret choked, his face flaming as he remembered how he had dozed in that protected clump of bushes, buck naked, oblivious to anyone who might have strayed by. "You—you were at the creek?"
Twin imps danced in eyes so blue he could drown in them. A dimple appeared at the corner of her lips. "No. Renny was, when he watered the oxen. I heard the... um... scenery down there was interesting."
Garret tried to think of something to say, but for once in his life no ready rejoinder sprang to his lips. Had the boy seen him picking the damn berries, too? What the hell, she'd have to know they hadn't dropped from the sky into the bag.
He felt an urge to stuff the pouch into the pocket of his denims. Instead he thrust the leather bag toward her in an effort to do something, anything, to distract himself from the image his unruly imagination was conjuring—Ashleen trailing down by those rippling waters, finding him there...
But not scurrying away, offended in her innocence. Rather coming toward him, shy, beautiful, letting him drift her back onto a bed of fragrant grasses, to touch her... taste...
"What is that?" Her voice made Garret suddenly, excruciatingly aware of the rigid evidence of his sex.
"W-what?" he stammered, instinctively grabbing his hat, ripping it off to shield that part of himself so embarrassingly revealed.
She looked at him as if he'd waxed mad. "The bag," she said, innocent as a babe. "What's in it?"
Garret followed her gaze to the leather pouch, gaping at it as if he'd never seen it before. Then, with blessed swiftness, his head cleared enough for him to speak. "Told you I'd bring something," he said shortly. "Found 'em by the creek." He could feel heat rising from his freshly washed collar and knew that color was suffusing his face.
She slipped loose the thong that bound the leather pouch, the children coming to crowd around her to peek at the surprise.
"Mmmm! Berries!" Liam enthused. "Can we have 'em with cream, Sister Ash?"
"And sugar!" Shevonne begged, licking her lips. "Please, Sister Ash!"
"I suppose we might spare a little. Just a little, Shevonne!" Ashleen said, popping one of the berries into the child's mouth.
Only Renny stared down his nose, disdainful, muttering, "They're probably full of bugs."
"Renny," Ashleen chided as Shevonne's face washed green.
"Don't worry. I washed 'em," Garret snapped, incredulous that he should feel the necessity of defending himself to a mere stripling.
"Humph," was all the boy said, stomping off to scoop up a bit of harness in need of mending.
As if to fill the awkward silence the boy had left, Ashleen turned, shooing the children toward an array of upended crates and kegs.
"Shevonne, fetch the bowls. The stew is ready."
"Been ready for an hour," Renny grumbled just loud enough to be heard. But it seemed Ashleen had chosen to ignore him.
"Liam, get Meggie to wash her hands," she said. "Mr. MacQuade, if you'd like to sit down..."
She gestured to the boxes like a duchess in a grand dining hall.
Clenching his teeth, Garret crossed to the keg farthest away from the others. Under the guise of moving it to more even ground he managed to draw it even farther from those Ashleen and the children would be sitting on, separating himself from them as much as possible.
