“Surely this isn’t something she’d be interested in?”
“You’d be surprised.” James said. “The day after, then? I’ll call for you and begin to woo you publicly. I will hover with all the outward signs of helpless devotion.”
He tapped a finger against her chin, his eyes filled with pleasure. Once again, she was afraid of what she had gotten herself into.
Not with their plan but with him.
CHAPTER 12
I shall not change my course because those who assume to be better than I desire it.
~ Victoria Claflin Woodhull
The Pond at Central Park
Three Days Later
“But what if I fall down?”
“Then you get back up and try again,” Prim told Luella as she lifted her from the carriage with a smile of encouragement. “It’ll not do to give up on something simply because we fail at first.”
Excellent advice, she thought. She should take it herself.
“I’m not going to fall down,” Ellis exclaimed, leaping out behind his sister without assistance. “I’ll be fast as the wind. And soar like an eagle.”
“Hold on there, young man,” Prim scolded, restraining her son before he could race off. “You must have skates before you can soar.”
“Aw, Mama!” He pouted but stayed close while Prim hauled Hazel out of the carriage and onto her hip.
She couldn’t imagine what James had been thinking by inviting her children to join them today. Perhaps an afternoon in her company alone hadn’t been interesting enough for him?
Yesterday, he’d hired a sleigh for a long ride down the winding lanes of the park. Compactly built, the two of them had been pressed together from shoulder to hip the entire time. She’d been so acutely aware of him. His solid muscular body. His scent. His heat. She’d initially sat in mute silence. But again, he’d made it fun for her, eliciting laughter as the sleigh bells jangled merrily along the way.
They’d talked for so long, she’d been afraid she might be boring him and had apologized for it. Nonsense, he’d said. He was glad to find someone to converse with about something more material than the weather. It’d been the same for her.
But perhaps he hadn’t enjoyed it as much as she.
On the other hand, the children had heard the sleigh return and poured from the house to exclaim over the bells and lively chestnut mares that’d pulled them along. It could be that he sincerely wanted them to have a spot of fun as well.
They neared the crowded pond, and Prim spotted him standing alongside of it, leaning back against a tree and staring out over the skaters.
He was holding something in his hand. His thumb absently rubbing across the dull gold surface. She’d seen it before, knew he always carried it with him.
He seemed sad…no, that wasn’t right. He seemed lonely. She’d caught a hint of the same air more than once over the past couple of days. That forlorn look when he thought she wasn’t looking. Though one might not imagine it possible amid the crush of a hundred bodies, Prim sensed the same countless times before. She recognized it in him now.
But why? James wasn’t like her. He gave the impression of having been born with the confidence she lacked. Neither shy nor reserved, men and women alike sought his company. Adored him for his gregarious wit and humor. She’d never seen him alone.
But she also knew all too well, one didn’t need to be alone to be lonely.
Hazel squirmed in her arms and Prim released her, watching her toddler streak toward James, with Luella and Ellis following behind. A part of her longed to do the same.
For mercy’s sake, she liked him. Her children liked him. The past few days had prompted all sorts of impractical thoughts in her head, until she was as giddy as she’d been at that first ball all those years ago when Fletcher Eames had bowed over her hand.
Spending more time in his company would only make matters worse for her. Yet somehow, here she was. And just as excited as the children.
* * *
“Mr. Kin-tish!”
