He could think of no suitable response, so he offered none.
After a fashion, she continued. “She hated my father. Found fault in everything he did and everything he said. Can’t imagine my father was all that happy either. Tell me, were your parents in love?”
“Ridiculously so,” he answered without thought. His parents had spent almost every waking hour working but when they did manage to find time together… “Embarrassingly so,” he corrected.
They continued talking in this vein for the next several minutes. Surprisingly, they’d both received similar educations, his out of charity, and hers as had been expected.
He respected her, but more surprisingly, damnit, but he liked her. He found himself sexually attracted to her even more so than before. Of course, he’d never act on it. Or so he’d convinced himself.
She stumbled, causing him to halt and assist her in finding her balance. She was exhausted. He ought to have paid more attention. It wasn’t the distance that required so much effort, rather the clawing mud and the terrain.
“We can stop for a while.” A large tree that had fallen alongside the road caught his eye. “Sit down.” Likely she was parched, as well. All this mud and not a drop of fresh water between the two of them.
“Are your parents still alive?” She brushed at the log before finding a seat upon it.
Niles lowered himself gingerly beside her, stifling a groan at the pain that shot through him.
“The earl has provided them with a small pension and a cottage to make their home on his country estate. His lordship is a decent fellow.” Something Niles himself had brokered. With a certain degree of arm twisting.
She’d referred to her father in the past tense. “What of yours?”
“My father passed a few years after I married. With no son to inherit, my childhood home went to a distant cousin, whom my mother married. She still resides at Neptune’s Park, but her health is diminished.”
Niles wondered that he’d not learned this about her earlier. “And the cousin?”
A tight smile. “Ironically, not dissimilar from Jean Luc.” And then she shook her head slightly. “I do not visit often.”
Damn. The masculine half of the population had not given this woman much reason to trust their sex. It was no wonder she’d sought her independence so diligently.
She tipped her head back, closed her eyes, and inhaled. “It’s going to rain again.” She spoke the words quite matter of factly.
She was right. Clouds had been gathering in front of them for ten minutes now.
She slid a glance at him from beneath her lashes. “Under normal circumstances, I appreciate the scent it brings.”
“But not when one is caught unprotected in the elements,” he agreed, doing his best to ignore the surge of attraction he experienced — ignore his imagination...
They ought to be on their way again, but he’d not push her.
He needn’t have worried. She rose and offered her hand. “Shall we then?”
To assist him.
With him being nearly twice her weight.
They barely walked ten steps before the wind kicked up, carrying with it a smattering of sprinkles.
“I’m so sorry for this. I should have considered the road conditions more seriously.” This was his fault. She’d insisted they travel, yes, but he could have refused her.
She ducked her head as the sprinkles turned into pelting drops. They couldn’t proceed in such conditions. He grasped her hand and tugged her towards a copse of trees in the distance. At least they’d afford a modicum of protection.
Again, her fortitude surprised him.
A bolt of lightning flashed with its thunder not far behind.
Eve hadn’t runin ages—run—as in moved faster than a walking pace where one lifts both feet off the ground at one time.
Holding this man’s hand, exhausted and quite undone, memories from her youth tantalized her. Of climbing trees and playing in the rain.
