After a while, he noticed a familiar sound. “Do you hear it?” He drew her to a halt. A dull roar could be heard in the distance against the splashing of the brook.
Her brows rose and she grinned. “The infamous waterfall.”
She tugged at him to keep going, and within moments, it came into sight. Crystal clear water slid over the edge, tumbling from the cliff above and crashing into an otherwise placid pool. Greenery climbed the banks, and rays of sunlight cut through the tree canopy to be caught and revealed in the mist at the base. It was exhilarating, breathtaking, and… he supposed, now with the benefit of hindsight, terrifying to imagine a boy of just six and ten rowing a boat?—
“It’s a wonder your parents didn’t lock you in your room for life.”
“It doesn’t seem nearly as daunting toward the end of the summer.” He provided her with more details of the harrowing experience he’d entertained her with before but fell silent when they stopped at the edge. The thunderous sound of the water and the hiss of the spray was oddly soothing, and the air was cool and damp.
Squeezing his arm, Naomi leaned into him. After a moment, she closed her eyes, tipped her head back, and allowed the gentle mist to land on her face.
Luke clenched his jaw to keep himself from kissing her.
He wouldn’t ruin this. He needed this. Just to be with her.
“You are right, you know.” She spoke without opening her eyes.
“I am always right, but to which of those occasions are you referring?” He bent down so he could hear her more clearly over the water.
She slid her gaze in his direction. “The day you brought Arthur back, I wanted nothing more than to walk into your arms and never let you go. I didn’t care that his mother or the butler orhis brother could interrupt us. I’d feared for your life and needed only to assure myself of your safety.”
“I felt the same.”
“But it is not our time.” She locked her gaze with his and then narrowed her eyes almost ferociously. “Not yet. But it will come.”
“It will.” He squeezed her hand in agreement. He’d always considered himself a reasonable person before knowing her. “It damn near killed me not to claim you.” Each day she dwelled in Arthur’s home seemed to move her farther away from him.
“Until then, can we remain friends?” She tilted her head.
Being only friends with this woman, the notion was almost laughable. But he understood what she was asking. Could they be civil to one another and not cut each other out completely in the interim? Would he write to her? Would he continue to be a presence in her life until he could be more than that?”
He would be shipping out soon regardless. He couldn’t deny her this. “Of course.”
He needed her in his life. If Arthur lingered for years and it became too difficult… They would revisit it then.
She raised a hand to her breast and smiled sheepishly. “I need to feed Amelia.”
These were the moments he wanted with her. The everyday occurrences that made up a life.
He turned them both and led her slowly back down the creek to the bridge. “I didn’t expect to be away from the house for so long,” Naomi admitted ruefully.
Luke absorbed the simple act of walking with her, the feel of her presence, the sound of her voice. Another memory he would draw on while he was away. They took several steps in silence.
“Arthur held her yesterday. It was odd. I wonder if it’s the fever, but he seems like two separate people now. One moment, I see a flash of who he was before and then the next…”
Luke felt her shiver beside him and stopped. “Do you fear him?”
“He’s too weak for me to fear him in a physical sense. But there is something… He is angry with you. He mentioned wanting the two of us to start anew, at Milton Cottage, and when I told him I would never—when I brought up the lesions—he asked if you had been telling me lies. What on earth does he mean by that? Is he delusional?”
Luke exhaled slowly. As of yet, he had no proof. What purpose would it serve for Naomi to know that her daughter’s father had possibly betrayed their country?
Other than that of being honest with one another.
He would tell her what he could. “You know about the ambush.”
“Yes… and that it had been Arthur’s duty to assure the safety of that stretch of road.”
Ah, his sweet, smart girl. Of course she wouldn’t forget such an important detail of her husband’s reported death.
