Evelyn did not move. It was wrong to go into a building alone with him. If someone found them, they would both be punished. Yet — she looked at his dark brown eyes and felt a frisson of excitement which ignited every fibre of her soul. His invitation offered her a ray of sunshine to light up her bleak world. The temptation was too great.
She followed him into the next building. Like the neighbouring bothy, it was a two-storey house made of granite. Drake ignored the rooms on the lower floor and headed for a wooden ladder. She watched his legs disappear through the hatch in the ceiling. Evelyn lifted her hem and followed. A faint aroma of apples greeted her as she poked her head up through the floor and into the room. For a storeroom, it looked very empty.
‘We store apples and pears in here over the winter. There are only a few left now.’
Evelyn followed his gaze and saw a row of apples at eye level at the far end of the room. She climbed the last few rungs of the ladder and into the room to get a better look.
‘Where are the others?’
Drake gave her a boyish smile. ‘Your family and staff have eaten them.’
‘Oh.’ Memories of apple sauce, pies and fruit filled bowls came to mind. She should have realised, she thought, suddenly feeling stupid. However, Drake did not appear to have noticed. He was already walking toward a pile of sacking and beckoning her to follow. He moved one of the sacks and revealed a cat, curled up and purring. Evelyn squinted in the darkness. ‘It’s Duchess!’
‘You know her?’ he asked, surprised.
She nodded enthusiastically. ‘And she’s had kittens!’
They watched, in silence, the squirming balls of fur foraging for milk, climbing and rolling over one another in their quest. Finally they settled into rows and sucked hungrily at their mother’s milk.
Evelyn sighed. ‘They are so sweet.’
‘Would you like to hold one?’ She looked at Drake to find him watching her. She smiled and nodded enthusiastically. Drake placed the gift she had given him near the window and out of harm’s way. He picked up a discarded sack, gave it a shake and laid it down on the floor next to the kittens. ‘Sit on this and I will pass you one.’
Evelyn obeyed, eagerly watching Drake’s every move, as he carefully selected a kitten.
‘This one has finished feeding,’ he told her as he handed her a black one.
Evelyn held the kitten carefully in her cupped hands, afraid she might hurt it. It felt warm and soft, with fragile claws that pricked her skin and tickled her palms. His head, which seemed large compared to his little body, featured a pink button nose and wide blue-black eyes that stared blindly at her. It was the sweetest thing she had ever seen. For a moment Nicholas’s illness and her parents’ distress were forgotten as her eyes drank in the miracle of nature. Drake came to sit beside her and, once again, they lapsed into silence as they watched the kitten settle down to sleep.
Growing in confidence, Evelyn eased the kitten to one palm and began to stroke it with a single finger. Drake did the same.
‘Why don’t you go to church on Sundays?’ asked Evelyn after a while. She didn’t care that her question showed she had looked for him.
‘I was bought up a Methodist. My father was a lay preacher. Besides, someone has to keep an eye on the glasshouses until the others return. Sunday afternoon I visit my mother.’
‘Do you have any brothers or sisters?’
‘No.’
Their fingers touched briefly, bringing a flush to both their cheeks. He withdrew his finger and left her to tend the kitten on her own. They sat in silence again as Duchess’s loud, vibrating purr brought a soothing ambience to the room and wrapped them in a comforting blanket neither had a wish to leave.
Eventually, Evelyn spoke, her voice barely a whisper. ‘He’s very ill.’ She felt no need to explain who she was talking about. ‘I’m afraid he will die.’
‘Do you think he will?’ asked Drake.
‘I don’t know,’ said Evelyn, as a wave of misery engulfed her again. ‘If he does it will be my fault.’
‘Why would you say that?’ asked Drake.
If she told him, he would blame her too. She glanced up at him but only saw concern in his eyes. ‘Because I wanted to see the snow and didn’t stop him from going outside.’
‘Did he want to go outside too?’
Evelyn nodded. If he hadn’t been watching her so intently, he would have missed it.
‘Master Nicholas is older than you. You would not have been able to stop him even if you wanted to. Besides,’ said Drake, reaching to stroke one of the kittens, ‘going outside to see the snow did not make him fall ill. You had not walked far.’
‘Do you think so?’ she asked hopefully.
