When she grew tired of the view, Caroline watched Sterling. He hardly looked up but concentrated on the book held in one hand and balanced on his knee while he sketched quickly. Then he would sit back and study what he had drawn before he returned to sketching. By the intensity on his face and complete concentration on what he was doing, Caroline determined that Sterling may have forgotten that anyone else was with him. Not that she minded since she enjoyed watching him and admired his profile, form, and the character that shehad discovered beneath his cool and stern exterior.
However, curiosity did get the best of her and Caroline pulled herself to her feet and wandered over to where he sat. When her shadow fell over him, Sterling quickly closed the sketchbook, hiding what he had drawn.
“You are not going to show me?”
“I would prefer that you were not aware of my lack of talent.”
“You will not show me one?” she begged him.
He tilted his head back and studied her. “Just one?” he asked.
“Just one.”
He grinned and opened the book to the first page and held it up for her to see.
At first, she wasn’t certain what the sketch was but then slowly realized. “Is that…”
“Yes. It is your bum. I had ample time to study it as we climbed, and I enjoyed it very much.”
Her face started to burn. “I cannot believe that you…that…” She could not even find the words but sputtered and gestured. He had sketched every detail, including the patch she’d sewn on one side to cover the rip from when her brother had owned them, and the wear of the rope about her waist.
Sterling only laughed, closing the sketchbook.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I thought to frame it and hang in my office at home, back in England, to always remember you by.”
Panic seized her. “You would not dare.”
“Why would I not?”
“What if someone asked?”
Sterling chuckled. “I would never reveal a name,” he promised. “I will simply explain that it was an inspirational view from my time spent in the Cape Colony.”
Caroline did not know what to say and she truly hoped that he wasteasing and that nobody else ever saw the drawing.
“We need to go so that we are back before it gets dark.” She then stomped away and hoped that she could find a way to get that drawing away from him and then she had another disturbing thought. “What else did you sketch?”
“Various things.” He gestured to the scenery.
Oh, she wanted to believe him but there was too much humor in his eyes. She needed to see what was in that sketchbook. If he drew her bottom from memory, what else had heremembered?
Just the very idea caused her face to burn and she quickly turned away and started folding the thin blanket to shove in her satchel.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sterling found himselfchuckling at various times as they climbed down the mountain only to have Caroline look back at him over her shoulder and glare.
Oh, if only she knew the sketches he had made, she would be furious. They were certainly different than what a boy of fourteen sketched, and far more scintillating, and they were his.
Nobody would ever see what was within those pages because they were his memories of a remarkable woman. There was no doubt that in the years to come, when he was back in England, he would likely look through the pages often, simply to remember her.
His heart ached at the very idea of leaving Caroline…of leaving Wyndview Farm.
Was it because of her that he wanted to stay, or did he also want this life? The one he had been denied.
When she glanced back again, her dark eyes narrowing, he knew in that moment that it was mostly because of Caroline.
