“I cannot imagine disagreeing with my parents,” she said.
“As you said, it was difficult. After a while, the difficult becomes commonplace.”
“Are they dead? Your brothers?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, but when he did, his answer was not unexpected. “Yes,” he said simply.
She came to stand at the window beside him. What she felt from him defied her description of it. Pain was there, yet something else, a memory of joy, a bittersweet longing. She suddenly understood how much he wished to be home. But home was not just a place for him, it was more. To be surrounded by the familiar, the beloved, those people who’d made up his life.
Could Montgomery ever truly go home?
For now, they’d leave the past behind.
“So you found yourself a lord,” she said, pasting a smile on her face, “came to England, and became a husband. Enough difficulty for one man, I would think.”
“And you, Veronica?” he asked, turning. “You found yourself wife to a stranger, an American. Enough difficulty for one woman, I would think.”
She didn’t answer him.
“I try to stay away. Somehow, I always find my way here.”
His honesty startled her.
She unfastened the rest of her buttons.
“No more questions?” he asked.
“No,” she said, as honest as he’d been. “It’s foolish to pretend. You come near me, and I want to make love to you.”
At that, he was the one to look startled.
“You’re the most amazing woman.”
“Am I?” She smiled. “Amazing enough that you’ll continue to talk to me? I know nothing of you, Montgomery.”
“On the contrary, Veronica, you know a great deal about me.” His smile was slightly wicked.
“I’m not talking about how you look naked, Montgomery. I’m talking about what you do all day in the distillery, or what your plans are for your balloon.”
She stood in front of him, placed her hands on his arms, and allowed her fingers to trail from his upper arms down to his wrists and back, needing to touch him. He’d taken off his coat, but his shirt was in the way.
“We won’t talk about the past. Can we talk about now? Or what might come in the future?”
His eyes stayed fixed on her face. Yet he gave her no hint of his thoughts as silence stretched between them.
She closed her eyes, reached out, and tried to feel the emotions coming from him. Heat. Desire. Need. A loneliness so acute it mimicked her own.
“Veronica.”
Her eyes flew open at the sound of his voice. Low and soft, it had the effect of causing her skin to pebble.
“What price do you demand for a kiss?” he asked, gripping her waist with both hands and pulling her close.
“I’ll give that to you as a gift, Montgomery.”
He pulled her up until she was standing on tiptoe. Her arms wound around his neck, and his lips were on hers. It felt like a lifetime since he’d kissed her.
When he released her, she laid her forehead against his chest, breathing hard.
