“You seem to do well enough in the cold.”
“I enjoy all seasons. But right now, if it were summer, you would not be wearing that coat that hides your breasts.”
She glanced down and blushed.
“And if it were summer the grass would be high and the air warm.” He stopped his horse and hers stopped, too. “I could take you to the other side of that hill and lay you down and find the buttons on your shirt and remove your pantaloons and see you, as I have often imagined, but not chilled from a freezing pond.”
She dared not look at him. His voice, rich, clear, and quiet, entered her blood. The place where she pressed the saddle prickled until she wanted to squirm against the hard leather. It was wrong for him to speak like this to her. Scandalous. Yet she did not want him to stop.
“I could kiss every inch of you, Caroline. Your mouth and neck, your breasts and stomach. Your thighs, high and pale. Everywhere. I could be with you the way I imagined all last night. In you.”
She stared straight ahead, barely breathing. He might actually be doing those things now, from the way she felt.
“Do not tell me it would be wrong, darling. It would be right in every way. If ever in our lives it would be right, it is—”
His voice stopped abruptly. She glanced over to see him squinting into the distance. She set her attention there, too, and saw what he saw. Two horses came from the northwest, off the road that wound toward Carlisle.
“Who is that?” he asked.
“Jason.” She swallowed hard. “And Amelia.”
* * *
He took a deep breath, as if the longest sigh in history wanted to emerge from him. Instead he moved his horse forward.
“Does she know I am here?” he asked.
“She thinks she is coming home for Christmas. I asked Jason not to give her the particulars about your visit.”
Visit, hell.
They drew near the house. The other riders had gone around to the front. He stopped the horses and reached over to untie the pheasants and hare from her saddle. “I am going to bring these to Tom so he can clean them for dinner. I will join you shortly. Don’t tell her I am here. Let it be a surprise.”
He rode off while she continued to the house. She would enter through the kitchen, he assumed. Amelia might use the main doors, but Caroline would be practical.
He dropped the animals outside Tom’s door. The old man must have heard, because he came out. “Hunting, I see. Should last us a few days.”
“Perhaps not. Miss Amelia has just returned. I expect Caroline will want to feed her well on her first day back.”
Tom made a face. “Gave the girl airs, she did. That aunt of theirs made it worse, dressing the girl up like a doll. Nothing that can’t be changed, though. You go and see her and I’ll take care of these here and tell my wife the news.” He offered a man-to-man smile. “Been a while, eh? Eager to see her, no doubt.”
“You have no idea.”
He took his time making his way to the house. He went around to the front. He dismounted and tied his horse. He took a bundle from the saddle, then dawdled a few more minutes while he admired the snow-covered landscape. Finally he let himself in the big door and removed his greatcoat.
Voices came from the sitting room. Caroline’s low, melodious one and another higher, younger one. He tucked the bundle behind a bench in the reception hall and approached the door.
Caroline still wore her pantaloons. Beside her on a divan sat a younger, softer, less starkly contrasted version of herself. He judged Amelia to be nineteen at most. She wore a richly colored sapphire dress of high quality and recent fashion. On a chair nearby rested a deep scarlet mantle and elaborate bonnet.
His gaze stopped for a five count on her hands. She wore scarlet gloves. Lambskin gloves that fit her delicate hands to perfection.
She appeared the grand lady of the house and Caroline the faithful retainer. He resented that far more than he should.
Caroline noticed him in the doorway. She touched her sister’s arm. “Look who is here, Amelia. See who has come to visit.”
Amelia looked over at him. Her brow puckered in confusion. Then her expression fell and her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, my.”
Oh, my, indeed.
