The door closed.
She would have liked Nicholas to remain so they could talk but feared he wouldn’t. He seldom spent time with her alone. In eight days, she’d be in London and wouldn’t see him again for weeks. Or maybe longer. But she could not think of him on such terms—she must focus on meeting the right man, one who would love her sister and brother, one who would accept them all.
***
When Carrie woke the next morning, the wind had blown the last of the clouds away during the night.
They set out on foot after breakfast.
Carrie’s plan to pick bluebells evaporated as Nicholas and Jeremy strode ahead, while Nicholas explained the technical advantages of his latest plow.
As Bella skipped ahead of her, Carrie smiled, happy to be in this lovely place, the warm sunshine making everything fresh and bright. It didn’t seem to matter how many times she reminded herself how fortunate she was to have an honorable man like Nicholas in charge of her sibling’s lives, she still yearned for something more for herself. The dread of leaving them all tightened her stomach.
Nicholas jumped a puddle as he returned to her. “Are we walking too fast?”
“I’m enjoying the beautiful scenery.” Once, she would have bristled at the suggestion she was too delicate to keep up. But she rather liked his concern.
She had changed so much since she came here. Never given to frivolous thoughts, she didn’t know herself. Papa always accused her of being too serious. “You’re like a maiden aunt, Carrie.” He’d shake his head at her. “Gentlemen are swooning over you at the assemblies, and you never toss them a crumb.” He hated how his illness kept her from having a London Season, but she’d refused to leave him.
Her vision blurred with sudden tears, and she bent her head to hide them from Nicholas’s observant gaze. She had expected her father to be there to approve of the man who finally broke through her defenses. The one she came to love. But she doubted any man would measure up to Nicholas. She stumbled over a rock on the path.
Nicholas grasped her arm. “All right?”
Her head dipped a quick nod while she told herself she didn’t need his support and mustn’t seek it. But something stopped her from moving away. His hand slid down to take hers in his wide, firm grasp. Carrie’s heart began its fierce beating. She lifted her eyes to his, and something passed between them before he led her onward.
After he helped her over a fallen log blocking the path, not wishing Bella to see her face and guess her feelings, Carrie slipped her hand from his.
They walked in silence, with Carrie very much aware of him at her side.
Well before they reached the enclosure, barks and yelps filled the air. Jeremy raced ahead. The hounds crowded along the wire fence and threw themselves against it, tails wagging.
When Bevans, the gamekeeper, emerged from a hut, Nicholas introduced him. “Lord Leeming wishes to see the new litter,” Nicholas said. “Six weeks old now, I believe?”
“Aye, milord. If you’ll come this way.”
In a smaller pen, ten pups, some gray, some light brown, one black, were squirming against their mother’s teats. They were small with fat pink bellies. “They are adorable,” Bella sighed gustily. “May I hold one?”
“Which one would you like, Miss Arabella?” Bevans asked.
“The tiniest. The gray puppy with the bit of white on its head.”
“That’s the runt of the litter,” Stevens said. “A bitch. She may not survive.”
Bella gave a squeal of outrage. “Oh, she must!”
Bevans went into the pen and picked his way through the swarm of eager puppies to remove the wriggling little dog which kept missing out on a feed. He brought the animal out and handed it to Bella.
The puppy quietened and nestled against Bella’s chest. She stroked its soft fur. “Can we take her to the kitchen to raise? We did this sometimes at Leeming Hall. Cook didn’t mind.”
“My chef and the kitchen cat won’t be too pleased,” Nicholas said, a smile in his eyes.
“But, Nicholas, see how she has to fight the bigger pups for milk,” Bella protested.
Carrie met Nicholas’s gaze in silent appeal. It would be perfect to give Bella a puppy to love. “Surely there is a way.”
Nicholas laughed and held up his hands. “Very well, but you must take care of the pup, Bella,” he said. “And if my chef resigns in disgust, you will go without a decent meal until I can find another.”
“I don’t mind,” Bella said with casual disregard for the rest of them.
