She refused to allow him to ruin the moment. She held out her arms and twirled, her hair flying. “I’m dancing. Like the moon goddess. Might you be Keats’s Endymion?”
“You’ve had too much wine. Go back to bed before someone sees you.”
Carrie scowled up at him. She was a trifle foxed, as Bella would say, but was there not a shred of romance in his soul? “They are all asleep. It’s a lovely night. Why don’t you come down?”
“Go back to bed, please.”
“No, I won’t. But don’t let me keep you. You probably need your sleep!”
She heard a muttered curse. He moved away from the window.
Her heart beating hard, Carrie danced on. Although still defiant, she suspected she’d feel very foolish when Nicholas poured cold water over her dreams tomorrow, as he always did.
Surprised, she turned as Nicholas appeared, wearing a crimson banyan over his trousers and a white linen shirt. His throat was bare, and his hair tousled. He looked divinely wonderful, although not entirely happy to see her.
“It’s a lovely warm night,” she said tentatively.
“Yes. Isn’t it? Allow me to escort you upstairs.”
She backed away from him. “You are not my husband, Nicholas.”
“But I have your welfare in mind,” he said, following her.
Her toe struck a stone object in the grass, and she almost lost her balance. It stung, but she clamped her lips on the pain.
Nicholas reached her and put his hands on her bare arms. “For God’s sake, Carrie…”
“No. God would approve of my love of life,” she said, raising her arms to place them around his neck. “Don’t you love anything or anyone?”
“This isn’t sensible.” His voice sounded strained, but he left her hands where they were, his own resting at her waist.
She peered at him in the shadow of a large chestnut tree. Was he very cross with her? It was hard to make out his expression in the gloom. “Must we always be sensible?”
“Mistakes can ruin lives, sweetheart.”
He sounded as if he was speaking about himself. His life. What mistake made him like this? He was a man who could be tender, and he cared deeply for both people and animals. She had witnessed it often enough. It was partly why she loved him. But he would never tell her what made him so reluctant to enjoy life to the full. She doubted he’d revealed the reason to anyone. No, she thought, he would have told her father. She remembered something Papa had said before he died.If you find a man as good as Nicholas, I shall be happy in heaven.
“You’re a good man, Nicholas.”
He gently removed her hands and stepped back. “I’m a man, whether I’m good remains to be seen.”
Nicholas paused on the path and contemplated her. Might he understand her at last? Did he like what he saw? Or disapprove of her and believe he was right all along: that she was a foolish young woman in need of a man’s guidance. She frowned. Surely a woman could do as she wished without suffering a man’s disapproval?
She would hate for him to think her foolish. Nicholas was such a stickler for correct behavior. It was that which drew her on to goad him. And she had gone so far there was no turning back now. Tonight would bring the matter to a head, and she would know. “Everything has become clear to me,” she said, although it hadn’t, really. But she’d drawn a response from him.
“Everything?” He asked as he strode toward her.
He looked so purposeful; Carrie gasped.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Moon madness, that was what this was. Nicholas had heard of it but never quite believed it until now. And he suffered an acute case. He had to hang on before all the reasonable, coherent thoughts which drove him to this point were in danger of melting away like quicksilver or fairy dust.
Jealousy curdled inside him at the thought of some man touching Carrie as she was now, almost naked, with her glorious hair curling over her shoulders. Through the fine lawn of her nightgown, the moonlight revealed the lush swell of her breasts and the rounded curve of her bottom.
He stripped off his banyan and held it out to her. “Put this on, please.”
She gazed at him defiantly. Then snatched it from him and struggled into it. He came to roll up the sleeves.
