He walked a little faster than usual down the forest paths, only slowing when he reached the curve that brought the spring into view and didn’t spot Sadie. There was only one spot where the vegetation around the banks broke, so she couldn’t be on the other side unless she had forced her way through the shrubbery.
Maybe he’d guessed wrong. Maybe she had gone to the brewing room. Or, if she hadn’t wanted to be around Jane, she might have retreated to her suite.
His eyes roved over the path, looking for any sign that Sadie had come that way. He almost missed it. A deep shadow under a flowering bush tricked his eyes for a moment, and he didn’t make out the pile of clothing tucked away until the same moment he heard a splash. His feet carried him forward even as the sensible, respectable part of him realized he should turn around right then.
She was swimming, her arms cutting through the water in practiced motions that had her racing from one end of the spring to the other in moments. She turned, spotted him, and dropped until the water lapped at her chin.
Sadie had forgotten that the water was crystalline and hid nothing from view, though her movements sent ripples through the water that distorted things. Still, Nicholas was able to see far more than he should, and he did look. It wasn’t intentional,but instinct. The moment he realized what he was doing, how exposed she was, he slammed a ward between himself and the spring, one that was as solid as a wall, and unlike his usual protections, completely opaque.
The ward didn’t erase what he had already seen from his memory, though. As terrible as it made him, he hoped nothing would ever erase that memory. Sadie was perfection. Soft and curvy in all the right places. If he was ever having a bad day, he’d only have to recall the sight of her to instantly feel better. Of course, he’d also make himself hard as a rock every time.
He heard the splash as she rose out of the water and did his best not to imagine what that would look like. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you’d be swimming out here.”
She didn’t yell, though her voice held an extra edge he suspected was more fluster than outrage. “Are you sure you weren’t just finally trying to check if I was hiding a prosthetic under my skirts?”
He laughed, relieved she was reacting with such equanimity. “It wouldn’t matter to me either way, so, no.”
“Then you admit you just wanted to see me naked.”
He couldn’t honestly deny that, but it wasn’t like he had set out to spy on her. “I didn’t expect you to be swimming! Or naked. Why aren’t you at least wearing your chemise?”
This time she laughed. “Right, because that bit of thin white cotton would really have protected my modesty.” Another splash, this time closer to him. “I already have to sacrifice a petticoat to drying off, I wasn’t about to be stuck in a wet chemise, too.”
Nicholas leaned forward, thunking his head against the ward and berated himself for the images her words summoned. Apparently, he really liked the idea of seeing Sadie in a wet chemise, the transparent cloth molding to her every dip andcurve. Since he had just seen her in the water, his mind had no difficulty coming up with what that view would look like.
“What are you doing?” Sadie’s voice cut through his thoughts, not putting a damper on them at all. “Are you knocking, hoping I’ll tell you to drop the ward and come in?”
“No,” he groaned and stepped away from the ward. “I’m trying to knock some decency into myself.”
“The solid ward is rather decent. Though it would be more so if my clothes were on my side of it.”
Nicholas looked over at the pile of fabric that he had not deliberately cut Sadie off from. He erected a new ward, this time between him and the clothes, and dropped the first. “I apologize. I wasn’t thinking clearly when I made the ward.”
“Well, I wasn’t thinking clearly when I decided to go for a swim, so I suppose I can forgive you.” She paused, and he tried not to listen for the rustle of fabric. Tried not to imagine the glide of cloth over smooth, soft skin. She continued talking, and he latched onto the distraction. “Were you actually telling the truth about the spring being your favorite spot? I assumed you were messing with me.”
“It is one of my favorite spots. But I came out here now specifically because I wanted to talk to you.”
“Why?”
“Sadie, you know why.”
“No, I don’t. You’ve been avoiding me for days, Nicholas. So why are you chasing me down today?”
???
Sadie fought herway into her clothes, thankful that she had least worn one of her own dresses today and could don them without a maid, though being damp didn’t help. Then again, if she’d been wearing one of the dowager’s dresses, she wouldn’t have beenable to take it off to go for a swim, and perhaps that would have been for the best.
Nicholas was silent for so long, she wondered if he was going to ignore her question. Not that she’d let him.
She knew he hadn’t purposefully stumbled across her swimming. She also knew he had gotten an eyeful, and his thoughts had been enough to make her cheeks flush and her core clench before she cut them off with her amulet. The fact that he didn’t trust her didn’t seem to matter in his imagination. But they had to interact in the real world.
Just when she was about to repeat the question he sighed. “Because I can’t keep away. You’ve infiltrated my thoughts, Sadie.”
She grimaced. If he ever learned just how much sheinfiltratedhis thoughts, he’d want nothing to do with her.
With her arms twisted up behind her, she did up the final buttons of her frock and faced the glowing blue barrier between them. “You can drop the ward.”
It flickered out of existence, leaving her facing Nicholas with no walls but her own secrets between them. He took a step forward, and she held up a hand. He stopped immediately.
