Page 51 of Romancing the Artist

Why hadn’t she sensed him coming, as she always did with her little sister? The man crashed through brush with abandon but had somehow come through a kitchen garden without making a sound. Although, given the way the children were laughing, they had certainly seen his arrival.

Caroline put her hands on her hips, causing her shoulders to brush against him. “Are my knights going to stand for this assault on their queen?”

“We will protect you,” little Isaac shouted, and a chorus of the other children’s voices followed before she felt tiny hands take hers and pull her away from the wall.

Edward released her and immediately said, “En guarde, knights!”

Caroline, safely out of his grasp, let the boys tuck her behind them as she turned to meet Edward’s gaze. He had both hands on the wall, leaning forward, grinning at her as though he’d stumbled upon the best game in history. The boys held up sticks meant to serve as swords and lances, brandishing them toward Edward and shouting threats of running him through, arresting him, and locking him in a tower.

Edward ducked behind the wall and came up again with his own stick, far shorter than any the children held, and then vaulted over the wall to answer their challenge.

The girls hurried forward and took Caroline’s hands. “Quick, Queen Caroline. You must hide.” Though she would much rather take up a stick for herself, Caroline followed the little ladies behind their make-believe castle and into the trees. She and Marjorie stood behind a narrow birch while Irene and Elizabeth hid behind a different tree, covering their mouths to muffle their giggles.

Isaac and Luther whacked at Edward’s stick with their own, until one especially hearty strike broke Edward’s weapon in half. He gasped dramatically and dropped to his knees on the paving stones.

“Alas, I am unarmed, and I must beg for mercy. Please, sir knights, spare me! I was only following orders.”

Holding his stick outstretched toward Edward’s exposed throat, Isaac snarled in his comically deepened voice, “What orders would those be, wicked knave?”

“Yes.” Luther held his pretend sword up, too. “What orders?”

Even from her place behind the tree, Caroline could see Edward’s eyes sparkling with amusement, and it made her heart do its distracting impression of a dragonfly again. Beating hard, fluttering, looking for a way to leave her behind and take to soaring above practical things like the ground and trees.

“I have been ordered by Lady Inglewood to fetch Queen Caroline for tea, and to inform her court that there are fruits and biscuits laid out for a feast.”

The boys exchanged a look, then dropped their sticks and shouted, “Biscuits!” They started off at a run around the house.

Irene gasped. “They didn’t even try to tell us! Hurry, ‘lizabeth. Marjie! Or they’ll eat all the sweets.” Heedless of their dresses or gowns, and quite forgetting their queen, the three little girls burst from the trees and made haste through the garden. Elizabeth only slowed down for a moment to take hold of her little sister’s hand to tug her along after them.

Caroline followed them, at a normal pace, calling out, “Careful not to trip!”

Edward came to his feet and bent over to dust off his knees. “My valet isn’t going to be pleased with me.” He glanced her way with a crooked smile.

Ignoring the twist of her stomach, Caroline folded her hands demurely before her. “That hardly matters when you made the boys as happy as you did with your dramatic surrender.”

“Perhaps.” He crossed his arms and swept his gaze from her hem to the crown atop her head. “It seems you have done your own share of entertaining the children. I’m not certain you are aware, but along with your fashionable crown, you have a twig and a leaf or two in your hair.”

“Oh. I suppose that is to be expected when one hides in a forest.” Her cheeks warmed and she raised her hands, but he stopped her by gently grasping one of her wrists. He wore gloves, yet she still felt the warmth of his fingers through the fabric in the brief moment he held her.

“No, here. Let me. You don’t even know where they are.” He smiled, his eyes briefly meeting hers. Then he concentrated on his task while he removed debris from her hair with a touch so light she barely felt it. Would not have felt a thing, in fact, had her hair not stirred with each removal.

Caroline swallowed, then said softly, “I thought you might not come today.”

He raised his eyebrows, his deep blue eyes curious. “Did that distress you?” When she didn’t immediately answer, he went back to his work upon her hair, and a dried leaf fluttered to the ground between them.

“Not really,” she answered, tone cool. “The pretend courtship is more important to your plans than mine.”

He smiled, drawing her gaze to his lips. Lips she had spent hours studying as they grimaced and frowned, snarled, and then smiled when he forgot he was Atlas. She thought she knew them quite well by now. Yet still, they fascinated her.

“How disappointing. I thought you were about to proclaim your heart broke at the mere thought of doing without me for an afternoon.” As his mouth formed those teasing words, one corner went up a little higher than the other. Though it wasn’t a smirk. More of a roguish grin. Much like the one her father wore when he wished to provoke her mother into one of their playful arguments.

She rather liked the expression on Edward. It suited him.

“I am only a pretend admirer,” she said, meeting his blue-eyed gaze. “So it would be a pretended broken heart.”

“I suppose I would have pretended to heal it, then.”

They stood so close, yet she hardly heard him above the not pretended rapid beating of her heart. He stood so near. Closer than any man had before. That didn’t stop her from swaying forward. No more than an inch, perhaps, before she caught herself.