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It was the tap of light footsteps on the stairs above her head that finally penetrated Caroline’s conscious mind. The sound echoed through the tiny cleaning closet. The closet! With a start, Caroline pulled back. If they were to be discovered in this wholly compromising situation . . . She swallowed against a dry throat, unable to finish the thought.

“Benedict!” she whispered. “Someone is coming.”

“So I hear.” He held her close, his mouth against her ear. “Stand completely still, my love.”

Caroline pressed her cheek to his chest, the steady thuds of his heartbeat a welcome distraction from the rapid tapping of slippered feet. The door at the bottom of the staircase opened and closed. The footsteps passed the closet door and continued on toward the kitchen.

“As loath as I am to leave this place, now might be the time,” he whispered.

She nodded. He must have felt the movement because he released his hold upon her, and before she had time to register the loss, he’d opened the closet door a crack. Female voices reached them from the kitchen.

“The coast is clear,” he murmured. “Now is our chance.” Pulling the door open wide, he stepped into the passage. Caroline followed. As soon as she was out, he closed the door behind her and offered her a boyish smile. “All those years ago, why didn’t we ever play hide-and-seek as a team?”

Her cheeks flooded with warmth. “It would have been a very bad idea.” Almost as bad as it had been to share the cupboard today. She smoothed her unsteady hands over her gown’s crushed fabric. “You would never have let me climb onto the milking parlor roof.”

Benedict chuckled softly. “Absolutely right. And Giles would have thanked me for it.”

“How very strange.” The female voice cut off any retort Caroline may have made. “They gave me the distinct impression that they wished to speak with you.”

Caroline stood completely still. “It’s your mother,” she whispered. “Hers were the footsteps we heard coming down the stairs. You told her we wished to speak with her and Cook?”

“I did.” He met her eyes. “Can you manage it now?”

Swallowing her trepidation, Caroline nodded. “We must.” They’d come to the house to obtain help for the Simkinses. No matter her current emotional turmoil, she could not allow her personal feelings to interfere with procuring the aid they needed.

Chapter 20

Benedict stood back to allow Caroline to enter the kitchen ahead of him. He needed as long as possible to straighten his thoughts if he was to have any hope of conversing with his mother coherently. Caroline’s skirts brushed his leg as she walked by, and he took an unsteady breath. He’d kissed her. In the cleaning cupboard. His heart rejoiced even as the foolishness of his impetuous act shook him to his core. Of all the reckless things he could have done, this one surely won the prize.

It could have ended in complete disaster. If they’d been discovered by another member of the household, no excuse would have been sufficient to overcome the black mark. Worse, if Caroline had spurned him, he would have had to live with the humiliating knowledge that he had acted beneath himself. Relief coursed through him as memory of the feel of her lips on his flooded back. She’d not rejected him. She’d met his kisses with her own and had filled him with a hope he’d barely dared dream of. He took another breath. This time, it flowed more easily. He did not know exactly what lay ahead; he only knew that he wanted Caroline beside him. And if he needed to kiss her in every cupboard in the house to prove it to her, he would.

“Ah! There you are, Benedict. And, Caroline.”

At his mother’s greeting, Benedict shook off his contemplation and managed a remarkably natural smile. “I’m sorry we kept you waiting, Mother. We thought you would still be with the Flocktons.”

“Thankfully, no.” His mother turned to Caroline. “You have my deepest apologies, Caroline. If Benedict had not given Mary Flockton such a sound dressing-down for the way in which she spoke to you, I would have done so myself.”

Caroline’s wide-eyed gaze landed upon him. “You gave her a dressing-down?”

“I simply spoke the truth.” He shrugged. “Unfortunately, it likely has been some time since anyone offered her that particular service, so it may have come as rather a shock.”

His mother looked uncommonly pleased. “It was marvelous. And the best of it was that she decided to leave immediately afterward. I sincerely hope we do not see anything more of her for a long time.”

“Or ever,” Benedict muttered.

His mother’s smile was thin. “Yes. Or ever.”

Caroline’s hands were clasped, and Benedict had the sinking feeling that her eyes were filling with tears.

“Thank you, my lady,” she said. “I’m not sure that my behavior was worthy of such kindness.”

“Nonsense,” his mother said. “Everyone deserves kindness. It should be at the foundation of every act and every conversation. I only wish that those who refuse to accept so simple a truth would understand that when all is said and done, thoughtless or cruel behavior ultimately causes more damage to the giver than the receiver.”

Benedict’s heart warmed. He had instinctively known that his mother was the person who could best help Jim and Hester Simkins. Her message to Caroline only proved it.

“We came to you because we recently learned of others who are in need of some acts of kindness,” he said.

He had his mother’s full attention.