Page 43 of Forget Me Not

“Then where are we to have our picnic?” She posed the question with enough feigned innocence to pull a broader grin from him. “One cannot do the thing properly without a river.”

“Will you settle for a copse of trees and a spectacular view?” His high spirits were improving hers.

“That depends on whether or not you pilfered any ginger biscuits from the kitchen.”

He smiled at her. “Do you think I forgot your love of ginger biscuits?”

A sudden grip of nervousness squeezed her heart. “I’m not certain what you remember. It has been a lot of years since we spent time together.”

He slipped her arm through his. “You enjoy ginger biscuits but not shortbread. You like boiled potatoes. You tolerate fish but don’t prefer it. And there is nothing you love so much as a thick slice of bread with a generous spread of butter.”

Julia leaned a little against his arm, memories and nostalgia working a bit of magic. “Charlotte always thought I was ridiculous to prefer bread to pudding. Heavens, she loved pudding.”

“I miss her,” Lucas said.

Emotion stung the back of Julia’s eyes. “So do I.”

He rubbed her arm. “I hadn’t meant to cause you pain, sweeting.”

“You didn’t.” She took a deep breath, and some of the tension escaped with it. “Besides, one cannot be unhappy at a picnic. I believe there is a law.”

He grinned at her. “Never let it be said that I’m a picnic felon. Should our enjoyment wane, I intend to place the blame on Kes, then he’ll go to prison instead of us.”

“Suppose Mr. Barrington tattles on us?”

“We’ll go into hiding, Julia. Nottingham Forest is, I understand, a fine place for a band of miscreants to hide.”

She shook her head at his ridiculousness, though she was enjoying it. So much of the last weeks had been difficult and tense between them. She needed an escape, however temporary.One cannot be unhappy at a picnic.She didn’t intend to be.

Chapter Sixteen

Lucas watched Julia with anequal measure of enjoyment and relief as they, along with Kes, undertook their picnic.

Julia seemed to enjoy the stories he and Kes told of their travels in Europe. She’d asked questions, inquired after various landmarks. She’d even come very close to smiling. So painfully close.

I miss her smile.

“Were the mountains in Switzerland taller than these?” She motioned to the peaks visible in the surrounding countryside.

“Much taller,” Lucas said.

“And you climbed them?” Her amazement did his confidence a great deal of good. Though he didn’t often admit it, he harbored a great many doubts and uncertainties.

“I didn’t attempt the tallest of them,” he said, “but I climbed several taller than these.”

She turned on her cushion to face him more fully. “Was it dangerous?”

“I don’t take unnecessary risks when I’m mountaineering.”

Julia pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, still looking at him intently. So many Society ladies clung to the extremes of fashion; the wider panniers they wore would make her current adorable posture impossible. “Do any women climb mountains?”

“I’d imagine so, especially in areas of the world with a great many mountains. The siren song of the peaks can be ignored for only so long.”

Her expression was soft. “You really do love it, don’t you?”

He leaned against the tree behind him, his mind filling with memories of climbs and mountaintops. “There is nothing like it in all the world, Julia. It is peaceful and tranquil and... and a miraculous bit of heaven.”

A look of something like longing filled her eyes as she listened, a different expression than he’d seen before. It drew him in, making it nearly impossible to look away. She appeared in that moment to be truly at peace. How might he keep it from slipping away? How could he keep them in this moment where the future looked almost hopeful?

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