Page 32 of Snowdrops and Winterberry
“Did you enjoy our Christmas festivities?” Howard asked.
She smiled at him. “I did indeed. Greenery and stories and wassail.”
“And the company of a delightful gardener, of course.” He winked at her.
Robbie smiled as wide as the River Tyne. “I’ve not been winked at since I was sixteen years old.”
“Accustom yourself to it. I mean to keep right on winking at you.”
They sat side by side that way, touching from shoulder to knee, happily eating their humble meal, making light conversation in the quiet of evening. It was a fine way to spend aquarter hour.
“What have you left to do in your garden tonight?” Robbie asked him after they’d finished their meal.
“It’s notmygarden,” he said with a smile. “Not really.”
“You designed and built it. You made it beautiful, and beautiful in a way that lasts. That’s owing to you, and that gives you a claim to it that can’t be taken away.” It was, quite possibly, one of the kindest things a woman had ever said to him.
“If that’s true, then I have fine gardens all over the kingdom.”
“Quite the landowner, you are.” Robbie rose, her smile seemingly permanent. She turned to face him. “What’s left to be done in your garden tonight?”
He stood as well. “Only putting away my tools.”
“Can I help you with that?”
Even if she couldn’t have done a single thing to assist in what little remained to be done, he’d have told her she could. Howard hadn’t ever been one who fell to pieces when separated from people he missed, but he had a sense of that changing, of his need for Robbie MacGregor, growing stronger by the day.
He didn’t know how much of her company he had left to enjoy, but he meant to claim every bit of it she’d allow.
He walked with her hand in his own back into the garden he was building, pleased as plums at the approval he saw in her eyes when she looked at all he’d accomplished.
“Would you mind too terribly if I wandered down this way in the evenings?” Robbie asked. “I’ll bring you your supper and help you with what I can.”
“Having you here to end my day would be the greatest Christmastime present I can think of.”
She smiled at him. “You’ll remember it’s not actually Christmas.”
“And yet I’m certain I’ll look back on this not-actually-Christmas celebration as my favorite Yuletide of all.”
Quite without warning, Robbie pressed a kiss to his stubbled cheek. “So will I.”
Chapter Fourteen
Lady Jonquil allowed Robbie tovisit the circular sitting room each day and watch Howard as he worked below. Robbie didn’t remain for hours on end but did take advantage of a moment here and there. And, to her relief, Lady Jonquil didn’t tease her about it.
At the end of each day, when Adam was spending time with his host and hostess, Robbie slipped out to the garden corner to visit with Howard and talk about how his work was progressing. A handful of days since she’d first done so, she made her evening walk outside, and Howard was next to the garden wall, waiting for her.
He smiled as she approached. Her heart flipped around as it did whenever she found herself in his company.
“This is quickly becoming my favorite time of day,” he said. For someone who’d been so gruff when she’d first met him, Howard was proving rather romantic in his sensibilities.
She walked beside him and looked around. “The wall must be nearly finished.”
“There are only a few places here and there that still need attention,” he said. “But the bulk of the work is done. Lord Jonquil means to take a look tomorrow and give his approval or disapproval.”
“I can’t imagine he would disapprove.”
Her words didn’t seem to fully reassure Howard. “His is a generous nature, and I worry he’ll say he is pleased when, in reality, he isn’t entirely. I hope not. I need him to be ecstatic.”
