Page 30 of The Secret Love of a Gentleman
She smiled. ‘Yes.’
‘Perhaps I am easier to share confidences with because I have spent a lifetime listening to my sisters.’
‘Drew has spent a lifetime listening to me too.’ Her gaze turned to Rob’s shoulder. ‘George is asleep.’
‘We’re nearly back anyway.’
The narrow stream that signalled the end of the woodland walk gurgled a little way ahead. It was a narrow, shallow stream, but too deep to walk through and too wide to step over, so a large flat stepping stone had been placed in the middle.
Robert navigated the crossing first, carefully stepping onto the stone and balancing George. He set one foot on the far bank, left one on the stone, reached an arm behind him, bowing to carry George’s sleeping weight, then held out a hand to Caro.
Her heartbeat raced when she looked at his hand. He wore no gloves. He was being gentlemanly, gallant. It would be ridiculous to refuse the gesture. Yet her hand was bare too. It was too hot for gloves.
It is nothing of consequence, she told herself as she lay her hand in his.
Warmth and strength closed about her hand as he steadied her weight, helping her balance as she stepped forward. The security of his strength was the strangest thing. Albert’s strength had become a threat. As she stepped onto the stone, facing him, her bosom brushed against his chest. Heat flared in her cheeks as the sensations brought back memories from her marriage bed.
‘Caro…’ he said in a low voice, his eyes a very dark grey.
She smiled, ignoring a foolish urge to kiss him, then stepped on to the far bank.
She kept hold of his hand and held him steady as he stepped across. Their gazes collided as he moved. The look in his eyes was like that she had seen in Albert’s long ago, when Albert hadcourted her – Rob’s pupils were wider than usual, and they seemed to glow with a depth that was not normally there.
Her limbs turning to quivering aspic, she released his hand. ‘George will fall if you are not careful,’ she said.
He smiled. ‘If you take him for a moment, I will carry him instead.’
He turned so Caro could lift George from his back.
For a small boy, George weighed a ton when he was asleep, as limp and heavy as a sack of flour.
Rob took him back, resting George’s head against his shoulder, as he held one of George’s legs and braced his back with his other palm.
He smiled at Caro as they walked on. ‘Do you ride?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, but I have not done so for years.’
‘Then, shall we ride tomorrow? We could ride on to John’s land and give the horses their heads.’
A gallop. She had not ridden a horse since she left Albert – she could not say why. Perhaps only because Drew had never asked, and she had been too busy being miserable to think of riding alone. But the thought of it now…
‘I would like to. Yes.’
16
Rob eyed Caro with determination as he twisted the stem of his wine glass in his fingers, facing her across the dining table. ‘You must come.’
Her desire was to poke her tongue out at him, but she would not do so before Drew and Mary. Instead, she scowled.
‘Why not, Caro?’ Drew pushed.
She ignored him.
Drew, Mary and Rob had visited a neighbour for dinner the night before last. She had not joined them, she had no interest in stirring up her sensitive nerves. But the neighbour had informed them of an assembly ball taking place in Maidstone, and now they were trying to persuade her to attend.
‘All three of us will be with you,’ Mary urged. ‘Why not take this opportunity to enjoy yourself?’
‘You need not even dance,’ Drew stated. ‘One of us will stay with you.’
