Page 6 of Lady Elizabeth's Winter Stranger
“Help!Help!”
A towheaded boy of about six was stuck up a tree.He’d climbed so far that the thought of falling now gripped him with paralyzing terror.His earsplitting shrieks echoed around the almost empty park.
When Elizabeth caught up with Tom, he was standing beneath the oak and staring up at the child.“What’s all this noise, my good fellow?”
“Help!Help!”The boy was so hysterical, he didn’t seem to notice that rescue had arrived.
“Stop that now,” Tom said in a tone of such authority that Elizabeth was startled.So far, he’d come across as an amiable stranger, but that voice could command armies.
It worked with the child.There was an audible sob, but the pleas for assistance stopped.His face red and shiny with tears, the boy stared down at Tom.“Who are you?”
“I’m the man who’s going to climb this tree and get you back onto the ground, if you promise you won’t yell anymore.”
To Elizabeth’s relief, the boy took the instructions to heart.“I’m very high.”
The lad perched on a thick branch, and he seemed to have a firm grasp.As long as he didn’t do anything rash, he seemed safe enough where he was.But he was right.It was very high.
“Yes, you are.But I’m an excellent climber, and this lady is going to help me.”
“I haven’t climbed a tree since I was twelve,” she muttered at a volume that wouldn’t reach the child.
Tom muffled a laugh.“I’d like to have seen that.Don’t worry.I’ll do the climbing.But I’d like you to be ready to catch him when I get him within reach.God knows how he got all that way up.That’s not an easy ascent.”
Elizabeth considered the tree and couldn’t help agreeing.“Do you think you can manage it?”She wished she didn’t sound so doubtful.
He reacted to her question with amusement, not a fit of male pique, she was pleased to note.“We’ll have to see.”
Tom took off his hat to reveal a thick head of disheveled black curls.He set his hat on a bench that was close but unfortunately not close enough to help him scale the tree.He tugged off his gloves to bare long-fingered, capable-looking hands.Quickly he unbuttoned his greatcoat and draped it over the seat.
“Hurry up.I’m getting cold,” the lad said in peremptory tones.Elizabeth couldn’t resist a pang of sympathy for whoever his mother was.This boy was clearly a handful, and Elizabeth had only known him for a few minutes.
“I’m doing my best,” Tom said with commendable mildness.“My name’s Tom.What’s yours?”
“Cyril.Cyril Polkinghorne.”
Tom’s lips twitched.“That’s a big name for such a young man.”
“I’m not a young man.I’m six.”
“My apologies.”A scatter of snow descended onto Tom’s head.“Are you wriggling up there like a worm, Cyril?”
“No-o.”He didn’t sound sure.“Not like a worm.”
“I don’t want you wriggling at all,” Tom said crisply.“I’ll be most displeased if I go to the trouble of climbing this tree and you fall out of it before I get to you.”
He shrugged out of his snug-fitting dark blue coat to expose a cream silk waistcoat and white shirtsleeves.The generous greatcoat had revealed his height but not his impressive physique.She’d never been so conscious of a man’s sheer physical presence.She hadn’t known she could be.
“My bum’s cold,” Cyril said with a hint of a whine.
Tom’s eyes, bright silver with repressed laughter, met Elizabeth’s.Warmth flooded her, despite the cold air, and made her fingers and toes tingle.She couldn’t help smiling back, while deep inside her, something bloomed like a rose.The sensation was extraordinary.She didn’t know what all this inner disturbance meant, but she was sure that she’d remember this moment when she was old and gray and reviewing her life’s significant events.
“I’m sure you know better than to use crude language in front of a lady, Cyril,” Tom said.
“But I’m freezing my arse off up here,” Cyril said.“Hurry up.”
Elizabeth couldn’t contain a muffled snort of amusement.“Say please, Cyril.A gentleman shows his quality by demonstrating grace under pressure.”
As she raised her head to address Cyril, her hood fell back.When she glanced at Tom, he was regarding her with an arrested expression that made that core of heat in her middle expand in a most disconcerting manner.“What is it?”
