Page 41 of Never Second Guess a Lord
“I will know it when I see it.” He led her to the sofa in front of the fire. “Until then, simply being near you will have to do.”
“And so you are.” She sat and smiled, then nodded yes to a glass of claret when he went to prepare them both a drink. “I cannot believe you came. That you are actually here.”
“You say that as though you feared I might never.” He sat pleasantly close after giving her the glass of claret. “Surely you knew I would come? That there is nowhere else I would rather be?”
She had hoped but dared not say it lest she seem too obvious.
“I am in complete agreement.” She could not help but keep smiling because he was every bit as much a part of her newfound happiness as this house. “Tell me everything you did not say in your letters, Jacob, for we got in a pattern of being brief, did we not?”
“We did.” He grinned. “But what fun it was.”
She met his grin. “Indeed.” Even so, she wanted to hear it all, if for no other reason than to listen to his voice. “Yet still, life has been busy for us both, so do let us catch up as we claimed we would.”
And so they did, falling into the easy comradery they had enjoyed from nearly the beginning. He went into details about the latest happenings at his estate, and she, of course, shared everything about her travels back to Mayfair, then her return adventure into Scotland.
“It is clear Dalness, and the fresh Scottish air agrees with you,” Jacob said at one point. “You look more beautiful than ever, Prudence.” He trailed the pad of his thumb along her jawline. “Truly radiant.”
“I do love it here.” She nearly closed her eyes to his touch. “The people are just as kind as they were at MacLauchlin Castle. While smaller, my local village is equally charming. Then there is the countryside.” Anticipation filled her. “I long to see it during every season. To stroll through its forests and perhaps try fishing in its waters.”
“Fishing.” His eyebrows flew up. “Truly?”
“Yes.” She cocked her head. “Does that surprise you?”
“If I were to compare it to the rather uppity lass I first chatted with on a sofa much like this in MacLauchlin Castle, I would say very much so.” He rested his elbow on the back of the sofa and played with a tendril of her hair that had come loose. “Now?” His finger dusted the side of her neck as though he could not help but touch her. “Now, I believe fishing is the very least of what you might be capable of.” His eyes grew hopeful. “Might I teach you when the time comes?”
“I would like that very much.” She looked at him curiously. “Though I must admit, I am surprised to learn you fish.”
“Why, when I grew up on the water?”
“I suppose you did,” she said. “But I know little more than that about you and find I would like to learn more. We have talked about many things but not those that matter most.”
“Quite right.”
When his smile faded and he did not go on, she could not help but reflect on what Emma had told her about him finding much-needed happiness with his late wife. How it implied life had not been so kind before that. She rested her hand on his arm. “Only if you want to, Jacob. Speaking of your past is not a prerequisite to our friendship.”
“But perhaps it should be,” he said softly, his gaze most serious. “Because we both know this is much more than mere friendship.”
“Yet not quite courtship,” she clarified, making sure he understood. “As I said when last we met, I do not desire marriage again.” She shivered at the thought. “I will not suffer that again.”
“Then perhaps we start there in our not-quite courtship.” He rested his hand over hers. “Tell me more about your marriage, Prudence. More so, what you were like before it.”
“Before it, I was….” What, exactly? “I think precisely as I am now, only more naïve.” While she would much rather never have spared another thought about her late husband, let alone speak of him, she found the words tumbling out of her mouth regardless. “As implied in the ballroom before you and I first danced, my husband, Randolph, was anything but faithful. I would like to say he managed fidelity during the first few months of our marriage, but somehow, I doubt it.”
She paused a moment, thinking about it.
“As to who I was coming into my marriage?” She shook her head, wondering how she had drifted so far from her ideals. “I suppose I hoped my elevation in society would help me procure change. That I could show others those in the upper crest were no better than the working class.” She sighed, ashamed of herself. “Yet, I suspect I did the opposite. Moreover, I became capable of what I did to you, and for that, I will forever be sorry.”
“I have made it clear that part of our lives is behind us, and I meant it.” Jacob wrapped his fingers with hers. “As to what you became, might it not be looked at as a learning experience rather than something you regret?” He shook his head. “You are not that lass anymore, Prudence. You are anything but, and I believe, an even better person for it. Just watching Agnus and your butler fawn over you proves that. You mean a great deal to your servants.”
“Were they fawning?” She quirked the corner of her mouth. “Because it felt a tad more like suffocating. Or at least it did before you arrived.”
“Even so, it is clear they only want the best for you.” He winked. “So says their concern over your good name when it comes to a second-in-command raiding your castle and blockading you in here so I might ravish you at will.”
“Did you do all that, then?” She chuckled. “Because it felt rather like your liege gave you little choice.”
“A good ruler, indeed.” He pressed his lips to the back of her hand, his gaze very much aligned with his murmured words against her sensitive flesh. “Might she conquer me at will.”
“She might very well,” she said so softly it might as well have been a whisper. The truth was, she could think of nothing better. Wondered so very much what it might feel like.
