Page 17 of One Bed for the Bluestocking
They rose from the bench and shifted around in the cramped space.In the darkness, she felt something brush against her left breast.Cheeks scorching, she prayed it was nothing more intimate than an errant elbow.
Finally, Nathaniel got his satchel into place.They tried to wedge themselves on the bench once more.You would think the satchel might have helped, but they somehow seemed to fit even more poorly than the first time around.Kate leaned forward, attempting to peer out of the opening.She still wasn’t high enough.
“Is that better?”Nathaniel murmured in his sonorous voice.
“Not really,” she admitted.“Maybe if I?—”
Firm hands seized her hips.The breath left her body as Nathaniel pushed her to her feet, moved to the center of the bench, and settled her on his lap.
“Can you see now?”he asked.
“I… yes.”And she could.The problem was that she couldfeelso much, such as Nathaniel’s firm thighs beneath her bottom, and his breath in her hair.Her ability to concentrate was shot to pieces.
“It will be better this way,” he whispered.“I doubt you would have been able to draw with your arm wedged up against the wall.”
She doubted she would be able to draw when she could neither breathe nor think.What was it that he smelled like?She couldn’t place the scent.It was fresh and fruity and slightly buttery at the same time…
She shook herself, recalling that he was expecting an answer.What had the question been again?“True,” she hedged, hoping she wasn’t agreeing to anything salacious.
He leaned forward, his hand searching for something in the darkness, and for a moment, his chest pressed against her back, almost like an embrace.Oh, how she wanted to lean back against him, to turn, to wrap her arms around his neck and press her lips against his?—
“Look!”he hissed.“The badgers.They’re emerging!”
“Badgers?”Kate asked, momentarily confused.It took her a second to recall where she was and to what purpose.“Oh, yes!Thebadgers!”
She leaned forward eagerly, finally at the right height to see out of the hide.Their only source of light was the moon, but the badgers’ striped, white faces stood out even in the dim light.There were eight of them by Kate’s count.Three disappeared into the darkness.Three more began nosing around the ground, no doubt looking for worms.The final two began tumbling around together in a good-natured bout of wrestling.
Nathaniel pointed to two of the badgers foraging together.“See those two that are slightly larger?That will be the breeding pair.The others will be the cubs of last year.Any cubs born this year will not emerge from the den for a few more weeks.”
Kate’s pencil was flying across her sketch pad, desperate to capture the fascinating creatures before they, too, wandered off to forage farther afield.Beside her, she could hear Nathaniel’s pencil softly scratching as he recorded his observations in his notebook.
As Kate had expected, after a few minutes, the young pair who had been wrestling disappeared around the far side of the haystack.That was all right.Kate had managed to fill three sheets with hasty sketches of their play.
She turned her attention to the three remaining badgers, the ones foraging for food.After a while, the smallest one wandered off, leaving only the adult pair.
Suddenly, the big male approached the female, reared up on his hind legs, and climbed onto her back.
It took Kate a moment to register what was happening.“What luck!”Nathaniel murmured behind her.“This is a rare sight.”
Kate swallowed.The male was just sitting atop his partner, motionless.Although Kate did not pretend to be wise in the ways of the world, she was a naturalist, and this was not the first time she had witnessed breeding behavior in animals.
She was almost certain that was going on.And yet, based on previous observations, she had expected there to be more… thrusting.
Perhaps she was wrong.Perhaps they were merely wrestling, as the juveniles had done.“Are they, um…”
“Copulating,” Nathaniel supplied.He nudged her with his shoulder.“Why have you stopped drawing?This is an amazing opportunity to document their breeding behavior!”
“Right,” she said weakly, turning to a fresh page.Could the situation be any more embarrassing?She was hiding in a cramped shed with the man for whom she had developed atendre, sitting on his lap, watching a pair of badgers fornicate.And she was expected to capture the moment in a sketch!
Cheeks burning, she began outlining the badgersin flagrante.She was able to add quite a lot of details, on account of how still they were.
“Nathaniel!”she hissed.
The pencil scratching across his notebook paused.“Yes?”
“Is the boar all right?”
“I think so.Why do you ask?”
