Page 14 of One Bed for the Bluestocking
Kit sat up eagerly.“Can you tell me more about our expedition?”
Nathaniel steered the gig around a wagon parked by the side of the road.“We’ll be traveling to the Isle of Lewis to observe golden eagles.I’m given to understand that there are a number of nesting pairs on the cliffs above Loch Raonasgail.”
“Golden eagles.”Kit’s eyes had a faraway quality.“That’s very exciting.”
“I think so, too.We’ll be spending most of our time on Lewis, but I’ll see if we can stop by a few other islands on our way up.”He nudged Kit with his elbow.“There’s a type of vole that’s particular to Orkney.”
Kit laughed.“Be still, my heart.Joking aside, it sounds delightful.”
Nathaniel steered the horse into a turn.“If it sounds delightful, I take it you are not prone to seasickness.”
“Oh!”Kit looked up at him, eyes wide.“I honestly don’t know.I’ve never traveled by ship before.Have you?”
Nat laughed.“You could say that.”At Kit’s confused expression, he continued, “I was born in Jamaica.”
“Ah!I’ve been struggling to place your accent.On some words, you have a Scottish lilt, but on others, not so much.”
Nathaniel inclined his head in acknowledgement.“I’ve been in Edinburgh for nine years.I suppose it’s to be expected that my accent would change in that time.”
Kit laughed.“I suppose so.Not that I would know.I’ve spent twenty-two years living in a tiny village in Yorkshire.”
Nat couldn’t help but gape.“Twenty-two years?How old are you, Kit?”
His cheeks had turned magenta.“Twenty-two.I’ll be twenty-three this summer.”
“Gracious.”Nat shook his head.“I had assumed you were one of the younger students in your class, maybe sixteen or seventeen.”
Kit muttered something under his breath that Nat didn’t catch.“What was that?”
“Nothing!Nothing at all.”
They had reached the outskirts of town, and traffic was starting to thin.Nathaniel loosened his hold on the reins, giving the horse a little more leeway.“You said you were from a village in Yorkshire.Whereabouts?”
Kit waved a hand.“Trust me, you’ve never heard of it.”
“All right.”After a few beats of silence, Nat said, “I’m curious—why did you not attend university once you turned eighteen?”
“We didn’t have the money.But my sister recently married, er…” Kit trailed off, biting his lip before continuing, “A man of some means.That’s what has made my education possible.”
“Ah.I see.”That explained Kit’s reluctance to discuss the subject.As the son of a prominent local physician, Nathaniel had led a comfortable childhood.But much like Britain, Jamaica was a land of contrasts.There were plantation owners who grew rich as Croesus thanks to the human beings they counted as assets in their account books.And then there were those they enslaved, who performed backbreaking labor in the sugar cane fields.
Nathaniel knew how lucky he was.He had one white great-grandfather and a great-grandmother who had been cunning enough to negotiate freedom for her children, even if she never got to enjoy it herself.Her shrewdness and sacrifice had set his family up for a better future.She was the reason he was here today.
Not that he was going to discuss something so personal with Kit, who he hadn’t even known for a full month, and who was his student, besides.He cast about for a topic.“I can’t believe you’re twenty-two!You don’t look it.”
“You don’t say,” Kit muttered.
“Have you even started to shave?”
Kit glowered at him out of the corner of his eye, which made Nat laugh.“Tell me about Jamaica,” the younger man said in a not-so-subtle attempt to change the subject.
Luckily for him, he had struck upon a topic Nat would never tire of.“It’s paradise.I know you English have your coastal spas and rave about the joys of sea bathing.But if you could see the water off Jamaica…” He trailed off, struggling to find the words.“You’ve never seen those colors before, the blues and the greens.It’s so beautiful, it doesn’t look real.”
The corner of Kit’s mouth twisted up.“You’re making me itch to paint it.”
And what Nathaniel wouldn’t give to have a painting of his birthplace by a fine artist like Kit.“You would love it.And I haven’t even come to the wildlife.”
Kit sat forward, blue eyes gleaming.“The wildlife?”
