Page 16 of One Bed for the Bluestocking
As she settled on the wooden bench, Kate admonished herself toact natural.
This was easier said than done, particularly given that she did not know what, precisely, constituted normal behavior for a young man about to spend several hours squished inside a building the size of a wardrobe with his handsome tutor.
Thank God Nathaniel had grabbed her by the arm.Had he reached a few inches higher and seized her shoulder, he would have encountered a handful of padding.Which perhaps she could have explained away.Men did pad their jackets in certain places in order to improve their physiques.She could plead embarrassment at being so scrawny.
What was more difficult to explain was the fact that she had padded herwaist.Absolutely no one did that, except for young ladies attempting to pass themselves off as young men in order to attain remunerative employment as a scientific illustrator.
The shed darkened as Nathaniel appeared in the doorway.As he wedged himself onto the bench beside her, Kate was careful to keep her left elbow down to make sure he didn’t accidentally brush against her torso.
It became immediately clear that the bench was not wide enough to accommodate them both.
He managed to wedge himself into the seat, but this caused her hip to pop up, leaving her bottom pressed against his thigh!She squealed in a manner that was something less than masculine, but really, who could blame her?
“I beg your pardon, Kit!”he cried.
“That’s quite all right,” she gasped, scrambling off him.As the bench was not wide enough to accommodate the width of both of their hips, she decided her best course was to prop her hip against the far wall.
She did so, then promptly lost her balance and went sprawling across his lap.“I’m so sorry!”
“Here, let me…” He grabbed her beneath her armpits, and his fingers strayed perilously close to her breasts.
“Eek!”
“Are you all right?”
“I am, I just… dropped my pencil.”That was not the reason she had shrieked, but it happened to be true.
“I see.Hold still, I think I can reach down and?—”
Something warm pressed against theinside of her thigh.“Oh, mygracious!”
“I’m terribly sorry!Was that your?—”
She tried to sound nonchalant even as her heart threatened to beat out of her chest.“My, er… leg.”
“I apologize,” Nathaniel whispered.“I lost my balance.”
“It’s quite all right!”And it was.Quite all right.At least, in the sense that she knew it had been an accident.
It was notquite all rightin the sense that she could still feel the imprint of his big, warm hand upon her inner thigh, nor that a strange throbbing had started up in a spot a few inches farther north.But that was neither here nor there.
He grunted.“At least I found it.Here.”
They fumbled in the dark as Nathaniel attempted to hand her the wayward pencil.Her bare hand brushed against his once… twice… three times before he seized her hand firmly in his and pressed the pencil into her trembling fingers.
“Th-thank you,” she whispered.
They wedged themselves onto the bench.Kate’s right hip was hitched up against the wall, and she couldn’t imagine Nathaniel was any more comfortable, but he did not utter a word of complaint.
Peering around, Kate saw that Farmer Ross had left one horizontal plank out of the front wall, presumably so they could see out.Unfortunately, the gap between the boards was a few inches higher than her head, meaning that the only thing she could see was the darkening sky.She tried sitting on her foot to get a better angle but still could not see the den from which the badgers would emerge.
She craned her neck, but it was no use.
“Can you see?”Nathaniel murmured.
Kate shuddered at the rich, deep sound of his voice in her ear.“Not very well,” she admitted.
He bent forward, rummaging beneath the seat.“Perhaps if you sit on my satchel.”
