Page 36 of A Fearless Heart
“All right,” she said to distract herself from how very close he was. “Since you’re trying to help me, I’ll try to be brave. What do you want me to do?”
There was a beat of silence, then he said, “It’s easy. Look into the cage. Try to see the mouse.”
“But it’s hiding.”
“Give it a moment.”
A rustling, a squeak, and then there it was—minuscule, trapped, and terribly alert. Cady suddenly felt a kinship with the poor creature. “There it is,” she whispered.
“You see it? What color is it?”
“Sort of a tannish brown, I suppose,” she said. “And it’s so little. They seem bigger when they’re running across the floor.”
The mouse held completely still while they looked at it. Only its tiny nose twitched.
“It’s really rather adorable, for a rodent,” she admitted at last.
“I thought so. All right, let’s leave.” He moved back and took her by the elbow to guide her out of the shed.
“Leave?”
“Yes. That’s all you had to do today. Just look a mouse in the eyes.”
“I thought you were going to make me open the cage and hold it or something!”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You won’t get brave in a day. But you did very well.”
“Did I?” she asked, skeptical about his assessment. “I didn’tdoanything.”
“Of course you did. You resisted the urge to run, and you remained calm, and you didn’t scream or tell me I was out of a job.”
Cady glanced over at him. “Did you think that likely, and you risked it anyway?”
He smiled at her, his blue eyes holding laughter. “I can’t very well be a tutor in bravery if I’m not brave myself.”
Feeling shy all of a sudden, Cady looked away. “No one can doubt your bravery. You were in a war.”
“What does that mean? A coward can wear a uniform just as well. And many did,” he added, his expression turning grim. “Not the sort of thing you want to find out too late.”
“Did something happen while you were enlisted?”
“I wasn’t en—” He checked himself. “I shouldn’t say. It’s not a very pretty story. And definitely not suitable for a lady to hear.”
“Why not? Iamaware that not all men are saints. And it seems to matter to you—how people deal with fear, that is.”
Gabe looked at her with an odd expression, as if he was surprised at her words. “Only when it involves my own safety,” he said.
“What happened? I really would like to know,” she said softly. “If you would want to tell me, as one friend to another.”
He went stock-still, not unlike the mouse earlier, a comparison that was absurd on the surface but nevertheless seemed correct to Cady. It was like Gabe was sensing some sort of threat. From her?
“Maybe someday,” he said at last. “But now I’ve got some roses to deal with. And I don’t think the lady of the house is supposed to be friends with her gardener.”
Cady flashed back to the feeling of him standing right behind her, surrounding her. It hadn’t felt wrong then, but if anyone had walked in…
“Of course. Please excuse me,” she said, polite and prim, the way she was supposed to be. “I have…other work…”
She turned and left before he could say anything else that would mortify her.
