by Emily Bow
“Tell Jim that you’re thrilled a strange man has asked you to meet up. That it hasn’t happened in a while because you live in a tower. But you’re going to pass. Hard pass with a shovel. Plan B. Block the UK agency’s emails, and then explain that to Dad. Plan C. You could actually do it.”
***
Monday morning, I stopped at the nearest large town and did some shopping. I picked out a pretty, navy dress at a boutique and went to the nearest pharmacy for toiletries. Many of the brands were different and it took time looking through the products. I moved a box of who knows what aside to get to the female products. I was lingering in the ladies’ aisle like I was thirteen because everything was new again. At least I didn’t have to have a box of this stuff delivered.
I moved on to the makeup aisles which was half foreign and half familiar and way more fun.
It was Tuesday when I went back in the workroom. I raised the blinds to let light in from the window. Today, I was starting with jewelry. I needed sparkle in my world.
I turned around, and Thorn came in. He was back. He wore dark jeans, a polo shirt, and loafers.
I straightened the hem of my t-shirt, and my stupid heart did a dance.
He looked moody. He lifted a box from the stack on the left wall and moved it to a tabletop so he could dig through the contents. “You were gone a long time.”
He’d noticed my trip. “Um hmm.” I had needed to get away after the drama, and it had been a while since I’d gone to see anything. I’d planned to do more sightseeing than I had. I don’t know why I’d stuck around the castle so much. I was going to have more balance between personal time and volunteer time from now on. Right now though, I was back at work.
I moved over to the table and opened the lid on a box of rings. I held a magnet over each one. No reaction. Good. Fake gold would stick to the magnet. I made a note.
Thorn continued rummaging through boxes. He unwrapped a vase, upended it, and put the vase back without wrapping the outside. All without gloves. Next, he lifted a vial and spritzed the air. The scent of lilacs filled the room. His nose twitched, and he grabbed another cut-glass vial. This one he moved aside without spraying and dug deeper into the box. All without gloves.
I tore my gaze away. “May I help you find something?”
“No.”
Maybe I should catalog glass breakables next and leave jewelry for tomorrow. I walked over to him, wiggling my fingers, and tossed a pair of white gloves on the box beside him. “Gloves, please. No gloves, no…”
He took the lid off another box. “No glove, no love?”
No gloves, no holding the ancient artifacts. That didn’t have quite the same rhythm. My mouth quirked. “Something like that, you perv.” I went back to my desk and turned the lamp on an emerald ring. Exquisite.
“May I ask you a question?”
I moved the ring to the weight scale and noted the weight. I logged the weight into the database and got the camera. “Fire away.” I zoomed in. The gold would stand out more against a dark blue velvet backdrop. The color of Thorn’s eyes. I needed to see what stray fabric I could find around the castle.
“Fire away? So casual.”
I looked up in exasperation. Darn, he was handsome, but boy, was he slowing me down. Ah, well, it was his project he was delaying while I was being professional. “Yes, please do speak, dear lord.” I faked a British accent.
“It’s ‘Yes, please, do speak, Your Grace.’ If you think I need permission to speak.” His voice was deep, entitled, and teasing.
I widened my eyes at him. “I am going to smother you with one of your crowns.”
“Erm. Rather difficult seeing—”
“Thorn.” I put warning in my voice. What was with his playful mood? I liked it, but I didn’t need to like him any more than I did.
“I’d like a rundown on what you’ve found. I want to know the progress being made.”
We’d gone over this before, hadn’t we? What was he looking for? Why wouldn’t he just say it. I tapped the side of the computer. “Like a database printout?”
He shook his head. “More a general overview. We can meet around noon, and you can go over the project status.”
No list? How had this country conquered as much as it had? “Shouldn’t the overview come from the professor?” I don’t know why I was asking him that. I wasn’t opposed to meeting with him, not at all. I guess I wanted him to make what he was asking clear, so I understood why he was asking. I also wanted him to think about why he was asking the update of me, a volunteer, instead of the expert professor he’d hired. Why was he in here with me at all?
Thorn wiped his hands and leaned against the wall, looking tall beside the stack of boxes. He had to be at least 6’1”. Conquering peasants must have required height and handsomeness.
His dark blue eyes glinted. “How about noon at the folly? Cook can prepare a lunch.”
I made a doubtful expression. Well, I bit my lip and scrunched up my face; hopefully, he’d interpret my look correctly. “When I’m lucky, one of the kitchen helpers throws me a bagged lunch. I don’t think Sarah will serve me this early.”
“I’ll arrange the meal.”
I picked up a ruby ring. “Fine. Fine.”
Chapter 19
A little before noon, I ran upstairs and brushed my hair and touched up my makeup. Not for Thorn, but so I didn’t look like a dust-covered Cinderella.
The day was nice out, so I switched to a lemon sundress and a lavender cardigan. I wore a sundress with flat tennis shoes so Thorn wouldn’t get the impression I’d changed for his sake. I hadn’t. Sometimes I liked to change clothes.
I went to the folly, and the faux ruins had been transformed. All the white wood had been sanded and repainted. The climbing vines had been cleared. The marble had been scrubbed spotless. The space was lovely.
A white tablecloth covered a table that had been set with two place settings separated by a vase of posies. Two servers moved into action once they saw me. They poured a glass of water and a cup of tea. A small fall salad plate was placed in the center of a gold rimmed full-sized plate.
Nice. I could enjoy this. I eased into my seat and beamed. “This is gorgeous.”
Thorn nodded. “Thank you.”
My lips quirked. I’d intended to praise the waiters, but it was his home and his staff, so I guess he had the right to nod in acknowledgement.
Thorn stirred his tea. “How are you finding England?”
How was I finding England? What were we strangers? I’d been here for months; I wasn’t a tourist. Well, I had been this week, but I’d felt apart from the groups crowding around their tour guides, the families with their strollers, and the arm-in-arm couples. “England’s nice.” I ate the starter in a few bites like a barbarian instead of a dainty princess, but he did the same, so my method was fine.
“Nice?” Thorn waved his hand.
In response, the staff removed the starter plates and put out bowls of cream of potato soup, and then they backed up two steps.
“Yes.” I couldn’t open up beyond that with all the staff there. He may not care that they were listening, but I was totally aware of them. The girl on the left was the one who often tossed me my sack lunch. The older lady, Sarah, who always wore her hair in a dark bun, had a thing going on with the chef. I knew stuff about them. They knew stuff about me. But we weren’t friends.
I wasn’t going to describe to Thorn how my homesickness warred with my equally powerful awe of England. How I was torn between going home when this was all over and staying and exploring other cities. How my guiding inner gut instinct was doing a number on my head lately and I’d lost my compass. My everything had screamed he’s the one, but he hadn’t been. He’d fallen in line, dropped out of line, and only now and again showed me a glimpse of what drew me to him. I was so confused. I waved my hand and made an expressive face. It could have meant nothing. It could have meant everything. I tightened my fingers on my cold, smooth spoon handle and
left it for him to decide.
He tilted his head. “What have you seen of England?”
“All the main tourist stuff on family trips. Welsh Castles, Tudor buildings in Avon, oak trees in Sherwood Forest. The usual. Last week was a cathedral in Canterbury.”
His eyes widened as if I’d said something unexpected. I liked how interested he was, intent on each of my responses, but my liking our interactions did not help my mixed-up feelings.
The duchess came up the steps wearing a flowing red maxi dress.
I hadn’t known she was coming, and I hadn’t seen her walk up even though she was wearing red. There was an open field and little hills between us and the castle. Heat flushed my neck. If she were the enemy of ages past, we’d be dead. As it was…
“A luncheon outdoors,” the duchess said. “How delightful.”
Thorn started to rise, and the duchess waved her French-manicured hand for him to sit. “Don’t let me interrupt.”
I tilted my head, never quite knowing how to answer her when she said something like that. “You’re not interrupting.” She was though but breaking up our one-on-one in view of the servants was probably for the best.
Thorn indicated the table. “Would you like to join us?”
“No. No. I’m checking in now that Ms. Arundel is back. I was very concerned about her well-being, you know. She was gone for an extended time, right after she’d been stuck at Hopewell Manor. All of you together.”
She said that like we were sixteen. From her phrasing, I wondered what bothered her the most, our being stuck, or our being together. Either was weird. We were over twenty-one. Of course, my parents’ reactions would have been interesting, too, and I’m glad I didn’t have to know their opinion on our being flooded in together. “All’s well that ends well.”
Thorn watched his mother with a tilted head, narrowed eyes, and a neutral expression.
“Yes, but such a terrible imposition. Overnight.” The duchess waggled her finger at her son. “You won’t be putting Ms. Arundel in such a position again, now, will you?”
The heated flush went from my neck to my cheeks. The duchess hadn’t looked once at the staff. But I had. They were so listening. And she was so implying things that hadn’t happened and weren’t her business.
Thorn tilted his head. “Ms. Arundel makes her own choices, Mother.”
The staff exchanged the small soup bowl for several triangle sandwiches and a grapefruit wedge. The situation was all too awkward to eat, and I was getting full. “We weren’t alone, you know. Lily was with me. And Regina and Sebastian, of course.” I didn’t know if I was helping or hurting our case.
“I don’t mean to be a bother.” The duchess waved her palms and made a “backing off” face and retreated down the steps. “You two enjoy your luncheon.”
I lifted the sandwich and took a bite, using watercress and butter on wheat as a distraction. Why would his mother be bothered that Thorn and I had been stuck together? Did she think we were a couple? And if so, why was she concerned?
What was wrong with me? Was it my job that made me unworthy? Would she be bothered if I were going to be a doctor like Chelsea? Because she was bothered, I could tell. Was it my being an American? Or was it our age? Surely, Thorn had had other girlfriends? Why not me?
The sandwich tasted bad. Why was I even going there? We hadn’t done anything at Hopewell Manor. We hadn’t even kissed. And we weren’t on a date now.
“Imogen?” Thorn tapped his glass, and I got the impression he’d called my name more than once.
“Yes?”
“Why are you frowning? Can we get you anything else?”
“Why did your mother react that way?” I poked at a crust and spoke in a quiet voice but knew the staff could hear me. We weren’t even together, and I had to bear the weight of maternal disapproval. Uh. No.
He lowered his eyelids slightly. He wasn’t going to answer.
I sat up straighter and leaned forward. “Did she think we were being inappropriate somehow?” I couldn’t let her stopping by go.
“Weren’t we?”
I was not doing this here. I smiled tightly and rose, dropping my napkin in my chair. I looked at the staff. “Thanks for lunch.” I went down the folly steps and back across the grass, letting the breeze cool my cheeks.
Thorn caught up to me and matched me stride for stride. “You wouldn’t understand.”
“What does that mean?” I looked up at him.
He was tall, fair-skinned, dark-haired, and impossibly handsome but also impossibly obscure.
He rubbed at his chin. “Well, you know.”
“Do I?” I really don’t.
His square jaw hardened. “Things are done a certain way. It’s how we’ve managed.”
“It’s weird. I’ve never been disapproved of before.” I waved out my palm. “I mean sure, my family mocks my choices. Thinking science is the far superior career.” It all washed over me at once. My family’s disappointment with my job. His mom’s disapproval of my being with Thorn. My shoulders sagged. What was I doing here? I didn’t fit in.
Where did I fit? In America? Where I knew how things worked and my gut instincts panned out. “If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll…” The blood drained from my face, and I didn’t know how to finish the sentence. Go to Texas. Go to some distant place where I might fit in better. Doubt myself, my choices, my decisions, my instincts.
That was what I was doing. Why would I ever be interested in a guy who didn’t adore me as I was? Was it so wrong to want that? How stupid would I be to take on a family who couldn’t appreciate me? This was my life we were talking about.
Thorn said nothing, which meant everything, then he said, “Stop.”
I stood there on the lawn between the folly and the castle, my insides quaking.
Thorn grabbed my cold clammy hands. “I don’t know what’s going on in that head of yours. But I think we should go out. The two of us. On a date.”
Chapter 20
A giddy flash of pleasure stomped all over my lost confusion. I blinked and twisted my head up to him as if he’d said they’d found the Loch Ness monster skinny dipping in the castle’s moat. “What?”
Thorn tightened his hands on mine. “Let’s see if there’s anything there between us,” he said, his blue eyes conflicted and not revealing himself to me.
What was he talking about? He’d kissed me. He’d spent a number of afternoons in the workroom with me. We had chemistry. He lit me up like a Texas electrical storm with a brush of his fingers. We both knew it. Why did his blue eyes look like those of a guy hiding something, instead of the glittery excited eyes belonging to a guy asking a girl out? Was it about Regina in some way?
Anyone could see us here on the lawn. I pulled my hands free and wiped them nervously against the skirt of my dress.
Here’s how I understood us so far. He’d flirted with me at the pub. He’d regretted it because he wanted to date an English girl. Then he kept popping up in the workroom. That left us as work colleagues. Sort of. My instincts screamed for us to be together. He’d disabused me of that notion. We were friendly at best. And although his mother had expressed disapproval of our spending time together, he was asking me to go on a date with him?
“Regina?” I had to ask, even though I’d seen her with Billy and didn’t believe she and Thorn were together. He still had his intentions toward her. “I’m not a rest stop on the path to that.”
He shook his head. “You’re not restful at all. And there is no Regina. She’s not who I want.”
My nerves leapt to attention, but my practical side cautioned them. There could be another like her, an appropriate English lady one day. I breathed out, and my shoulders sagged. I was so freaking weak. I challenged him on exactly none of my deeper concerns, because in truth, I wanted to go out with him.
When I didn’t answer, Thorn said, “Nothing complex. Stop overthinking it. We should simply go out.” He still didn’t seem eager as he asked. It w
as the weirdest request for a date I’d ever had.
“You want to take me out on a date?” I said the words slowly.
“Exactly.” He resumed walking toward the castle.
I trailed behind him and then quickened my steps until we were side by side. “Like for another sandwich at the folly? With your staff staring at us and your mom watching?”
“Like a proper date.”
Something was off, but a zing flitted through me, and I couldn’t ignore the buzz. I wanted to go out with him.
Maybe he’d simply missed me while I was gone. Or…had he found out about Regina and Billy? Did he want to pay her back? I searched his eyes, but they gave nothing away, and I was too scared of the answer to ask.
“Tonight. Meet me in the foyer at five.”
A thrill lit inside me. “People will see us.”
“No problem there.” He paused. “Maybe you’ll hate me. All conflict will be resolved then, yeah?”
That was his goal? “Yeah,” I said dryly and shrugged. “Okay, I’ll meet you at five.”
***
I walked downstairs to meet Thorn in a short dark red dress with black boots determined to enjoy tonight. The short boots kept the look casual, but the red signaled date. I wanted no mistakes about tonight. I was made up, flushed and glowing, and a tad too eager, but I had my chance with him now and I was open to it.
I looked up at Thorn as I got closer to him. So handsome. He wore dark trousers, black boots, and a dark red shirt underneath a casual black jacket. My mouth quirked. “We match. Do you want me to change?”
He blinked. “I like you in red.” His blue gaze swept over me again, and his eyes glinted.
I liked his response. The gleam in his eyes warmed me. I became aware of the silk of my dress against my skin and wanted to press against him, to do end of the night things now at the start of our date. Would he like that too?
His expression flattened. “What do you want to do tonight?”