“I…I think I…twisted my ankle,” she whispered, trying to right herself. As Miss Appleton scoffed, Henry reached out to grasp Lily’s elbow. With a firm grip, he pulled her away from Mr. Waverley, wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her slightly off the ground
“What are you doing?” she asked, mortified.
“Saving you from gossip,” he murmured in her right ear, his tone sending spirals of heat into her midsection. Whether he was saving her from gossip or from his friend’s company, she was never given a chance to ask.
“Waverley, take Miss Appleton back to the house, and do try to keep her at an arm’s distance and, perhaps, away from any troubling holes.”
Miss Appleton sputtered in protest as Mr. Waverley did as he was instructed, his gaze unable to stay above her neckline.
“I shall go and prepare some tea,” Jane said, picking up the hem of her dress and scurrying passed the three couples and up the curved path.
When everyone had disappeared behind the row of tall yews, Lily shoved away from Henry, hobbling back to keep from putting pressure on her tender foot.
“I’m quite well,” she said, pushing up a lock of thick hair that had come unpinned.
He nodded, clasped his hands behind his back, and smiled. “Show me.”
Lily’s mouth fell open. She was hoping he’d leave her to attend to Miss Appleton. “I beg your pardon?”
His smile widened. “If you’re fine, Miss Scott, you will be able to walk on your right foot, without assistance.”
Henry’s sultry smirk was enough to make her scream and swoon at the same time. Forced to demonstrate she could at least travel from one place to another without having his strong arms wrapped around her, she shifted her weight, drawing her left foot up to take a step. Only when she did, the familiar pain shot from her ankle to her hip, causing her knees to buckle under her.
The strong arms she was trying so hard to avoid swooped underneath her in an effortless, breathless motion. She lay in Henry’s arms, staring into his concerned features.
“Just as I thought,” he said, his long strides moving them down a narrow trail, in the opposite direction of the house.
“Where…where are you taking me?” She hoped he didn’t hear the thumping of her heart over her halting words. He said nothing, continuing to carry her, the warm and heady smell of his skin rising above the sweet aroma of summer flowers along the uncharted path.
“You’re not going to put me down, are you?”
“That’s very observant of you, Miss Scott.”
“So, it would be useless for me to protest?”
“Quite.”
She bit down on her tongue, resigned to let him carry her off, alone. Unsure of what the next minute held, she tried to relax, remembering the last time he’d carried her. She’d kissed him, not a pure or innocent exchange of affection, but a kiss that made her lips tingle and her insides flutter.
“There’s a cold spring up ahead,” he said, pulling her into the present. “If you have a sprain, it will bring down the swelling.”
He carried her another sixty feet before pivoting onto an ivy-laden path that opened into one of the most enchanting places she’d ever seen. Ahead of them, a ten-foot waterfall plunged into a clear, rocky stream.
“I never knew this existed,” she said, enamored.
He sat her down on a moss-covered rock, bending over her to slip his hand inside the hem of her dress. He hiked up her skirts to her bare kneecap, and she sucked in a surprised breath.
“Mr. Dalton…I—” she said, fighting with him to pull her dress toward her feet.
He exhaled as if he were dealing with an unruly child and shifted forward, his warm breath glancing over her cheeks. “Miss Scott, I’ve had the privilege of knowing the taste of your lips, so I do believe it’s a little too late for modesty. Now, take off your boot.”
She drew back at his brusque tone. “It would do you well to improve your manners regarding patient care, Mr. Dalton.”
He sent her a sly smile, the simple gesture causing a thousand goose bumps to pop up all over her body. “Being that I’m not a doctor, nor do I aspire to become one, I will do no such thing. And, now that you’ve dallied too long, I’ll do it for you.”
Her protests futile, she allowed him to unlace her boot and gently guide her foot into the frigid water. Cold did not begin to describe the crisp and numbing stream lapping over her ankle. He held his palm upon her knee; she supposed to keep her from removing her ankle from the therapeutic water. The warmth of his skin took her mind off her discomfort.
After a few moments of peaceful silence, she sighed. “I’m…I’m surprised to find you back at Hadley Manor and not settled in London for the evening. What brought you back here?”
He sent her a rare smile, and for a moment, she recalled the innocence of their youth when he would chase her around the garden fountain, and she’d pretend to be out of breath so he’d catch her.
“If you must know, the answer to your question has changed in the last half hour. In fact, since learning, with great consternation, that Mr. Waverley is the inspiration behind your impassioned prolific letter, I’ve decided I should like to find a woman like you, Miss Scott, someone so overcome with my company that she forgets she is close to becoming engaged with another. Then, I believe, I would like to marry her.”
Chapter Nine
Lily huffed, offended that he was mocking her without knowing the full truth. Yes, she was about to become engaged, but because she had no other choice. The opportunity for him to ask for her hand had come and gone.
“I wish I’d never written that letter. It was a mistake on all accounts. However, it cannot be undone. As for becoming engaged, it is not the same as being engaged. If you knew me well enough, Mr. Dalton, you’d know my devotion is unbreakable.” My heart, of course, is another matter.
His gaze fell to hers, narrowed, and lifted away. “Oh, but I do know you well enough, Miss Scott. I’d like to say, I know you better than anyone here.”
She dipped her chin to her chest, not missing the undertone of distrust and anger. She felt trapped, unable to tell him the truth about the letter, unable to accept the fact they had grown so far apart. There he sat contemplating his future with a woman, a wife, who was not her.
So rattled, she spoke her heart before he had the chance to stop her. “I don’t understand how men can talk of marrying so carelessly, without the mention of ardent affection or love.”
His head snapped up, drawing closer to hers. “Love is not a prerequisite to marriage, Miss Scott.”
Lily sighed. “Oh, why do I bother having a conversation with you, when everything you have to say is so very disappointing?”
“It is not my intent to disappoint you in any way.”
Oh, but he had. Despite the distance they’d placed between each other, and him taking every opportunity to anger her, she had never let herself imagine him marrying anyone else, until now. The thought made her shiver, prompting him to discard his jacket and drape it over her shoulders. She realized, since they’d kissed, there existed no more boundaries of propriety between them.
“Still, sir,” she said, her heart starting to ache from the conversation, “you must admit that we live in the modern age where—”
“Where men marry for money and women for comfort? Yes, I admit it fully. For this reason, there should never be any cause for a woman and man to ever fall in love.”
She twisted away at the passionate way he said the words. “Having a conversation with you, regarding the fancies of one’s heart, can be so exhausting, Mr. Dalton.”
He lifted his hand and brought his finger up to coax her face back to meet his. “So now I’m depressing, disappointing, and exhausting?”
She swallowed loudly and tried to keep her gaze from falling to his mouth. “That’s not what I—”
He dropped his hand, straightened, and drew his knees, so his elbows rested on them. Between his two thumbs and index fingers,
he twiddled with a small twig. “No, no. Don’t try to explain when it is, in all fairness, an accurate description of me. Even Jane has said it is so.”
“And yet, you make no effort to change. Why?”
“Because I’m moderately wealthy, and I have all my teeth. I could be the most disreputable man in England and still have fifteen fathers lined up to introduce me to their daughters.”
Her shoulders sank. “Like Miss Appleton?”
“Yes, just like Miss Appleton. She is handsome and accommodating.”
“And you are handsome and, at times, disobliging. With one thing in common, perhaps you should consider becoming engaged to her.”
His sideways smirk caused Lily’s pulse to jump.
“You find me handsome, Miss Scott?”
“And disobliging,” she reminded him.
He threw the twig into the rippling water and shifted closer to her. She sucked in a quiet breath as he lifted his thumb to glide across her lower lip. Her heart, battered and bruised, beat quick and thunderous in her ears. She didn’t understand how she could be in such a state of undress, discussing marriage, with Henry touching her as if they were the ones marrying each other.
“However, her father is only willing to part with her if I can assure him of remaining faithful ’til death do us part.”
Lily harrumphed. “Now that this conversation has crossed all limits of impropriety, I cannot help but ask why you want to marry when you don’t plan on remaining faithful to your wife.”
His eyebrows rose over his mesmerizing gray eyes. “Oh, I certainly plan on doing so, madam. I just don’t think it will be easy, not when I will be comparing her lips to yours, on every occasion.”
Lily shook her head. “Oh, why must you tease me so?”
“Because I—”
His abrupt pause sent her pulse dancing. Did she dare guess what he was about to say? Or was she trying to find something in his unspoken words that wasn’t there? All the same, a consuming fire spread to every part of her body, well, except her submerged foot. She closed her eyes and tried not to relive the moment when she’d kissed him or when he kissed her back. The vivid recollection of his lips so firm, his tongue like velvet, did nothing but make her long for him more.
“I believe it would be best to never bring up the subject of us…” She halted, opening her eyes, and finding the sunlight hitting the mist from the cascading waterfall, creating a bright rainbow across the polished rocks.
“What, madam?”
Lily shook her head. “You…and I…engaging in a …you know very well what we are not to speak of, Mr. Dalton.”
With that, he dropped his hand and pulled away. “Yes, and then perhaps I wouldn’t recall it as often,” he mumbled, but not faint enough for Lily not to hear.
Lily pressed her lips together, the unexpected joy of his words giving her a fanciful hope that she affected him as much as he affected her. Her hope quickly faded, remembering their conversation about him getting married. To distract herself from her grave disappointment, she bent toward her foot. “Do you think my ankle is well soaked? I don’t think I’ve felt my toes for a few minutes now.”
Henry nodded and proceeded to unbutton his shirt to untie the cream-colored cravat from around his neck.
“What…what are you doing?” Lily didn’t know whether to panic or stare in awe at the sun’s rays shimmering off his smooth upper chest.
His gaze lifted, filtered through his thick lashes. “I need to wrap your ankle with something to keep the swelling down.”
“Oh,” Lily said, embarrassed her thoughts had become wayward and indecent. “I do think it’s fine…ouch!” She winced and let out a wavering breath. It was still tender in places. “Do you suppose I’ve broken it?”
“No, it’s just a sprain.” He tied a knot at the top of her ankle, stood and reached out his hands. She hesitated, wondering when they had become unguarded and free, where nothing they did, caused disreputable thought or circumstance.
She surrendered to moment, placing her palm in his, his grip strong and sturdy. He lifted her slight form and wrapped a steady arm around her waist. Against him, she felt alive, remembering all the reasons she had fallen in love with him in the first place.
“Do you think I should write and tell my father to send for me?” she asked as she set her injured foot onto the hard ground. It still hurt, but not as much as before.
He hesitated to answer, causing her to shift her gaze to his face.
“No.” His voice reverberated with a thick and husky tone. In half a heartbeat, his lips crushed over hers. Lily braced herself, believing he meant to teach her a harsh lesson on improprieties. Only when his hand cupped the back of her head to bring her closer did she realize she had no energy to halt his punishment.
Barely able to stand, Lily leaned into his solid form, drawing in the warm richness of his skin. With her hands braced on his shoulders, she lifted on the tiptoes of her good foot and raised the injured one behind her.
She savored the urgency of his kiss as her pulse hammered hard inside her veins. What they’d shared in the past did not come close to what she was sharing with him now. They had ascended from naïve innocence to desperation, to this moment where an intense hunger had both of them clinging to the next moment and each other.
Whether imprudently or foolishly, she mimicked the mingling dance of his tongue until a growl tore from his throat as he separated them, his gray eyes dark and stormy. Unable to stand on her own, she wrapped her fingers around the corded muscles of his arms. Oh, how she wished she had the ability to run away. How did one kiss have so much power over her? She knew it was because Henry was the one kissing her.
“You know no limits, do you, Miss Scott?” he said, his voice hushed and intolerant.
“You’re the one who kissed me this time, Mr. Dalton,” she snapped.
The muscle jumped in his jaw, and his chin lifted at an arrogant angle. “Yes, well, from this moment forward, we shall come to an agreement, madam; you will postpone showing Waverley your letter until I have quit Hadley, and I will refrain from kissing you again.”
She mumbled her response. “I’m not sure who has the hardest task, you or me.”
Having heard her, he lifted one dark eyebrow and stared down at her. “It is I, I assure you.”
She tried to smile, only to swallow a lump of tears. When she started to hobble forward, Henry brought his arm across her hips and pulled her tight against his side.
“I’m confident you should be walking on it in a few days, but for now, you must take it easy. Just make sure to exercise it, to keep it from growing stiff.”
She shook her head. “For someone who doesn’t aspire to be anything but a handsome and accommodating husband, you certainly know your way around the medical profession.”
He nodded. “I make it a habit to dabble in a little of everything. One never knows when it will become useful or required,” he added on an exhale.
Chapter Ten
Henry sat through the rest of the evening, unable to forget his special time with Lily at the waterfall. Before supper, he traveled back there, taking a dip in the frigid water to quell the heat of his rising and unfulfilled passions for her. For whatever reason, Henry had thought himself immune to her presence. Clearly, he had been wrong.
Of course, not long after his return, he learned, from Miss Appleton, naturally, that Waverley had been hinting of his growing attraction to Lily. His feelings were made evident in the dining parlor when Waverley took it upon himself to carry her to her seat.
Of course, she blushed and smiled, sending Henry into a frenzy of emotions. The devil! He was the one who’d wrapped her blasted foot. Regardless, he could only sit and stare as she tilted her head with Waverley lowering his voice on purpose to bring her closer.
Henry’s mood didn’t improve when Miss Appleton dropped her hand under the table to accidentally brush her long fingers across his thigh. He believed she was trying harder to gain his atte
ntion. Unfortunately, she was doing nothing but turning his stomach.
Toward the end of the evening, he waited with patient fervor, for the servants to snuff out all the candles before traveling down the long corridor to Lily’s room. He knew the exact door since she’d stayed in the bedchamber many times during her frequent visits. When he was fourteen, and she barely thirteen, they’d lie there together, the top of their heads touching. They never talked about growing older, somehow content to believe nothing would ever change.
At her door, he paused in the flickering darkness, his hand raised, his heart thundering in his chest. Just as he was about to rap his knuckles across the thick wood, it opened. He blinked, finding Lily standing a foot away, her dark locks surrounding her face and her thick lashes fluttering like a kite in a windstorm.
“Mr. Dalton,” she whispered, the candle in her hand placing intricate shadows over her flushed face. “I couldn’t sleep.”
He nodded. “I…uh…came to give you this.” He withdrew the stick from under his arm. “It’s to help you walk.” He’d found it close to the waterfall, after an hour of searching.
She smiled until she glanced down to see another item that he held under his left arm. He’d thought about sneaking it into her room, but he would have missed the opportunity of watching her soft mouth open and close in surprise. “Did you think I wouldn’t discover the author, Miss Scott?”
She shook her head. “I rather thought you wouldn’t care enough to want to…discover her, sir.”
She’d no sooner finished her sentence when a noise at the end of the hallway propelled him across the threshold of her room. Without too much thought to the consequences, he whipped around and shut them both inside, alone. Lily remained quiet and unmoving behind him. A moment passed, her slight breathing becoming heavier with each heartbeat. When she finally spoke, her pleading voice trembled.
“You cannot stay.”
He knew this more than anyone. However, he had no choice. He could face the scandal of leaving Lily's room or being caught inside with her, half-dressed, her lithe form intoxicating in the moonlight. He gambled with the later, strolling passed her to stand a few feet away. Nothing had changed since the last time he was here, although it was still too dark to discern much of anything at this point. Still, he was able to see her bed, the mountain of covers tossed about like she was struggling to fall asleep. He smiled.
Mine, Forever and Always: Historical Romance Novella Page 5