Kissed at Twilight

by Miriam Minger

  You have bewitched me.

  Linette felt her heart flutter and her face grow warm just thinking of his ardent declaration that he’d uttered so unexpectedly, and then seemed to retract not long after with his startling behavior.

  One moment so close to kissing her, and then the next turning away.

  Another moment drawing from her the truth of her plans about London though she’d said they were none of his business, and then holding her hands so tightly that it hurt as he warned her about the man of her dreams becoming her worst nightmare—

  “No, no, no!” Linette burst into her room and slammed the door behind her.

  Just because Adam’s father had made his wife’s existence a nightmare didn’t mean that would happen to her! Without a doubt Adam’s life had been deeply affected by his father’s cruelty, and Linette’s heart went out to him even now at what he must have suffered. Yet why would he have professed to her that he wanted to be a part of her plans and that she’d bewitched him, when he clearly hadn’t meant it?

  She was a parson’s daughter after all…and he a doctor, neither of them nobility so they weren’t so far apart. True, she’d imagined marrying into a life of prosperity and position like her older sisters, but she wouldn’t wed anyone if not for love. It didn’t matter to her in the least if the man of her dreams was a duke, or baron, or earl or anything else, just that he was good and kind and caring…

  Like Adam.

  “Oh, Linette.” Struck by a glaring realization, she sank into a chair next to the wardrobe.

  Remorse filled her, and mortification, too. What must he think of her? A snob, she feared, for one. Oh, Lord, why hadn’t she considered it before? She’d had her mind set so firmly upon finding the man of her dreams in London at a glittering ball or assembly that she’d never allowed herself to think he might be here in Cornwall.

  She’d said nothing to him when he had told her that she’d bewitched him, her heart racing and her mind in a whirl. He must have thought from her tongue-tied silence that she’d discounted him altogether because he was a doctor…and she had two duchesses for sisters.

  Every door in London will open for you. All the eligible gentlemen will flock to dance with you.

  Those had been Adam’s very words, and she’d done nothing but reinforce what he must have been thinking.

  That she fully imagined meeting the man of her dreams in London.

  That her modest fortune or her sisters’ position in society might help her to find a husband, when she hadn’t meant that at all. Or had she? She was a country parson’s daughter after all, no matter her social connections. Adam must have seen right through what she’d told him when he had said so fiercely that only a scoundrel would marry her for any other reason than love.

  “Oh, Linette,” she breathed again, shaking her head. That must have been what happened to his poor mother. Not wed for love at all, but for whatever benefit the marriage had brought to Adam’s father.

  Sick at heart, Linette stared outside at the sunny afternoon even as she heard Estelle’s footsteps coming down the hall.

  If Adam had fallen in love with her, did he despise her now for spurning him? So it clearly must have seemed she’d rejected him from everything she’d said…and didn’t say. She could not forget how he had jumped from the carriage without a glance at her or a goodbye. How could he possibly want anything further to do with her?

  Add to that she’d once again taken refuge in her room whenever he’d come to check on Estelle’s progress, not wanting to see him. Surely her avoiding him so deliberately must have supported whatever he imagined she thought of him—

  “Linette, you’re not ready!”

  Estelle had flung open the door, looking so crestfallen that Linette immediately rose from the chair. The last thing she felt like doing now was going for a ride, but she couldn’t disappoint her sister after she’d already agreed to it.

  Yet she wanted to be home before Donovan and Corie returned from Helston, where they’d gone to finalize some banking affairs. They had so much to think about before their move to Hampshire in just a few days that she didn’t want them to worry.

  “Give me a few minutes, Estelle. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  With a whoop, her younger sister flew out of the room with Luther skittering at her heels.

  At any other time, Linette would have been elated to see Estelle so lively and energetic again, but her deepening regret for how she must have hurt Adam drowned out all else.

  Surely there must be something she could say, something she could do. At the very least she must see him again, though she had no idea how or when. If only for a few moments, so she could try to explain…

  ***

  Adam rode Samson hard, praying that their hell-bent pace on this bright afternoon without a cloud in the sky might ease his dark mood.

  He rarely allowed himself a diversion during the workday, but he’d been willing to try anything to dispel the pall of discontent hanging over him. If he’d thought that throwing himself into his new practice might grant him relief from constant thoughts of Linette, he’d been sorely mistaken.

  He’d treated countless patients, Mrs. Polkinghorne’s wholehearted recommendation sending him throughout the parish and back—but still the last time he’d seen Linette haunted him.

  He’d visited Arundale’s Kitchen and other local tin mines. He had organized an office at the cottage in Porthleven so he could treat patients there, and stayed up late at night poring over his medical books. Anything was better than tossing and turning in bed during another sleepless night.

  Exhaustion seemed to be fueling him now, but what matter? What did anything matter when the woman of his dreams had taken refuge in her room whenever he’d gone to the Duke of Arundale’s manor house to visit Estelle? Thankfully he’d proclaimed her well the other day so he wouldn’t have to suffer that torment any longer…though in truth, she’d been as healthy as a spirited colt more than a week ago.

  He’d kept it to himself, hoping against hope that Linette might find it in her heart to come out of her room and greet him. So he’d arranged several visits more than he normally would have on the chance he might see her and have a moment to talk to her.

  To apologize for his insensitive behavior. To ask her forgiveness for tramping upon her cherished dream. To wish her well—yes, even that!—during her Season in London, but his extra visits had been in vain. Linette had never appeared.

  That harsh reality made Adam feel more acutely than ever that he’d been a romantic fool, and this afternoon ride a dismal failure.

  His mood had only grown darker while Samson’s sides heaved with exertion. Adam pulled up on the reins and slowed his lathered horse to a trot, then into a walk, and only then did he hear it. Someone behind him shouting his name…

  “Dr. Whitaker, wait for us, will you?”

  Adam wheeled Samson sharply around, the horse snorting and rearing. If he’d not been an expert rider he might have lost his seat, which would have been a fine sight for Miss Estelle Easton galloping like a wild hoyden toward him.

  Yet what made his heart seem to stop was Linette not far behind her, atop a sleek chestnut mare much like her younger sister’s.

  Her long auburn hair whipping in the wind. Her tailored riding habit accentuating the lithe curves that had tormented his dreams whenever he’d finally been able to sleep. Her lovely face flushed pink in the sunlight as she and Estelle reined in their spirited mounts and trotted toward him.

  “I thought it was you, Dr. Whitaker!” enthused Estelle with a wide smile, glancing from him to Linette, who’d caught up with her. “Linette saw you first—”

  “Miss Easton,” Adam said stiffly to Linette, the uncertain smile on her face at once faltering. She appeared nervous, her gloved hands squeezing the reins, yet she straightened her shoulders as if bolstering her courage.

  “Dr. Whitaker. It’s—it’s lovely to see you again.”

  Lovely? When she’d done nothin
g but hide from him for the past two weeks? Steeling himself against any thought that she might truly be pleased to see him, Adam glanced at Estelle and kept his tone terse.

  “Take care as you ride, Miss Easton. I advise not too fast. You don’t need another bump on your head if you might fall.”

  “Oh, I’ve never fallen from the saddle. Isn’t that right, Linette?”

  Now Linette nodded, her gaze anxious as she stared at Adam. She bit her lower lip, too, as if thinking to say something, but unsure if to do so.

  Of course she had nothing to say to him other than common pleasantries, he thought grimly, the mood that had set him upon his breakneck ride growing darker. Suddenly desiring nothing more than to be gone from there, he bowed his head to them.

  “Ladies, a good day to you. I have patients awaiting me in Porthleven.”

  He didn’t wait for a reply, but dug his heels into Samson and set off at a hard gallop across the heath. He thought he heard one of them crying out something after him, though his horse’s pounding hooves drowned out the words.

  No matter. Bitterness nearly choking him, nothing at that moment would have made him turn around to ride back to them.

  Nothing.

  ***

  “Maybe Dr. Whitaker didn’t hear you, Linette. Shall we ride after him?”

  Linette shook her head at Estelle, heartsickness overwhelming her. He hadn’t turned around when she’d called after him, “Wait, Adam! Please!”

  She’d been so happy to see him, overjoyed, yet anxious, too. His look of surprise when he and Samson had veered around had quickly become guarded and almost forbidding, and she’d nearly lost her nerve and turned her mare in the opposite direction.

  Yet could she blame him? She’d felt his pain emanating from him, raw, visceral, his eyes narrowed at her as if he was prepared not to believe a word she said. She’d lost her nerve, her voice—Lord help her, and now she’d lost any feelings he might have still had for her because she hadn’t known the right words to say first!

  “Linette, whatever is the matter? Are you crying?”

  Yes, she was crying, but she quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Let’s ride on, Estelle, please. Didn’t you say you wanted to see your favorite beach?”

  “Yes, and the cottage on the bluff. Then we’ll go home, Linette, I promise. I hated to leave Luther, but I didn’t want to risk losing him again…”

  Estelle’s face clouding, Linette drew her mare closer and reached out to squeeze her sister’s hand. “I think it’s good you see the cottage again, and then you’ll be able to put this whole terrible episode out of your mind—”

  “And forget Prince Valentin?” Estelle cut her off. She resolutely shook her head. “Oh, no, I’ll never forget him as long as I live. You won’t tell Donovan I said his name, will you? No one can hear us out here anyway.”

  “Not anymore,” Linette murmured, glancing in the direction that Adam had ridden away. Fresh heartache engulfed her, but she did her best to tamp it down as she looked back at Estelle. “Of course, I won’t tell him, but we must hurry. We’ve already been gone more than an hour.”

  Estelle nodded, and this time she reached out to grasp Linette’s hand, her reassuring gaze filled with an understanding beyond her fifteen years. “Don’t you remember Corie telling us how she and Donovan battled when they first met? Yet they love each other so much. It’s a strange thing, isn’t it, Linette? Love.”

  She didn’t know what to say, swallowing hard against the tears threatening once again. Not from sadness this time, but a glimmer of hope.

  “I believe so,” she finally said softly, summoning a tremulous smile that made Estelle smile, too. “Come on. I’ll race you.”

  Chapter 10

  “We really shouldn’t interfere,” said Donovan, even as Corie’s exasperated sigh told him he’d voiced what she didn’t want to hear. “They’ll either sort it out or they won’t.”

  “Sort it out? When did the course of true love ever run smooth? Our course certainly didn’t! It couldn’t have been rockier—”

  “I haven’t forgotten, wife,” Donovan interrupted her, drawing Corie closer against him as the carriage rumbled and swayed. “Not smooth at all, but I wouldn’t trade a moment of it.” She looked so lovely in her forest green pelisse and beribboned bonnet, he wanted to kiss her soundly. Her sweet red lips never failed to tempt him, but the tension he felt in her slender body told him the matter they’d been discussing was far from done.

  “Donovan, you really must speak with Dr. Whitaker…Adam, I mean, and I’ll speak with Linette. If not for what Prudie shared with me two weeks ago, I might have missed what was happening altogether. We’ve been so busy getting ready for our move, and then there’s the children, always something to do.”

  “Yes, very busy,” Donovan agreed, “but I’ve missed nothing. I saw their attraction from the start, especially after our young doctor kissed Linette under the mistletoe. Why else do you think I agreed that she accompany him to visit Mrs. Polkinghorne? Asked her to visit the tinners’ families with him? Better that than hiding in her room, avoiding him. That was telling enough.”

  “My handsome husband, the matchmaker!” Corie hugged his arm, making him smile. “First Walker and Marguerite, and now Adam and Linette—”

  “Not so fast, my darling wife,” Donovan cut in gently. “She’s been avoiding him like the plague and he’s plainly been out of sorts during his visits to see Estelle, though he’s tried well enough to hide it.”

  “Exactly! That’s why we must do something! Prudie admitted she fell asleep during the ride home from Arundale’s Kitchen so we’ve no clue what they must have said to each other—”

  “A misunderstanding, I’m sure. Speaking at cross-purposes. Remember? The course of true love?”

  Corie nodded, looking past Donovan to gaze thoughtfully out the window. “Add to that, Linette’s determination to have her Season after she’s missed several in a row. She’s so busy dreaming of the future that she can’t see the forest for the trees. That poor man is clearly in love with her—oh, Donovan, look, it’s Adam!”

  He did, following her pointing finger to the crossroad up ahead that led one way to Helston, from where they were returning, another to Porthleven, one to the coastline, and the last toward their home.

  Dr. Whitaker had clearly stopped there to give his horse a rest, the splendid beast lathered and tossing its head. Donovan found himself wondering once again how a young doctor just starting out in life, who dressed conservatively enough, might have come by such a magnificent animal.

  A benefactor of some kind? Then he remembered Adam had mentioned an uncle that day they’d been waiting for Linette to join them in the library, his mother’s brother, after he’d said that his parents were dead. He’d given no name, but only that his uncle had paid for his medical studies. Adam had said he intended to reimburse him over time, which Donovan had found highly commendable.

  “Driver, stop up ahead!” he called out to the coachman, the carriage coming to a halt not far from Adam. He sat astride his horse, staring into the distance as if lost in thought, his expression far too grim for such a beautiful afternoon.

  “Enjoying a ride, Whitaker?” Donovan called out to him, not surprised that Adam looked momentarily startled. Good God, so deep in thought that he hadn’t heard their coach and four approaching? As Adam at once drew his horse closer to the carriage, Corie squeezed Donovan’s arm.

  “Ask him to supper tonight!” she hissed so Adam wouldn’t hear her. “That will give him and Linette a chance to talk.”

  Donovan nodded, noting the dark smudges beneath Adam’s eyes and the strained look upon his face. “Damnation, man, no sense in working yourself to death. Or that fine horse of yours, for that matter. Running a race?”

  “A ride, as you said, Your Grace. Clearing my head before I see more new patients. I’m on my way back to Porthleven.”

  “I’d say Mrs. Polkinghorne’s wagging tongue has done its
job too well from the look of you, Whitaker. A good supper is what you need and an evening among congenial company to sit and rest. You’re riding back to the manor house with us—”

  “Forgive me, sir, but I must decline.”

  “Oh my, no, I insist upon it!” Corie piped up, leaning across Donovan. “You must join us, Dr. Whitaker. We leave in only a few days for Hampshire so this is the perfect occasion to thank you for all you’ve done for us. Come!”

  She squeezed Donovan’s arm again, his cue to shout out to the coachman, “Drive on!” before Adam could refuse them.

  Just as the young doctor seemed to want to do, raising his hand as if he had something else to say to them, but already the carriage had rumbled through the crossroad toward home.

  ***

  “It’s so small inside, Linette. I remember lying on that bed”—Estelle pointed to the modest four-poster in a corner of the one-room cottage, while a cot was shoved up against an opposite wall—“and the heat of the fire in the hearth where they must have dried my clothes…and Prince Valentin’s, too. He must have been as soaking wet and freezing as I was…”

  Linette nodded, remaining silent as Estelle softly recounted what she recalled from that awful day.

  “I’ve wondered about this, but he must have already been outside or perhaps looking from that window there when he saw Luther and me in the water…oh, dear.”

  Estelle had sunk onto a stool at the rough-hewn table, which made Linette go to her at once and rest her hand on her sister’s shoulder.

  “Enough of this, Estelle, it’s clearly distressing you to be here,” she murmured, but her sister shook her head.

  “It makes me sad, is all. I never had a chance to thank him for saving my life. Or his friend. Who knows where they sailed to? Donovan never said—”