by Wolf, Bree
Rushing from the library, he called for Gusford and instructed the man to cancel his journey and ready the carriage as Charlaine had demanded he do. Then he quickly put quill to parchment and wrote down a few quick instructions to Mr. Johnson, informing the man that he would extend his stay in England and to contact him should any problems arise in the company.
Not even an hour after Charlaine’s letter had arrived, Nathanial was off.
As the day was already coming to an end, he spent one night at an inn on the road and then reached Markham Hall in the late afternoon the following day. The moment the horses pulled to a halt outside the front entrance, Nathanial jumped from the carriage.
In truth, he did not quite feel like himself. But there seemed to be nothing he could do about it.
“Nathanial!”
Looking up, he found Charlaine rushing down the right of the two curved stairways leading down to the drive. Her eyes were glowing with joy and her black hair billowed behind her as her feet carried her into his arms.
With her enthusiasm, she knocked the air from his lungs and he all but rocked back on his heels, fighting to remain upright, his arms closing around her. “You act as though we haven’t seen each other in a year,” he laughed, returning her embrace without his usual concerns for propriety.
Stepping back, she looked up at him. “Answer me this then, how long after you received my letter did you set off?”
Nathanial chuckled. “You know me too well. I’m not certain I like it.”
“Oh, but you love it,” Charlaine insisted. “You simply don’t know it yet.”
“Well, I must say—”
“He’s here! He’s here!” Daphne called over her shoulder to Susan as the two girls came running up the lawn toward them. Her brown hair looked like a bird’s nest pulled apart by a predator, her curls wild and sticking out in all directions. Susan’s looked no better.
Seeing them, Charlaine laughed. “Oh, my! Your mother will faint if she sees you like this.”
Nathanial could not deny that he was glad to see the two girls again, and the way they greeted him, as though they had missed him dearly, warmed his heart. Daphne flung herself at him not unlike Charlaine had only moments earlier. Once again, Nathanial rocked back on his heels, laughing. “I’m delighted to see you, as well,” he told them, shifting his gaze from Daphne’s brown eyes to Susan’s. “Indeed, it’s been too long.”
Both girls nodded eagerly. Indeed, at their young age, a sennight probably did feel like a small eternity. Nathanial could not say he disagreed.
“Charlaine said you’ll stay with us,” Daphne said as she looked up at him, her little hand holding on to his. “Is it true?”
Nathanial nodded. “If you’re willing to have me, I’m delighted to stay.”
“We are! We are!” the girls sang, their little heads bobbing up and down.
Ever since Markham’s engagement celebration when Nathanial had not only procured a necklace for each of them, but also for Daphne’s doll, Mary, the girls had adopted him into their little circle. He was now their confidante, their co-conspirator, and while Nathanial had initially been a bit worried about what role he had unwittingly taken up, he now cherished the open warmth and loyalty the girls bestowed upon him.
It reminded him of his own childhood with Zach…and later also with Abigail.
Life had been simple then.
And good.
“Will you come inside and have some tea and biscuits?” Daphne asked, exchanging a look with Susan that made Nathanial wonder what they were up to now.
Charlaine chuckled. “You know that Emma said no more biscuits before supper.” She looked from one girl to the other. “Nice try.”
The girls’ shoulders slumped. “Come,” Daphne said to Susan, “we’ll fetch Mary. She should be awake by now.” She glanced up at Nathanial. “She was sick and needed a lot of bed rest, but I think she’s starting to feel better.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Nathanial replied. “Do give her my best for a speedy recovery.”
Daphne nodded eagerly, a small smile once again tugging on her lips. “I will.” And with that, the girls once more raced off.
Nathanial stared after them, oddly entranced by the idyllic moment he had just experienced.
“They missed you,” Charlaine said beside him, and her hand came to rest gently upon his arm. “As did I.”
Nathanial turned to look at her, and he knew that somehow she understood what this moment meant to him. “I’ve missed you as well,” he whispered. “More than I thought I would.”
Feigned annoyance came to Charlaine’s face as she narrowed her eyes at him. “You are indeed a master at bestowing compliments, good sir. Can I assume it is an ability you hone daily through hours of practice?”
Nathanial chuckled. “Indeed, some days, it is all I do. I sit in a corner, thinking of nothing but what eloquent words to use in order to see a lady smile.”
“How unfortunate!” she moaned. “And here, I’d hoped to secure your assistance in a most urgent matter.”
Nathanial paused, wondering if she was jesting or if there was a hint of truthfulness in her tone. “What project?”
Charlaine sighed rather theatrically. “Oh, it is a most important one! Unlike any you’ve ever heard of.”
Nathanial grinned, crossing his arms as he looked at her. “Is that so? Do you care to elaborate?”
With a most serious expression upon her face, Charlaine cast a wary look around them as though fearing that someone might overhear. Then she stepped closer, her hand once more settling on his arm, before she pushed herself up onto her toes and whispered in his ear, “I have encountered a most terrifying enemy.”
Nathanial frowned, a hint of unease crawling up his spine. “An enemy? What do you mean?”
Her warm breath once more tickled his skin. “It is most unsettling.”
“It?”
She pulled back, then met his gaze and nodded.
“What…is it?” Nathanial asked slowly, getting the sense that he was walking right into a trap.
Indeed, in the next moment a teasing smile lit up her face. “Boredom.”
Unable to hide his smile, Nathanial briefly closed his eyes. “For a moment, you had me worried,” he admitted.
Charlaine laughed. “You looked so serious. I couldn’t resist.”
“I’ve never seen you bored,” Nathanial remarked, envious of that cheerfulness that seemed to be innate to her.
“I’m never for long,” she confirmed. “However, at times, defeating that particular enemy does pose a challenge.” She looped her arm through his and pulled him toward the curved stairs leading up to the front door. “Now that you’re here, though, I have no doubt that, together, we shall defeat it.” She smiled up at him. “Will you have my back?”
“Always,” Nathanial replied, and he meant it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Of Frogs & Princes
Charlaine had not missed the joy lighting up Nathanial’s eyes upon his arrival. She had sensed his loneliness, the hesitant way his heart had begun to open, to long for companionship, for joy, for someone to stand beside him. His brother had always been that person, but now things had changed and it seemed Nathanial was at a loss as to how to adapt.
However, that was what friends were for, were they not? To lend a helping hand when it was most needed.
“Should I not greet Lord Markham and his wife?” Nathanial asked as she led him through the house, giving him a quick tour so the poor man would not get lost too often. “After all, it was very kind of them to invite me. Are you certain they do not mind me staying for such a long time?”
Charlaine marveled at his constant concern to overstay his welcome. “We’re on our way to see them,” she told him, her watchful eyes lingering on that occasionally twitching muscle in his jaw. “However, it was I who invited you, not them. So, if there’s anyone you want to thank,” she grinned up at him, “it is me.”
Natha
nial’s gaze narrowed as he regarded her. “But you did ask them, did you not?” Concern clung to his voice.
Charlaine sighed. “You sound like Pierce. He made me promise I—” She bit her lip, realizing that she was about to say more than she had intended to.
Nathanial stopped and turned to her. “What did you do?” he asked, marked tension in his shoulders. “They do know that you invited me, do they not?” He glanced down the corridor as though fearing that Pierce and Caroline might appear at any moment, demanding to know what he was doing in their home.
Charlaine reached for his hands, tense and cold. “Of course, they know. Are you truly worried they would not want you here?”
He huffed out a breath. “I do not want to intrude where I’m not wanted. I—”
Charlaine reached out and cupped a hand to the side of his face. He immediately stilled, and his blue eyes dropped to meet hers. “You are wanted,” she told him gently. “You are wanted very much.”
Holding her gaze, Nathanial inhaled a slow breath. “Then what is it that you’re not telling me?”
Charlaine sighed. “Pierce made me promise not to lure you here under false pretenses,” she admitted, dropping her gaze. “He insisted I ask instead of…demand.” A bit of a contrite smile teased her lips as she realized that she had done exactly as Pierce had feared. “I think he was afraid for you, afraid that you might feel trapped. You might have noticed that, at times, I can be a bit…forceful.”
With her head lowered, Charlaine could not see Nathanial’s face. She all but sensed a small smile dance across his features a moment before his hand settled under her chin, urging her to look at him. “A bit forceful?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice now. “You’re a menace.”
Charlaine frowned. “I’m not certain how to take this.”
“As a compliment,” Nathanial replied, warmth in his blue eyes. “Thank you for demanding I join you here. Indeed, you might be a bit forceful at times, but I…I cannot say that I mind.”
“Oh, yes, you do.” Charlaine laughed. “I do remember a moment or two when you looked utterly scandalized, as though you wished the ground would open and swallow you whole.”
“Very well,” he admitted good-naturedly. “While that might be true, I’ve come to realize that being the man I am, it is only to my benefit to surround myself with a friend of…your forceful nature.”
“Is that so?” Charlaine asked, delighted to hear that he had come to see that she only meant to help.
“It is,” he assured her.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Charlaine exclaimed as she once more slipped her arm through his and they proceeded down the corridor toward the terrace.
Beside her, Nathanial frowned. “Your mind is already at work on new, outrageous ideas, is it not?”
“They do take time and diligence,” she told him with a wink. “But I promise you’ll come to love them.”
As they stepped out onto the terrace, Pierce and Caroline rose from their seats and came over to welcome their visitor. “Mr. Caswell, it’s good to see you again,” Pierce exclaimed. “I hope your journey was pleasant enough.”
“It was. Thank you, my lord.”
Charlaine rolled her eyes. “I do believe we should all address each other by our first names,” she stated, looking from Nathanial’s somewhat shocked face to Pierce and Caroline. “This strict formality sounds ludicrous.”
“I quite agree,” Caroline immediately said. She smiled at Charlaine before meeting Pierce’s gaze.
“I do not mind at all,” Pierce stated, giving her a look that said he could not believe she would doubt him. Then he turned back to Nathanial. “We’re all quite informal here. So, if you have no objection?”
Nathanial shook his head. “Not at all.” Still, he looked more than a bit uncomfortable and, as expected, the moment they left Pierce’s and Caroline’s presence behind, he voiced his discomfort. “You shouldn’t have urged them to—”
“I didn’t,” Charlaine was quick to reply as they strolled down into the extensive gardens. “It was merely a suggestion, and as Pierce said, we’re all very informal here. You’ll see.”
Again, he huffed out a breath.
“You call your brother’s wife by her first name, do you not?”
He eyed her curiously. “How do you know?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, but—”
“Then where is the problem?”
His mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “She is now my sister-in-law, that’s the difference.” His free hand gestured around wildly, suggesting he was making up this reasoning as he went. “She’s family and, therefore, it is not unreasonable for me to—”
“Well, if that is the case, then it is also not unreasonable for you to call Pierce and Caroline by their first names because Caroline is your brother’s wife’s cousin which, in turn, makes them family as well.” She grinned up at him.
“Yes, but…” Nathanial’s voice trailed off.
“You’re overthinking this,” Charlaine told him. “It’ll make your head hurt if you keep it up.”
A disbelieving chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Why do I even bother?” he mumbled as though to himself.
Charlaine stopped and grinned up at him. “I don’t know. One would think a man as intelligent as you would have learned his lesson by now.”
“One would think so, wouldn’t one?” he asked mockingly, a wide grin on his face.
Charlaine nodded, then turned when she glimpsed Daphne and Susan darting in and out of the small grove nearby. “They’re up to something,” she mused as they headed onward. “They keep asking me about frogs.”
“Frogs?”
“Yes, if I’ve ever seen one, ever caught one.”
Nathanial frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know. They’re quite tight-lipped about it.” She wondered why the girls had not told her. “Perhaps they’ll confess to you.”
“Me?”
Charlaine smiled at him. “Ever since you secured a necklace for Mary, you’re Daphne’s hero and, therefore, Susan’s also.”
Nathanial scoffed. “I doubt they’ll tell me anything they’re not telling you.” He shrugged off her hunch in a way that made Charlaine think he was pleased by her assumption nonetheless. Indeed, he wanted to be someone’s confidante. He wanted to be the hero, and who could blame him?
Who didn’t?
“There they are,” Nathanial said, pointing through the small grove at the lake situated behind it. In summer, the dense vegetation almost completely blocked their view. Only the sun’s rays bouncing off its shiny surface here and there whispered of a hidden treasure behind the grove. “Are they allowed out here by the lake on their own?”
“No, they’re not.” Charlaine picked up the pace, releasing Nathanial’s arm as she entered the grove. “I suppose they, once more, slipped from Emma’s grasp. They can be quite ingenious when they want something.”
A few more steps and Charlaine moved out into the sunshine, her eyes gliding over the small lake, surrounded by tall-growing trees as well as a meadow that ran all the way to the horizon. Wildflowers bloomed everywhere, and the air smelled of summer, fresh and intoxicating.
“What are you two up to?”
Kneeling by the lake’s surface, the two girls flinched at the sound of Charlaine’s voice. Susan almost slipped and fell in, but Daphne grabbed her arm and pulled her up the bank after her. “We were just looking around,” she said innocently, her eyes never meeting Charlaine’s.
“I thought you wanted to see to poor Mary. How is she?”
“Better,” Daphne replied lightning-quick as Susan all but cowered behind her, her little head bowed, not daring to look up.
Charlaine crossed her arms as Nathanial came to stand next to her. “All right, out with it! What are you two up to? It must be something utterly devious judging from the looks upon your faces.”
With her little hands clasped together, Susan looked up, her ey
es moving from Charlaine to Nathanial and then back. “We’re looking for frogs!” she all but yelled.
Daphne rolled her eyes, then huffed out an annoyed breath.
“Frogs?” Nathanial asked for the second time that day. “Why are you looking for frogs?”
Daphne’s lips thinned, but her wide, brown eyes looked calculating, trying to determine whether or not to trust them with their secret. “Oh, very well,” she huffed out a moment later, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “We want to kiss one.”
Out of the corners of her eyes, Charlaine noticed Nathanial’s jaw drop in surprise at Daphne’s confession. “You want to kiss one?” she asked, remembering the fairy tale Emma had been reading to them lately.
It had a frog in it.
As well as a prince.
Daphne and Susan nodded. “We thought that would be the best way to meet a prince,” Daphne explained reasonably. “So we need two frogs. One for Susan, and one for me.”
“That does sound reasonable,” Charlaine replied, fighting to maintain a straight face. “And may I ask, what will you do with your princes once you have them?”
Daphne’s eyes narrowed, suggesting Charlaine had to be a fool to ask such a question. “We want to marry them, of course.”
“Of course,” Charlaine echoed as she glanced at Nathanial. His face seemed a bit strained as well, laughter lurking just below the surface. “And why, pray tell, do you wish to marry a prince?” Of course, Charlaine had her suspicions.
“We want to be princesses!” Susan exclaimed from behind Daphne, a large smile on her flushed face.
Daphne nodded in agreement. “Princes are good and kind. They protect the lady they love and they always sweep her off her feet.” A little frown appeared upon her little face. “I’m not certain what it means, but I think it means he’s strong so he can carry his lady.”
Susan frowned, too. “Why does he need to carry her? She’s got two legs and can walk on her own, can’t she?”
Daphne nodded as the two girls stuck their heads together. “Perhaps only when there’s mud so she doesn’t get her shoes dirty.”