“Wonderful,” Abby said on a rush of air. “Did I ever tell you that he saved me from my terrible guardian?”
Natalie gasped. That was the sort of story that might make a girl swoon. “Did he really? How exciting!”
They entered the sitting room and took a seat opposite one another, and Abby poured tea. “He did. It was all very dashing.”
Was it possible for her as well? Could she meet a man who’d help her escape her mother’s plots?
It certainly wasn’t Ethan. He was wonderfully handsome…but somehow, making deals to get out of responsibility seemed far more his suit than rescuing women from dastardly guardians. “You must tell me more.”
“Please don’t,” a masculine voice said from the door. Her head snapped up and her gaze caught that of Ethan’s. “I shall never compare.” He held a hand over his heart, looking up at the ceiling.
“Now, that is the truth.” Lord Smith said from behind Ethan. The two men entered, Lord Smith sitting next to his wife, and Ethan taking the seat next to Natalie. Both men had damp hair, their clothes fresh.
“How was the exercise?” Abby asked, pouring them tea.
“Excellent,” Lord Smith answered. “We’ll send Lord Somersworth back to London in top shape.”
“That’s not the point of my visit,” Ethan rumbled. “I’m here for you, remember?”
Natalie turned to him, wondering what that comment meant. “What does Lord Smith need your assistance with?” Was she wrong about Ethan?
Ethan grimaced, a look she didn’t see on him very often.
But Lord Smith just waved his hand. “Since you know Triston, you know how…intense the Smiths can be.”
She did. Triston had frightened her when they’d first met.
“Our other brother, Lord Griswold, sent Lord Somersworth here to make sure I was faring well away from London.”
She assessed the man across from her. That was…curious. “Do you prefer the city, Lord Smith?”
“No. On the contrary, I spent a great deal of time deciding how to escape it.”
She didn’t know how to politely ask more so she allowed the conversation to drift away to other topics. An hour passed in pleasant company, and Ethan next to her had her pulse skipping, but still… It was not the visit she’d hoped for.
So when it was nearly time to leave, she was surprised when Lord Somersworth rose, giving her a wink. “It’s not so cold today, perhaps you’d like to walk home.”
“Walk?” She’d done the trip many times before but not usually this time of year. And honestly, it was near freezing outside. “Today?”
“I’m sure one of your footmen can follow along.”
What did he have in mind? Setting her doubts aside, she took his hand as he led her from the room. Had they finally made it to the part of the visit she’d been waiting for?
They started down the country lane, her hands firmly tucked into a muff, the wind pulling at her skirts. Any cold she might have felt was balanced by the feel of Ethan’s heat seeping into her skin as his body pressed close to hers.
His arm had come round her back in an embrace that held more intimacy than any she had ever known. A girl might forget that this was a man she was supposed to resist.
His fingers had fanned out on the small of her back and a few of them even wrapped around her waist. “Are you too cold?”
“No,” she answered, glancing back at the footman. “I’m just fine.”
“Good. You’ll warm as we walk, as well.” He began to whistle, looking for all the world like he was strolling on a summer’s day. They strolled over the small bridge that crossed the river, the trees on either side filtering the weak winter sun.
Natalie attempted to decide how she should ask him the question that had been at the forefront of her thoughts all morning. How and when did they put her part of the bargain into action?
But as she considered how to broach this, Ethan turned back toward the footman. “Good sir, is that a kitten on the bank of the river?”
“A kitten?” the man asked with a scrunched brow as he scanned the water’s edge.
Natalie searched as well, confusion knitting her brow as she tried to follow his finger.
“I do believe it is,” Ethan said as he pointed toward the river. “Hurry. Go fetch it. I’ll stay in this exact spot with the lady.”
The footman’s gaze filled with alarm for a moment before he started racing off the road and down the hill toward the embankment.
Ethan watched the man scurry toward the river, waiting until he was a good distance away before he turned to Natalie. “We only have a moment.”
She stared at him blankly. “A moment for what?”
He shook his head. “You’ve really got a lot to learn about subterfuge.”
Her mouth opened and then closed again, her breath coming out in a small huff. “What are we subterfuging?”
He laughed at the word, tugging her toward the line of trees. “Well, technically, I suppose this isn’t really anything illicit. But you mentioned climbing trees and so I needed to distract your footman.”
“Climbing trees? Now?” She stopped, looking down at her dress. “I didn’t dress correctly.”
He shook his head. “By God, woman, you really need my help. Causing mischief isn’t something you plan in advance. At least not far. You create a distraction, or you see one, and then you take your opportunity.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes widening as she allowed him to pull her toward the branches. “That does make sense. And Emma would always say she didn’t mean to get in trouble, it just sort of happened.”
“Emma would likely have followed me to the trees without question,” he said matter-of-factly, even though he didn’t know the other woman at all.
“She likely would,” Natalie sighed. “Where I never seem able to make those decisions in the moment. I’m forever doing the correct thing.”
“That’s all right. I’ll see you into loads of mischief, don’t you worry.”
“I’m sure you will—” They’d reached the trees, so grasping her waist, he lifted her up into the air before she could object, settling her rump on a thick branch just above his shoulders.
She gasped in a breath, stiffening in his arms until her behind settled firmly on the branch.
“Well?” he asked, his gaze trained directly on her knee. “How is it?”
One of her hands let go of his shoulder and then she reached for another branch. As she pulled herself higher, he watched her shift until she could gain purchase for one of her boots on the branch and then she pulled herself to standing.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
He stepped back, watching her scan the land, her breath coming in excited bursts as she strained up on her toes.
“Be careful, Red.”
“Red?” she asked, looking down at him.
He shrugged, and then he was swinging himself up into the tree next to her. When he stood, one foot in front of the other, he started walking heel to toe toward her. “It’s what I call you in my head.”
She wrinkled her cute little nose. “I don’t like it.”