She had to laugh. “That must be why your coat is so warm—from all the fur you have hidden beneath your fine garments. It is like a furnace!”
“You cannot tell a soul,” Nathaniel urged, smiling in earnest. “Between the rumors of me hanging upside down like a bat to sleep and my bearish tendencies, I shall be shooed out of society and will have to go and live in the woods where I shall become the stuff of myth: a story to frighten children before they go to bed.”
Leah wrapped the coat tighter around herself. “Did your parents read to you before you went to sleep?”
“Not quite, but I do know a scary tale or two,” he replied, his expression darkening for just a moment before his smile returned. “Colin, come on! We are returning this sickly newt to her pond!”
Leah punched him lightly in the arm. “I am not a newt.”
“If you were, you would be the prettiest newt of all,” he told her, laughing as he pretended to wince in pain. “Brutal, too. Who taught you to punch like that? You are not, perchance, a lady by day and a pugilist by night, are you?”
She squinted at him, thinking that was a very odd thing to say. “No. Are you?”
“It would hardly be fair, pitting a bear-bat-duke against ordinary men, now, would it?” he teased, but she thought she saw a flicker of panic move across his face as if he had said something he should not have. “Colin! Now!”
The younger man bounded around the pond, holding something in cupped hands. “I found a bee!” he said, sounding concerned. “It is dazed from the cold, but if we take it home and warm the poor thing by the fire, it will recover quickly enough. Did you know that bees can find their hive, even if they are miles and miles away?”
“I did not,” Leah replied, peering up at Nathaniel.
“It appears you two have even more in common,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulders to steer her toward the carriages. “She, too, takes pity on bees who have not yet realized that it is almost winter.”
Colin ran off ahead, shouting back, “Hurry! We must get the bee to warmth immediately!”
Nathaniel smiled down at Leah. “Indeed, dear Leah, I hope you may be restored to health as quickly as the bee.”
“As do I,” Leah replied, wondering if there was a simple remedy for her present affliction: the disease of a growing, unrequited love and the heartbreak that would surely follow.
CHAPTERTWENTY-FOUR
“You are too kind!” Ezra enthused, patting Nathaniel squarely on the back. “Is he not generous, Sarah? What a chivalrous gentleman to bring our darling daughter back himself when we had no notion you were even together, nor that she was unwell!” His face strained, a vein pulsing at his temple as if his blood could not endure the pressure.
Nathaniel bowed his head. “There is no need for flattery, Ezra,” he assured. “I could not have had any peace this evening without knowing she was well and safely in her residence.”
Leah stood in the reception hall with Nathaniel’s greatcoat still around her shoulders, wishing she did not have to give it back. She felt so safe within the heavy wool, and it smelled of him, of woodsmoke, bergamot, and peppermint—a comforting perfume.
Well, I shall not have any peace this evening,she lamented, her mind spinning with her heart’s secret hopes.The future Duchess…It pained her to think of it, to want it, to wish for it, though it would not have mattered if he was a farmer’s boy; she still would have desired what she could not have. Him.
“Of course, you must stay for tea,” Sarah interjected. “I shall pour a medicinal tea for Leah and the rest of us can have something more ordinary.”
Nathaniel raised his hands in a gesture of defense. “I cannot, Lady Druidstone. My brother is in the carriage, and he has a bee to save.”
“Pardon?” Sarah blinked.
“It is a sweet story. Leah can tell it to you, but I fear Colin will blame me if the bee does not survive, so please, accept my apologies, and let us postpone that tea until another day,” Nathaniel urged, backing away toward the door.
Leah smiled. “Give it my warmest wishes.”
“I shall,” Nathaniel replied, his expression freezing for a moment, his mouth slightly parted. It was the sort of look one would give when they had seen something surprising, but Leah could not tell if it was the good or bad kind. “I will collect my coat the next time we see one another,” he added, his face softening into a pleased smile. “It becomes you remarkably well.”
“Are you leaving it here as insurance so that wewillsee one another again?” Leah half-teased, her nerves jittering.
Ezra gasped. “Leah! What sort of question is that? Of course, you will see one another again.”
“Your father is right,” Nathaniel said, walking up to her. “I shall see you soon, dearest Leah.” He dipped his head, and placed a soft, startling-and unnecessary long kiss upon her hand. Her skin tingled, the heat flushing down into her face, making her cheeks throb with the fever of it.
Wide-eyed, she watched him turn and leave, still staring at the spot where he had been long after the front door had closed, and he had gone. Slowly, she raised her fingertips to her other hand, touching the place he had kissed. She did not know why, but she had expected to feel something there, but it was just her smooth skin, the same as ever if slightly hotter.
“Are you trying to chase him away?” Ezra hissed, running a stressed hand through his hair.
