Chapter 23 #3
He huffed out the briefest of laughs, then bent his head and kissed her very carefully. He looked at her, then frowned slightly.
“You didn’t close your eyes.”
“I didn’t want to miss anything,” she whispered.
He caught his breath as if she’d just winded him with her father’s dullest sword. “I don’t either, actually.”
“I also didn’t want to fall off the roof.”
He smiled more easily that time, reexamined her perch, then made certain he was propped up properly against the parapet wall. “Better?”
She nodded.
He carefully tucked a lock or two of her hair behind her ears. She would have smiled at the look of concentration on his face, but she was actually too busy worrying that she might fall over the edge of the walkway in truth.
“I have you.”
“I thought you were distracted by my fairy tresses.”
“Well, they are gorgeous,” he conceded, “but I like them best when they don’t obscure your visage.” He studied her for a moment. “You should always wear your hair back like that.”
“Why?”
“It would make it easier for me to look at you.”
“I am, my lord, your servant.”
He laughed. “Please, nay.” He smiled, then his smile faded. “I won’t let you fall, Harriet.”
“You haven’t so far.”
“May I, then?”
“You know you talk a lot, don’t you?”
He smiled, then kissed her.
Well, more than once.
She began to understand, after a few minutes, why it was his parents were so fond of the activity. Then again, that was absolutely not anything she particularly wanted to be thinking about at the moment when she was so far off the ground.
“I have you,” he murmured against her mouth. “Still.”
Well, if he was going to put it that way, perhaps she could continue to clutch the rock wall to her right with one hand and hold onto him with the other and trust that she wouldn’t become so distracted by his kisses that she simply fell off the walkway.
“I’m not good with heights,” she said eventually, because she thought she should.
“Shall we descend, then?”
“Let me look at the stars for a minute or two longer.”
“I have competition, I see.”
“You don’t, actually,” she said, then she paused. “I suppose the stars will be there tomorrow, won’t they?”
“As will I,” he said. “If you like.”
She took a deep breath. “What would you like?”
“Why don’t I tell you about that at length when we’re closer to the ground?”
“We have a lot of relatives below,” she noted.
He pursed his lips. “Aye, and the only way they’ll allow me to speak to you is via carrier pigeon.
‘Tis no wonder Jackson can’t stop himself from texting at all hours.
He no doubt did the same thing with quill and ink during his youth, but now finds it much easier and more annoying to do so with his phone. ”
“It probably does seem more efficient,” she agreed.
He studied her. “Are we discussing my cousin?”
“You brought him up.”
“I’m an idiot.”
She smiled, then felt her smile fade. “We can go if you want.”
“Are you daft, woman,” he said, looking faintly horrified. “I would keep you up here until dawn if I didn’t think my brother would simply push me off at moonrise.”
“I would,” Connor called helpfully.
Sam shook his head, rolled his eyes, then looked at her. “A few more minutes?”
She smiled and nodded.
And it was more than a few more minutes before she managed to speak again.
“Sam?”
“Hmmm?”
“What do you want to do?”
“Find every darkened corner in the keep and make good use of them?”
She considered. “Do you know where they are?”
“For myself?” he asked, then he cleared his throat. “Of course not. Not all of them. And what ones I do know about, I know about because I’ve stumbled over my parents using them.” He paused. “For the most part.”
“Sam, stop speaking,” Connor said from three feet away, “before you frighten the poor woman off.”
Harriet watched Sam hold up his pointer finger, which she assumed meant once more instead of inviting his brother to come closer and perhaps put his eye out accidentally. For herself, all she could do was smile and hold on as he kissed the socks off her one final time.
“I will write you poetry,” he said, sounding almost as breathless as she felt. “As I should, as a proper, genteel knight.”
“I’ll await your offerings with great anticipation.”
“I’ll also compose lays to your beauty.”
“Can you sing?”
He considered. “I’m better with reading poetry, but I can try. I wouldn’t argue if you wanted to reward me after every verse.”
“Good hell,” Connor said, pushing past him, “please stop before I lose my supper over the wall. Come along, Harriet, and let me escort you back to your chamber before we both perish from despair.”
Harriet found that Sam wasn’t inclined to release her hand and she realized she was equally disinclined to let go of him. Connor only looked at them both, shook his head, then walked off with a smile.
She soon found herself standing with her favorite de Piaget brother in front of her parents’ bedroom door. Sam brought her hand to his mouth, kissed it formally, then smiled briefly before he pulled her into his usual glorious embrace.
“Let’s allow your parents a day or two of comfort here, shall we?”
“And what will we do?” she asked lightly.
“After I secure the appropriate permissions?”
She nodded.
“Let’s go on a date.”
She smiled and started to lean up to kiss him, but her parents’ door opened before she could and she was joined on the threshold by her father wearing a particularly paternal mien.
“Ah, Harriet, you’ve been deposited safely back into the loving arms of your parents.”
Harriet caught the tail-end of the very stern look her father sent Sam, felt herself be pulled inside the room, then watched her father shut the door in Sam’s face before he could say anything else.
Harold turned around and rubbed his hands together enthusiastically.
“I am,” he announced with a smile, “having a marvelous time in medieval England.”
Harriet couldn’t help but agree that she was as well.
She let her parents’ discussion of the delights they’d enjoyed that day wash over her as she put herself to bed and wondered just what medieval England could dish up that could possibly top a beautiful bit of starlight on the roof of a castle while standing in the arms of a wonderful man.
She could hardly wait to find out.