Chapter 24 Penny
Penny
It had been days since I’d spoken to Rosie.
I saw her at the bakery stand the morning after Kit and I told her the truth about our relationship.
I even stopped by to tell her the pecan pastries were delicious and she should offer them for sale, but she found ways to busy herself when I came near.
I didn’t dare go by her house because I worried what her father might have to say.
If he’d considered what Rosie had, that I might be a suitor, I doubted he would take kindly to me calling now.
Without baking lessons to occupy my afternoons, I spent more time in the smithy than ever before.
I completed my leatherworking orders early on, then grew bored enough of sitting or sketching that I did, indeed, offer to let Kit teach me about blacksmithing.
It gave an opportunity for close proximity in public, letting him direct my hands and guide me around the shop.
I didn’t pay as much attention to his words as his touches, grazing over my hips and brushing against my shoulders, leaving me weak and wanting by the time we got home each night.
Also due to Rosie’s absence, Kit had my whole attention, constantly, and I got the feeling it was beginning to tax him. I’d been told often growing up that I talked too much, asked too much, needed too much. Kit was a patient man, but even that had its limits, and I worried I would hit them soon.
Those concerns didn’t stop me from tailing after him while he heated a tool in the coals, never forgetting to warn me before he pumped the bellows that flooded the shop with stifling heat.
I remembered our clash in Forstford when I’d made a mess after the belch of flames startled me.
I was less skittish now, partly out of necessity, but mostly because I trusted Kit to keep me safe.
The coals cast an orange glow across his features as he bent over them. Stubble shadowed his jaw and sweat made his skin glossy. His arms flexed as he moved the piece of metal to the anvil, and I slid in closer, bumping against him while being careful not to jostle his grip on the tongs.
“I can swing the hammer,” I offered, retrieving the tool from the nearby wooden table.
Rather than allow him to pass the tongs to me, I ducked under his arm so I was framed between his shoulders. It was a tight squeeze, but I was slight enough to fit. I tipped my head to one side to clear his view of the glowing length of steel he held.
“Pen,” Kit protested through a laugh. “How are either of us supposed to work like this?”
I wriggled one arm free enough to raise the hammer. “I think it’s fine. Gives me the perfect angle.” I swung and barely glanced the edge of the metal, striking a single spark that made me snort.
I expected Kit to pull away but, instead, his arms crowded against me. He stepped up so my back was fully pressed against his chest and hung his head over my shoulder. Shivers raced up my spine as he whispered in my ear.
“I know what you’re doing.”
A grin pulled at the corner of my lips. “What am I doing?”
“Making people question my teaching methods, for one.”
I squirmed against him once more, relishing the feeling of his body so close to mine.
We’d been more intimate at home recently.
Kissing and cuddling on the couch every night after dinner, and I’d faked being asleep more than once to convince him to let me spend the night with him instead of in my room alone.
One thing I thought of often was his nightly routine of taking a bath when we got home from the smithy. The idea of following him in there and climbing in the tub with him, warm and wet with our bare skin slick, made my heart race.
But again, Kit was a patient man and, in that area, he was testing mine.
I wanted all of him. No clothes between us, no barriers at all.
I just hadn’t figured out how to ask for that yet.
Judging by his hesitance every time I tried to push for more than innocent kisses and touches, any request might be met with a resounding refusal.
I wasn’t sure why he held back. I knew he liked it when we got close—as close as we were right now.
“Mister Koesters!” A feminine voice resounded from the front of the shop, and Kit stepped back.
I dodged while Kit rapidly extricated himself from me. The tongs and heated strip of steel were discarded, and he dusted his gloved hands down the front of his apron as our unexpected guest appeared in the doorway.
His alarm amused me until I also turned toward the new arrival. Tessa stood with her back to the city square, her brown hair in a loose braid and a wrapped meal from the tavern in her hands.
She beamed at Kit, then held out her offering. “We had a bit of extra roast, and I thought of you! Always so hard at work you don’t even pause for lunch.”
I crossed my arms and snorted. I made sure Kit ate plenty. Insisted on it, in fact. More often than not, I packed lunches for us from home but, in lieu of that, I was perfectly capable of fetching meals from the tavern… or somewhere else I wouldn’t have to deal with Tessa.
My scoff seemed to draw her notice, and she turned on me with a far less sunny expression. “Oh, Penny. Aren’t you usually at Rosie’s this time of day?”
“Usually,” I muttered.
I highly doubted Rosie hadn’t told her something about our falling out, which made this an excuse for her to poke at what she knew to be a sore subject.
She didn’t probe further, though, just returned her interest to Kit and thrust the food out again.
“Thank you, but I’ve already eaten.” He waved a dismissive hand. I could have sworn I saw a flicker of humor in his dark eyes as he glanced at me. “Are you hungry, Pen?”
I might have taken Tessa’s roast for the sake of spitting in it, but surely not to eat. I shook my head. “Quite full.”
Tessa tossed her head, and her braid slapped limply against her spine. “Ah well, keep it for later. Strong man like you needs to eat.”
She should have left then, but instead she walked farther into the shop, bypassing me to approach Kit. I might as well have been in another world as she placed herself between him and me.
“Better yet,” she began coyly, “come to the tavern tonight and get a fresh helping. Just you, Kit.” she said with emphasis, as if I couldn’t have inferred as much on my own.
“I get the feeling you could stand to relax after working these muscles all day.” She wrapped one hand around Kit’s bicep and used it as leverage to pull herself closer to him.
I remembered the knife strapped to my hip and the threat I’d issued days before. Tessa didn’t even care. She looked over her shoulder and straight at me without a hint of fear as she added, “No offense, Penny. I’m sure you work hard too.”
Kit sidestepped and twisted his arm free of her grip. Shadows darkened his features.
Tessa’s eyes flashed wide with surprise, but she regained her composure quickly. “I get off at sundown,” she offered, crowding Kit again. “We could share a meal.”
I grit my teeth, and my hands clenched. I had a response at the ready, but Kit was quicker to speak.
“I’m going to have to decline,” he said. “I think you have a certain idea of where you would like this to go, and any effort toward that end would be wasted on me.”
With her back to me, I couldn’t see Tessa’s face, but I imagined it rife with disappointment.
“I don’t understand.”
Kit set his stance with his arms folded across his chest. There was no mistaking the gravity in his tone as he explained. “I already have someone, and I’m quite happy with him. I’m not interested in pursuing anything with anyone else.”
I smiled so wide my cheeks hurt. Kit’s gaze flicked up to meet mine for a fleeting moment, and I hoped he saw clearly how damn happy I was. How proud.
Tessa looked wholly foolish holding her unwanted food while Kit gave her nothing but disdain. “So, it’s true then?” she sniped, trading her honey for vinegar all at once. “You’d rather have a man than me?”
Kit didn’t reply, but his silence spoke volumes.
Tessa huffed and crossed her arms under her breasts, seeming to heave them up in a final effort to attract Kit’s notice. “I’d make you a fine wife, you know,” she said, and moved her hips so her skirt swished. “I could cook for you, keep your house, satisfy your desires…”
Her sultry tone had returned and was almost too much for me to take. My lips peeled back in a snarl, and my body bunched up tight, ready to launch at Tessa and drag her out of here.
While rage ate me up from the inside, Kit remained impossibly stoic.
“I think I’m more suited to a husband than a wife.”
Every bit of tension fled my body, and I went so limp it was a miracle I didn’t collapse. Tears pricked my eyes, but I blinked them quickly away.
First courting, now marriage? Did he really think of me that way? I told him I’d love him forever. Did he picture our future the way I did?
Tessa’s protest became a drone in my ears until she declared, “You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Kit shook his head, and his curls brushed his brow. “I’m well aware, and I’m glad to be missing it.” He retrieved the tongs and piece of steel from where they’d been set aside while Tessa and I watched him, both of us struck dumb, but for entirely different reasons.
He returned the metal to the bed of coals, then poked at them with the tongs, seemingly disengaged until he fell still.
“Also, don’t touch my recruit again. I don’t abide anyone putting hands on him without his consent.
” He turned on Tessa with a glower. “The next time it happens, you’ll deal with me. ”
Tessa backpedaled, clearly more swayed by Kit’s threats than mine. She stammered through a weak protest, then finally shook her head and threw the package of roast on the shop floor before dashing out into the square.
Kit made a sound that might have been a laugh as he returned to stoking the coals.
I was still stunned and a bit unsteady when I bent to pick up the brown-paper wrapped dish from the ground and toss it into the waste barrel outside the canopy.
With that managed, I glanced at Kit again.
He looked pleased, and merriment sparkled in his eyes.
Coming up to him, I snagged the apron string tied around his waist and tugged him away from the forge and toward the secluded back corner of the shop. He was still holding the tongs and giving me a quizzical look when I grabbed both sides of his face and brought him in for a kiss.
His laugh ended it quickly, and he shook his head. “Careful, she might come back,” he said, but the warning lacked conviction.
I kept my grip on his apron, and my smile returned, wide and toothy. “Then she’ll be even angrier to find out who your someone is.”
Kit hummed softly, and his lips curved in a smirk of his own. “Oh, did you think that was about you?”
My head bobbed as I pushed in for another kiss. “I’m your someone,” I murmured against his mouth.
Kit nodded, too, then tipped his forehead to rest on mine. “You’re my only one.”
Excitement filled me with giddy energy. I didn’t want to let him go, didn’t even want to stand still. It was perfect. Everything was perfect, and I couldn’t have done a lick of smithing if I tried, so I was grateful when Kit smiled and gave me an out.
“You know, Pen, you do work hard around here. I think you’ve earned the afternoon off. What say you go check on Thoma in the stables? I have some horseshoes for him, and I know you’ve been wanting to see the new foals again.”
A walk around town did sound nice, even if it meant leaving Kit for a short while.
“You could even invite him and Reimond for dinner if you’d like.”
I grinned. “Tonight?”
“Why not?” Kit bounced his shoulders. “I’ll even cook.”
“You’ll cook for me? Will you keep my house too?” I snorted.
“Our house,” Kit corrected, but I could tell he liked me calling the little cottage my own.
In fact, he was in such a fine mood, and everything really was perfect, so it emboldened me enough that I shifted forward and rolled my hips against him in a way that made his breath catch.
“What about my desires, Kit?” My voice grew husky as I tried and failed to keep the waver out of it. “Will you satisfy those?”
His tongue snaked across his lips, and his gaze grew intense. “Yours and mine both,” he replied.
I must have misheard.
Was I losing my mind?
Was Kit?
“Careful,” I said through a choked laugh, “I'll hold you to that.”
Blush tinted Kit’s cheeks as the implication of his words seemed to catch up to him. He ducked back, and I thought he'd never been so charming as he was in that bashful moment. “Eventually,” he mumbled.
I smiled wide and kissed him again, pleased to find his face still splotched with pink when I released him at last. I backed out of the stall while holding his gaze, memorizing his face, and paused only to collect the armload of horseshoes on my way out.