Page 64 of Courting Elizabeth

The thought came unbidden.

I pushed it away with irrational fear. Naming it too soon might make it false.

The first drop fell on my cheek.

“Your negotiations have failed,” I said.

Fitzwilliam looked up.

The sky had darkened with alarming speed. The rain began before we reached the trees. Within minutes, it grew so dense that the path disappeared beneath a gray curtain.

“There’s an old gatehouse not far,” he shouted. “Follow me.”

We galloped less than a quarter mile. Despite my coat, water soaked through my clothes. My hair came loose beneath my hat. Juniper slipped once in the mud; Fitzwilliam was at my side before I had time to be afraid.

The gatehouse was a small stone structure, once used during hunts. The groom led the horses under a lean-to while Fitzwilliam forced open the door, swollen with moisture.

Inside stood a table, two chairs, a bench, and a fireplace where dry logs had been kept.

“Take off your coat,” he ordered.

“You’re getting bossy.”

“You’re shivering.”

I was. He helped me undo the fastenings. The coat, heavy with water, fell into his hands. My dress was hardly drier. The fabric clung to my arms, my waist, my legs.

Fitzwilliam’s gaze traveled down over me before he could stop it.

The heat in his eyes made me forget the cold.

He turned away and removed his own coat.

“Take this.”

“It’s as wet as mine.”

“Less so.”

He placed it over my shoulders. The garment was warm from his body, steeped in rain, leather, and that subtle scent I now knew. I pulled the edges around me.

Fitzwilliam lit the fire with the precise movements of a man who refused to acknowledge that his fingers were trembling.

“Your shirt is soaked,” I said.

“I’ll survive.”

It clung to his chest. Beneath the linen, now almost transparent, I could make out the line of his muscles, his skin darkened by moisture, the rise and fall of his breath.

I didn’t look away quickly enough.

“Elizabeth.”

His voice held a warning.

“Yes?”

“Don’t look at me like that if you only wish to get warm.”