“How are your toes?” Miss Palmer asked, a bit of an apologetic grin upon her face as she looked up at him from under her bonnet. “Purple? Blue? Flattened beyond repair?”
Nathanial could barely suppress a smile as he led her down the path that snaked along the Serpentine. “I assure you there’s no need to worry. I’m perfectly fine.”
Breathing in the warm, summer-scented air, Miss Palmer briefly gazed at the glistening waters before returning her attention to him. “Are you certain? I must say I never thought to consider dancing such a dangerous undertaking.” Her eyes shifted to the hem of her dress. “Especially when one is wearing shoes.”
Nathanial frowned. “Especially when one is wearing shoes?” he echoed, uncertain what she was trying to say. “Have you ever known anyone to dance without shoes?”
A wide grin claimed Miss Palmer’s face. “You sound like Albert.”
“Albert?”
“Pierce’s butler. He is such a dear, old man, but rather one to stand on protocol.” Her smile dimmed a little, but affection still rang loud and clear in her voice.
Nathanial remembered the thin, eyebrow-less man who had opened the door for him earlier in the day when he had arrived to pick up Miss Palmer for a stroll through Hyde Park. The man had seemed all but expressionless, his eyes pale and his posture ramrod straight. However, the moment Miss Palmer had appeared, something had changed.
There had been warmth in his gaze then, whispering of a deep affection for the unusual, young woman who had recently joined their household. Clearly, she had fought her way through the old man’s granite shell and claimed a place in his heart. Perhaps with the same relentless persistence with which she had pursued him, Nathanial, and made him her friend.
In an odd way, it was a rather childish notion, but Nathanial could not deny that the past sennight had been one of the most peaceful since his arrival in London.
In truth, ever since Abigail had broken his heart.
“When was the last time you walked without shoes?”
Jarred from his thoughts, Nathanial frowned at her. “Pardon me? Without shoes?”
Miss Palmer nodded. “Yes, you know, barefoot.”
He shook his head. “I cannot say that…”
“You poor man!” Miss Palmer exclaimed, looking honestly shocked. “Only think of all you’ve been missing.” She glanced around them, then frowned. “There are too many people here.”
Indeed, countless couples promenaded up and down the path as families with children picnicked on the lawns. “Too many people for what?”
“To take off our shoes, of course.”
Nathanial stopped and looked at her. “You want to take of your shoes? Here? Now?” An odd echo danced through his head, reminding him of her request to teach her how to dance only a few days past. Then, he had been shocked as well.
“I’d love to,” she told him honestly, eagerness on her face. “The sun is shining, a mild breeze is stirring the trees, the grass looks so soft and I bet the water is nice and cool.” Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as she turned to look at him. “Can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t want to take off your shoes?”
Nathanial didn’t know how to answer that.
“I know it’s far outside of what is considered appropriate,” Miss Palmer admitted. “However, if no one were here to judge you, would you want to?”
“I don’t know.” Nathanial shrugged. “I never considered it.”
“Then consider it now,” Miss Palmer all but ordered him, her brown eyes watchful as they looked at him.
“What is the point? Why consider a scenario that will never be?”
A rather indulgent smile came to her face. “To know your heart,” she told him and, to his utter shock, her right hand settled upon his chest as though checking to see if his was still beating. “To be prepared to seize the moment should an opportunity present itself.”
Nathanial inhaled a slow breath, feeling her hand rise and fall as it rested upon his chest. “And you wish to walk without shoes?”
A warm chuckle left her lips. “My dear Nathanial, I walk without shoes every opportunity I get.”
“You do?”
“I do.” She grinned at him. “Again, you look like Albert. Thoroughly scandalized.” She frowned. “I never understood. What is so utterly inappropriate about not wearing shoes? It’s not as though I expressed the desire to swim naked in the Serpentine.” She paused, and her teeth sank into her lower lip. “Although…”
Nathanial’s eyes fell open. “Miss Palmer, you cannot be serious!”
“Of course, I’m not,” she laughed, playfully slapping his arm. “I’m not a fool! However, that does not mean I wouldn’t want to!” She fixed him with a pointed stare. “And would you please call me Charlaine?” Her brows rose in challenge.
“It would be inappropriate,” Nathanial pointed out, well aware that she had addressed him by his first name from the start and he had never once objected. Why on earth had he not?
“Do you consider it inappropriate?” she demanded, a hint of impatience coming to her eyes. “After all, we’re friends, are we not?”
Looking into her eyes, Nathanial nodded. “Yes, we’re friends and…no, I would not consider it inappropriate.” Was this the truth? The words had escaped his mouth without thought.
A slow smile spread across her face. “Well, then?”
Knowing when a battle was lost, Nathanial hung his head. Still, the hint of a smile teased his lips. “Very well, Miss P−” He caught himself. “Charlaine.” Her name left his tongue slowly, syllable for syllable.
She rewarded his efforts with a proud smile. “Now, about the shoes?”
Nathanial chuckled. “You’re relentless.”
“I know what I want,” Charlaine told him with a pointed look. “Do you?”
Nathanial sighed. “I’m not certain.”
“Well, that sounds like no.” She slipped her arm back through his and they continued down the path. “Perhaps you should work on that. Will you come to Pierce and Caroline’s engagement celebration tomorrow?”
“I’ve been invited.”
Charlaine chuckled. “That’s not an answer.”
Stopping, Nathanial turned to her. “Do you want me to come?” A nervous shiver teased his spine as her dark eyes looked up into his, and Nathanial knew that in no more than a short week’s time, she had made him care for her. No wonder she had managed to break Albert as well. It seemed no one stood a chance against her.
Except for the ton at large.
But that was their loss.
“Yes,” she said, a deep smile upon her face. “I want you to come. Of course, I do.”
Something warm settled upon Nathanial’s chest. “Then I’ll attend.”
However odd she had gone about it, Nathanial was glad that Charlaine had become his friend. The notion was still strange−after all, men and women could not simply be friends, could they? Still, it felt good to be able to speak to another, to have his company cherished, to know that his presence or absence was noted. Perhaps it was simply that Charlaine showed her affection without restraint, without thought for what was appropriate, without fear to be disappointed. She saw the good in the world, the good in people, and she refused to live anything but a happy life.
Nathanial felt awed whenever he looked at her.
And more grateful than he could say.
“And will you dance with me?” The grin upon her face told him that she did not truly expect him to agree. “Or are you afraid you’ll get hurt? I could leave off my shoes. It might hurt less.”
Nathanial chuckled. “It’ll be an engagement celebration, not a ball.”
“True,” Charlaine replied, and Nathanial could not help but feel that she wanted to add something to that simple statement. Something that started with However…
She did not though.
“Do you have any plans for the summer?”
Nathanial sighed. “Not yet.” In fact, over the past week, he had enjoyed not thinking ahead. It had been a new experience for him; one that had proved beneficial to his mood. After all, thinking ahead only meant planning his return to Boston. He could not very well stay in England indefinitely. He had a company to think of.
His father’s legacy.
Now that Zach had become the Earl of Pembroke, his brother was expected to remain in England and see to the duties that went hand in hand with that title. He would not be returning to America.
Not permanently.
Nathanial sighed at the thought that they would, from now on, be separated by an ocean, both on different continents. Once, they had lived their lives together, side by side, and now? Now, in all likelihood, years would pass between occasional visits. Once Zach and Becca became parents, the distance would only increase.
Nathanial was certain of it.
“You look sad,” Charlaine observed. “Is it your brother?”
How on earth had she come to know him so well in no more than a week’s time? “Life will no longer be the same.”
“Is that good or bad?”
Nathanial shrugged. “For him, I suppose it’s good. He’s happy.”
“And you?”
Again, he shrugged. “I don’t know where to go from here.”
Charlaine smiled up at him. “Then don’t make any decisions until you do. Promise me.”
Nathanial nodded. “And what about you? Will you remain in England for good?”
“There’s no place I’d rather be,” she told him, conviction in her voice. Still, a deep sadness rested in her eyes that made Nathanial wonder what had happened to her. By now, he had pieced a few things together from what she had told him, but everything else remained a mere suspicion, far from certainty. She had lost her family, but how? And when? And how had she found her way to Lord Markham? Quite obviously, they were close and shared some kind of history. Nathanial could not deny that he…cared to know.
After all, Charlaine was his friend and he wanted her to be happy. Was that not what friends wished for one another?