Charlaine had not missed the joy lighting up Nathanial’s eyes upon his arrival. She had sensed his loneliness, the hesitant way his heart had begun to open, to long for companionship, for joy, for someone to stand beside him. His brother had always been that person, but now things had changed and it seemed Nathanial was at a loss as to how to adapt.
However, that was what friends were for, were they not? To lend a helping hand when it was most needed.
“Should I not greet Lord Markham and his wife?” Nathanial asked as she led him through the house, giving him a quick tour so the poor man would not get lost too often. “After all, it was very kind of them to invite me. Are you certain they do not mind me staying for such a long time?”
Charlaine marveled at his constant concern to overstay his welcome. “We’re on our way to see them,” she told him, her watchful eyes lingering on that occasionally twitching muscle in his jaw. “However, it was I who invited you, not them. So, if there’s anyone you want to thank,” she grinned up at him, “it is me.”
Nathanial’s gaze narrowed as he regarded her. “But you did ask them, did you not?” Concern clung to his voice.
Charlaine sighed. “You sound like Pierce. He made me promise I−” She bit her lip, realizing that she was about to say more than she had intended to.
Nathanial stopped and turned to her. “What did you do?” he asked, marked tension in his shoulders. “They do know that you invited me, do they not?” He glanced down the corridor as though fearing that Pierce and Caroline might appear at any moment, demanding to know what he was doing in their home.
Charlaine reached for his hands, tense and cold. “Of course, they know. Are you truly worried they would not want you here?”
He huffed out a breath. “I do not want to intrude where I’m not wanted. I−”
Charlaine reached out and cupped a hand to the side of his face. He immediately stilled, and his blue eyes dropped to meet hers. “You are wanted,” she told him gently. “You are wanted very much.”
Holding her gaze, Nathanial inhaled a slow breath. “Then what is it that you’re not telling me?”
Charlaine sighed. “Pierce made me promise not to lure you here under false pretenses,” she admitted, dropping her gaze. “He insisted I ask instead of…demand.” A bit of a contrite smile teased her lips as she realized that she had done exactly as Pierce had feared. “I think he was afraid for you, afraid that you might feel trapped. You might have noticed that, at times, I can be a bit…forceful.”
With her head lowered, Charlaine could not see Nathanial’s face. She all but sensed a small smile dance across his features a moment before his hand settled under her chin, urging her to look at him. “A bit forceful?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice now. “You’re a menace.”
Charlaine frowned. “I’m not certain how to take this.”
“As a compliment,” Nathanial replied, warmth in his blue eyes. “Thank you for demanding I join you here. Indeed, you might be a bit forceful at times, but I…I cannot say that I mind.”
“Oh, yes, you do.” Charlaine laughed. “I do remember a moment or two when you looked utterly scandalized, as though you wished the ground would open and swallow you whole.”
“Very well,” he admitted good-naturedly. “While that might be true, I’ve come to realize that being the man I am, it is only to my benefit to surround myself with a friend of…your forceful nature.”
“Is that so?” Charlaine asked, delighted to hear that he had come to see that she only meant to help.
“It is,” he assured her.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Charlaine exclaimed as she once more slipped her arm through his and they proceeded down the corridor toward the terrace.
Beside her, Nathanial frowned. “Your mind is already at work on new, outrageous ideas, is it not?”
“They do take time and diligence,” she told him with a wink. “But I promise you’ll come to love them.”
As they stepped out onto the terrace, Pierce and Caroline rose from their seats and came over to welcome their visitor. “Mr. Caswell, it’s good to see you again,” Pierce exclaimed. “I hope your journey was pleasant enough.”
“It was. Thank you, my lord.”
Charlaine rolled her eyes. “I do believe we should all address each other by our first names,” she stated, looking from Nathanial’s somewhat shocked face to Pierce and Caroline. “This strict formality sounds ludicrous.”
“I quite agree,” Caroline immediately said. She smiled at Charlaine before meeting Pierce’s gaze.
“I do not mind at all,” Pierce stated, giving her a look that said he could not believe she would doubt him. Then he turned back to Nathanial. “We’re all quite informal here. So, if you have no objection?”
Nathanial shook his head. “Not at all.” Still, he looked more than a bit uncomfortable and, as expected, the moment they left Pierce’s and Caroline’s presence behind, he voiced his discomfort. “You shouldn’t have urged them to−”
“I didn’t,” Charlaine was quick to reply as they strolled down into the extensive gardens. “It was merely a suggestion, and as Pierce said, we’re all very informal here. You’ll see.”
Again, he huffed out a breath.
“You call your brother’s wife by her first name, do you not?”
He eyed her curiously. “How do you know?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, but−”
“Then where is the problem?”
His mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “She is now my sister-in-law, that’s the difference.” His free hand gestured around wildly, suggesting he was making up this reasoning as he went. “She’s family and, therefore, it is not unreasonable for me to−”
“Well, if that is the case, then it is also not unreasonable for you to call Pierce and Caroline by their first names because Caroline is your brother’s wife’s cousin which, in turn, makes them family as well.” She grinned up at him.
“Yes, but…” Nathanial’s voice trailed off.
“You’re overthinking this,” Charlaine told him. “It’ll make your head hurt if you keep it up.”
A disbelieving chuckle rumbled in his throat. “Why do I even bother?” he mumbled as though to himself.
Charlaine stopped and grinned up at him. “I don’t know. One would think a man as intelligent as you would have learned his lesson by now.”
“One would think so, wouldn’t one?” he asked mockingly, a wide grin on his face.
Charlaine nodded, then turned when she glimpsed Daphne and Susan darting in and out of the small grove nearby. “They’re up to something,” she mused as they headed onward. “They keep asking me about frogs.”
“Frogs?”
“Yes, if I’ve ever seen one, ever caught one.”
Nathanial frowned. “Why?”
“I don’t know. They’re quite tight-lipped about it.” She wondered why the girls had not told her. “Perhaps they’ll confess to you.”
“Me?”
Charlaine smiled at him. “Ever since you secured a necklace for Mary, you’re Daphne’s hero and, therefore, Susan’s also.”
Nathanial scoffed. “I doubt they’ll tell me anything they’re not telling you.” He shrugged off her hunch in a way that made Charlaine think he was pleased by her assumption nonetheless. Indeed, he wanted to be someone’s confidante. He wanted to be the hero, and who could blame him?
Who didn’t?
“There they are,” Nathanial said, pointing through the small grove at the lake situated behind it. In summer, the dense vegetation almost completely blocked their view. Only the sun’s rays bouncing off its shiny surface here and there whispered of a hidden treasure behind the grove. “Are they allowed out here by the lake on their own?”
“No, they’re not.” Charlaine picked up the pace, releasing Nathanial’s arm as she entered the grove. “I suppose they, once more, slipped from Emma’s grasp. They can be quite ingenious when they want something.”
A few more steps and Charlaine moved out into the sunshine, her eyes gliding over the small lake, surrounded by tall-growing trees as well as a meadow that ran all the way to the horizon. Wildflowers bloomed everywhere, and the air smelled of summer, fresh and intoxicating.
“What are you two up to?”
Kneeling by the lake’s surface, the two girls flinched at the sound of Charlaine’s voice. Susan almost slipped and fell in, but Daphne grabbed her arm and pulled her up the bank after her. “We were just looking around,” she said innocently, her eyes never meeting Charlaine’s.
“I thought you wanted to see to poor Mary. How is she?”
“Better,” Daphne replied lightning-quick as Susan all but cowered behind her, her little head bowed, not daring to look up.
Charlaine crossed her arms as Nathanial came to stand next to her. “All right, out with it! What are you two up to? It must be something utterly devious judging from the looks upon your faces.”
With her little hands clasped together, Susan looked up, her eyes moving from Charlaine to Nathanial and then back. “We’re looking for frogs!” she all but yelled.
Daphne rolled her eyes, then huffed out an annoyed breath.
“Frogs?” Nathanial asked for the second time that day. “Why are you looking for frogs?”
Daphne’s lips thinned, but her wide, brown eyes looked calculating, trying to determine whether or not to trust them with their secret. “Oh, very well,” she huffed out a moment later, her shoulders slumping in defeat. “We want to kiss one.”
Out of the corners of her eyes, Charlaine noticed Nathanial’s jaw drop in surprise at Daphne’s confession. “You want to kiss one?” she asked, remembering the fairy tale Emma had been reading to them lately.
It had a frog in it.
As well as a prince.
Daphne and Susan nodded. “We thought that would be the best way to meet a prince,” Daphne explained reasonably. “So we need two frogs. One for Susan, and one for me.”
“That does sound reasonable,” Charlaine replied, fighting to maintain a straight face. “And may I ask, what will you do with your princes once you have them?”
Daphne’s eyes narrowed, suggesting Charlaine had to be a fool to ask such a question. “We want to marry them, of course.”
“Of course,” Charlaine echoed as she glanced at Nathanial. His face seemed a bit strained as well, laughter lurking just below the surface. “And why, pray tell, do you wish to marry a prince?” Of course, Charlaine had her suspicions.
“We want to be princesses!” Susan exclaimed from behind Daphne, a large smile on her flushed face.
Daphne nodded in agreement. “Princes are good and kind. They protect the lady they love and they always sweep her off her feet.” A little frown appeared upon her little face. “I’m not certain what it means, but I think it means he’s strong so he can carry his lady.”
Susan frowned, too. “Why does he need to carry her? She’s got two legs and can walk on her own, can’t she?”
Daphne nodded as the two girls stuck their heads together. “Perhaps only when there’s mud so she doesn’t get her shoes dirty.”
“What about his shoes?” Susan threw in.
Daphne shrugged. “I don’t think men mind that much. They like mud.”
“How can anyone like mud?” A little shudder went through Susan.
Holding her breath, Charlaine had to fight to keep from laughing. Nathanial, too, had to turn away, his face a bright shade of red as he drew in deep breaths through his nose. “Aren’t they adorable?” Charlaine whispered once he returned to her side.
Nathanial nodded, his lips still pressed into a thin line…no doubt, as a precaution.
“Supper will be ready soon,” Charlaine told the girls, a little desperate to change the subject. “How about we return to the house now and come back here tomorrow and look for frogs?”
While the girls looked a bit disappointed, the promise of food soon had them racing back to the house, their little faces flushed once more from the exertion.
“Do you truly intend to look for frogs tomorrow?” Nathanial asked, his left brow raised in doubt as they followed in the girls’ wake.
Charlaine chuckled. “Why not? Don’t you think they deserve princes?”
Shaking his head at her, Nathanial laughed. “You’re impossible! What if those girls truly end up kissing a frog and then see that no prince materializes?”
Charlaine grinned at him. “What if one does?”