My Merry Marquess (Wallflower's Christmas Wish #3) - Annabelle Anders Page 0,22

the person he used to be. He… drinks.” Eve felt ashamed to admit it, but this was Nicholas. If the two of them were going to stand any chance at all of finding their way back to one another, it was important that they speak openly. “Aunt Winifred has been most kind to us—more than we dared expect.”

“I should have been here for you.” His voice sounded thick with emotion.

He should have! But what good could possibly come by remaining angry with him?

“You are here now,” Eve said. They turned along a smaller path that led directly to the lake where adults and children alike, dressed in woolen coats, brightly colored mittens, hats and scarves, glided across the slick surface. “And today you are going to risk life and limb on skates for me. I feel it only fair to warn you that my sisters complain about my lack of patience as a teacher.”

“But you will be patient with me.” Something in his voice had her peeking flirtatiously in his direction.

“And why is that, My Lord?” she teased.

“Because you have reserved all of your patience for the handsome gentlemen who assisted you with your pies.”

“And would this gentleman happen to be a marquess with the title of Merriweather?”

“Indeed. He is the one.”

They arrived at a bench and Nicholas handed over her blades as they sat down. Eve had her feet securely attached in just a few minutes and couldn’t help but grin when she caught Nicholas attaching the devices to his boots backward.

“Your foot, My Lord.” She indicated a spot just between them. He turned and lifted his leg without question but when his gaze captured hers, she couldn’t help but think it was a smoldering one. Likely he was remembering what had occurred when he’d assisted her with her slippers and stockings the day before.

Her gaze trailed up his thighs, and she swallowed at the realization that she would not be opposed to… Good Gravy!

Eve slid her mittens off and did her best to ignore the heat flooding her cheeks. The image in her mind caused her fingers to fumble, however, as she untied and then refastened the blades.

The blades were nearly too small for his boots.

“Mr. Rudolph loaned them to me,” he explained, apparently oblivious to the very unladylike thoughts racing through her mind as she adjusted the laces.

“He sends food over to my aunt’s home often. He is a most obliging innkeeper.”

“Doesn’t your aunt employ a cook?”

“She employs a very kind woman who works in the kitchen; calling her a cook is something of a stretch.” She laughingly regaled him with a few of the mishaps that had occurred since they’d arrived to live with Aunt Winifred and then examined the fit of his blades.

“Wouldn’t it be easier if I left them off? It seems that the soles of my boots would make the entire endeavor easier.”

“But then you wouldn’t be skating, you would be sliding.”

He shook his head, turning to face her completely, and lifted his other shoe onto the bench.

“But I would be sliding in an upright position.”

Eve grinned. “Don’t be so sure of that.” She laughed but then added to the pointers he’d received from Mr. Clark and in a matter of minutes, they were both pushing off the bench and he was only wobbling only a little.

“Hold onto me.” Eve loved skating and was already feeling a rush of excitement. Or was that because Nicholas was holding her hand and allowing her to lead him onto the ice?

“I read once that it is the gentleman’s responsibility to assure his partner doesn’t lose her balance and fall.” Laughter shook his voice because it was he who was grasping onto her tightly. When they reached a clear spot, she drew his arm around her shoulders.

Eve had forgotten how wonderful it felt to be this close to another person—to him—to know his strength beside her. “I will pretend that I am leaning on you so that no one calls your manhood into doubt.” The words were meant jokingly and yet butterflies danced in her belly—because he was most definitively the manliest gentleman of her acquaintance.

“Turn your back foot, like this, and slide your front foot forward,” she instructed and then dissolved into a fit of giggles when he lost his balance and nearly sent both of them sprawling to the ice.

Even so, he showed no indication of giving up. Thunder-blue eyes focused on the ice ahead of them, he kept one hand out and his brows