Still, I didn’t owe him my compassion; his words changed nothing. Yet, I couldn’t deny the painful tightening in my chest. The urge to ask him more, to even throw my arms around him, for God’s sake. Damnation, I was pathetic, or a fool, perhaps both. I could not fall for him. Not again. “I’m…I’m sorry.”
His thumb rubbed my wrist, and even through my gloves, I could feel the friction of his touch. My mind went to mush, making it awfully difficult to think. I should have torn my hand away. I should have scurried through the snow to find Will and Lilly, and the safety they represented.
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, his breath a warm puff of air that hung suspended in the cold. “The man was a cruel monster, and I’m not sad to see him go. The only thing I’m sorry about, is that you didn’t get my letter in the chaos of it all.”
Was he telling the truth?
I dared to lift my gaze. His eyes were so damn green, like fields after a rain. Despite the bitterly cold temperature, my skin warmed under the layers of my dress. Disconcerted, I turned and started through the snow. I didn’t know what to believe anymore.
I’d lost William and Lilly. We were hidden behind a hedgerow so that no one could see us. The field before us lay empty. No one was near. And I, apparently, was a damn fool. Dangerous. Being near him was dangerous.
“Mistletoe,” I whispered, as I followed Lilly and William’s tracks. “We need to find mistletoe.”
Gabe was a couple steps behind me. Even if I hadn’t been able to hear the crunch of snow under his boots, I could sense him. Just as I could sense him last night while I’d rested fitfully in bed, and just like I could sense him the moment I’d awoken this morning. Knowing that he had been in the house, all night, had made me restless, confused, and yes, a little desperate. What had James been thinking to allow him to stay?
He reached above me and brushed aside a low-hanging branch, saving me from losing an eye. “Thank you,” I muttered reluctantly.
“Of course.”
How could I still have feelings for him? Even now? Over the last year, James had introduced me to any number of wealthy, attractive, even kind men. But none had made my blood heat. None made my heart skip a beat. None entered my dreams to mock me night after night.
Determined to escape him, I rounded a tree and caught William and Lillian kissing. I drew up short. It wasn’t the first time I’d come across one of my brothers in a romantic moment with his wife. There was nothing sinful or embarrassing about the way William gingerly cupped the back of Lilly’s head. Or the way she rested her hand on his heart. They radiated love, and I hated to interrupt them, especially when I’d been interrupting everyone so often lately. Gabe ran into my back, startling me.
I spun around, grabbed his hand, and pulled him farther into the trees. “This way.”
My brothers deserved any happiness they could get, and I wouldn’t spoil their fun. We darted behind the hedgerow. Close, too close. As our breaths mingled, I realized my mistake.
We were hidden from prying eyes. Alone. And the feelings that rushed through me were so familiar, it was as if no time had gone by at all. As if I’d learned no lesson. Was he being honest? Had he truly meant to come for me and Izzy that night over a year ago?
Slowly, I tilted my head back. Our gazes clashed. The same golden hair. The same brilliant green eyes that I saw in Izzy. The same firm lips that had kissed me so thoroughly. Yet…yet, I didn’t miss the tenseness around his mouth, the tiredness in his gaze. And despite trying desperately not to care, I felt myself softening toward the man.
“I didn’t want to intrude on them,” I explained. “I forever feel as if I’m intruding here.”
I hadn’t meant to admit as much, and blushed when the words came out. He seemed keenly interested in what I had to say, his gaze so unflinching, so direct, that I couldn’t look away. But he’d always seemed interested in me. That, I couldn’t deny. Whether that interest was true or feigned, I did not yet know.
“This is your home, Ginny. It is yours, as much as it is any of