“Only for a moment longer.”
“Then I will give you back the coat once you’ve changed,” he said.
“We can have that debate when the time comes.” Céleste gave him a tenacious look that was ruined by a well-timed shiver.
“I’ll suggest a compromise instead.” Aldric pulled on his coat, then stood, picking up Adèle as he did. “You change into your dry nightdress, then wrap yourself in the other dry blanket. I’ll keep my coat on.”
“I’ll agree to that.” She smiled, and as had been the case increasingly often these past days, his pulse pounded in response. Moments like these, when the three of them felt a little like a family, were engraving themselves on his heart, making him imagine foolish things.
Benicks weren’t good at family. They ruined every one they were part of.
He carried Adèle over to where the horse stood and stopped with his back to Céleste. He set the sweet girl on her feet. She leaned back against his legs.
“Buttercup,” Adèle said, her French accent still heavily inflecting the word.
“Listen to you, speaking English.”
She grinned up at him. “Tante Céleste can speak English. And tonton Henri. And tante Nicolette. And tonton Aldric.”
“Perhaps while you are at my home, I can teach you the English words for the flowers we see.”
She nodded eagerly. “And the words for colors, please?”
“Any word you want to learn.”
She looked absolutely delighted at the possibility. Oh, he was going to miss her terribly when she left Norwood.
He’d promised Céleste not to worry over those future things yet, in exchange for her doing the same. He wanted her to have that peace of mind, and he wasn’t willing to intentionally break his word to her.
His focus needed to be on keeping his ladies safe. As Céleste had pointed out, they were being toyed with. Though those following them hadn’t made another appearance, Aldric was absolutely certain they were not out of danger. He couldn’t let his anticipated loneliness distract him.
Adèle pointed at the horse.“Un cheval.”There was a hint of a question in the word.
Recognizing what she wanted without having to be told was a rather satisfying thing. He smiled down at her. “In English, we say ‘horse.’”
She tried that word a few times, her brow knit in concentration. As they stood there watching the horse, Adèle asked the English words forhay,dirt,rain,wagon, andflowers. She practiced each one over and over.
When Céleste came and stood beside them, Adèle was all excitement. “Tonton Aldric is teaching me English words. I have learnedbuttercupandhorseand—” She thought a moment. “Andrainandflowersand ... other ones.” She smiled proudly.
“How very clever you are,ma poupette.”
Adèle looked to him once more. “Tonton Aldric, I am hungry.”
“We have food in our basket. I think we should all return to the wagon and have a bit to eat.”
She skipped back toward the wagon. Aldric and Céleste followed more sedately.
“I did make attempts to teach her English,” Céleste said. “Jean-François wouldn’t permit it. Adèle obviously doesn’t even remember that I tried.”
He felt an urge to put an arm around her, perhaps to even hug her as he had in the field earlier. That had led to kissing her, which he had decidedly enjoyed. But he’d been brought crashing back down to earth by the undeniable reality that Céleste had, after that heart-pounding kiss, grown more closed off and a little emotionally distant.
Aldric didn’t think he’d offended her or that she was angry or off-put. She seemed more uncertain than anything. Her hesitancy kept him more grounded in reality.
They enjoyed a simple meal, sitting in the wagon bed, with Adèle regaling them with the many things she’d seen at the farmer’s house and the flowers she hoped to someday see at Aldric’s.
They had everything cleaned up and the wagon bed as it had been the night before. Adèle lay in the middle near the top, with Céleste’s violin, their shared portmanteau, and the food basket completing the makeshift barrier. Aldric would miss that when their journey was complete. Even when he had a very comfortable bed to stretch out in, without having to bend his knees all night long and hold as still as he could so he didn’t bump Adèle awake, he’d miss the way his honorary niece always came closer to him by morning, trusting him so completely. And he’d miss waking in the morning and seeing Céleste on the other side of the barrier.
It was a dangerous line of thinking, imagining something so domestic. He needed to heed his own advice and not let thoughts of the future cloud the necessities of the moment.
