“If you want to play the violin, er, fiddle, why don’t you?” he asked.
“Girls don’t usually play the fiddle, do they?” she replied in a dubious tone.
He smiled. “You don’t seem like someone who would be put off by such a thing. Is there anyone in your village who could teach you?”
She sat up straight, her gaze brightening with eagerness. “Yes, actually. Our vicar plays the fiddle, and he’s very good, too.”
“So ask him to give you lessons.”
Charlie seemed to deflate a bit. “Mamma wouldn’t like it. She doesn’t want me doing anything girls aren’t supposed to do.”
Kade grimaced in sympathy. Despite her rough-and-tumble exterior, Charlie was terribly sweet. And he’d bet a bob that she actuallywaslonely, stuck between two worlds.
“Then why don’t you ask your father? I bet he’d say yes.”
She waggled a hand. “It depends on how much he wants to avoid annoying Mamma.”
“Nick didn’t want me to play the piano, at least not at first. He thought it would wear me out. But I knew it would make me better, so I just kept asking until he finally gave in. So maybe you should keep asking your father until he finally says yes.”
She studied him, her head cocking in that funny little tilt he was beginning to recognize. For some reason, it made him want to smile.
“And did it make you better?”
He nodded. “When I play, I forget about being sick, and I always feel better afterward.”
Charlie flashed him a cheeky grin. “Then I will ask Papa, although I won’t tell him it was you who suggested it. He’s still mad at your grandfather, so—”
Loud, scuffling footsteps interrupted her. They both looked up to see the Campbell brothers pelting toward them, kicking up gravel from the path in their wake.
Kade mentally groaned. While he didn’t mind Richard, Andrew was a different story. Although only a year older than Kade, he was half a head taller and very athletic. He excelled at sports and seemed to dominate most of the games the boys played.
And he was a bully.
“Oh, thunderbolts,” Charlie muttered.
“There you are,” breathlessly exclaimed Richard as the brothers skidded to a halt in front of them. “We’ve been looking for you. Don’t you want to go riding with us? It’s a sunny day, so for once we won’t get all muddy.”
His big brother shoved him. “Charlie doesn’t mind mud. She’s a regular goer.” He fixed his gaze on her. “You don’t mind, do you?”
“No,” she replied. “Although I don’t know why you had to shove Richard to make that point.”
Andrew shrugged. “Because he was whining.”
“I was not,” Richard said as he rubbed his arm. “And you didn’t have to shove me so hard. That hurt.”
“Baby,” Andrew sneered.
“I’ll go riding with you, Richard,” Charlie said, pointedly ignoring Andrew. “I’ll meet you in the stables in a half hour. I want to finish talking to Kade first.”
Andrew snorted. “What’s there to talk about with him, besides books or that stupid piano he’s always playing? That’s so boring.”
Charlie’s narrow shoulders lifted in a casual shrug. “He’s not what’s boring me at the moment.”
Kade bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.
Andrew glared at her for a moment and then shifted his gaze to Kade. A nasty smirk spread over his features.
“Or we could go listen to Kade’s grandfather while he bangs on about some stupid battle. It would be boring, but he’s such a fusty old quiz that a fellow can’t help but laugh. Everyone does, you know. Laugh at him, I mean. Really, how do you all put up with him?”
