“It—he—” Callum stammered, feeling even more ridiculous than he had moments before. “Kevinwas about to bite Violet.”
Bridget tsked and snapped her fingers at the goose, who abandoned his assault and waddled over to their hostess. If Callum wasn’t mistaken, the creature had a smug smile on its beak. “Were you feeding him bread? He likes it, but it’s terrible for his digestion.”
“We were no’ feeding him anything.” Callum continued to eye Kevin with suspicion, and he was not about to let Violet’s feet touch the ground with that monster in her vicinity. “He came out of nowhere and started honking.”
“That’s because he’s hungry.” Bridget reached into a hidden pocket in her dress, then extended her open palm to Kevin. “Halved grapes are his favorite. He can get bossy sometimes, but you just need to give him a stern word, and then he’s a complete love.” She scratched Kevin on the head like he was a pet dog, and the goose nipped his apparent owner’s fingers affectionately.
Callum gaped.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Bridget said, smiling at them as though it were a normal occurrence to catch her guests in an embrace while under attack by her pet goose. “Oh! I convinced my cousin Vivian to play the piano for us to dance. Come in whenever you’re done doing…” She made a vague circular gesture in their direction. “Whatever you’re doing.”
She swept out of the garden, Kevin tottering merrily behind her.
Callum remained motionless for a long moment until Violet stirred in his arms. He lowered her, waiting until her feet were stable beneath her before he released her. A beat passed before he felt laughter bubbling in his chest, relief flooding his veins. While Kevin hadn’t been a deadly foe, he’d kept her safe.
She chuckled and rubbed the bare skin above her glove, and Callum wanted to pull her close, keep her warm. Perhaps kiss her again. “That didn’t go according to plan.”
He gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Do ye think Kevin will tell anyone what he saw?”
“If he does, no one will believe him.” She wrinkled her nose. “Everyone knows geese are chronically dishonest.”
“I suppose I have to add geese to the list of yer fears.”
A smile pulled at her lips. “Alongside spiders. I’m also not fond of heights.”
He snorted a laugh, and she smiled up at him. He’d laugh like a fool if she kept smiling like that. The strains of the piano, followed by an inebriated cheer, filtered into the garden. “Would ye like to dance?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. “No, I should go to bed. Assault by goose was not on my agenda for the evening, and I doubt anything could top it.”
Regret struck him low in his belly. For the first time in his life, he considered what it would be like to court a woman. To hold her close while they waltzed, to bring her flowers and write her poetry. To listen to and understand her. Perhaps be understood in return.
But to what end? Even if she agreed to give up her plans for ruination and allow him to pursue her, let alone marry her, he’d be off to South America for God knew how long.
He swallowed his disappointment and gave her a low bow. “Wishing ye a night free of poultry.”
She gifted him with a wry smile, an expression that seemed private, something she kept just for him. He loved it. “Thank you for your valiant protection, brave knight.”
He couldn’t find words to make her stay when she didn’t want to, nor did he want to explore why he was suddenly desperate to keep her company for a few minutes longer. A simple kiss had never sunk into his bones before, leaving him rattled and breathless. He needed more, another kiss, another touch.
But she was already leaving. “It was my honor,” he managed, just as she reached the edge of the garden. He wasn’t certain she heard it.
Callum turned and looked back to the stars, but no matter how closely he examined them, he couldn’t make out the shapes she’d described, only a cluster of random flashes of light that seemed to blend into an indiscernible configuration the longer he stared.
She was a puzzle that didn’t want to be solved, at least by him, but he felt like he was getting closer to the solution every time they spoke, every layer she peeled back for long enough for him to glance underneath. He’d always been intrigued by puzzles and impossible tasks.
Perhaps, if he was persistent, he could make sense of her as well.
Chapter 13
Callum visited her dreamsagain that night, and this time she had a goose to blame.
After she’d left him in the garden, Violet could not forget the feel of his arms around her, the strength and ease with which he lifted and held her. A knight rescuing a princess from a dragon, like the beginning of a tale of courtly love.
If the dragon was a malicious bird named Kevin.
Her nocturnal imagination had filled in the gaps in her knowledge of Callum’s body, her illicit reading material having provided ample inspiration for all sorts of wicked things he could do to her body with those big hands and soft lips. She woke in a sheen of perspiration with her nightrail hiked up to her waist.
As she crept up the steps to the second floor late the following afternoon, she shook her head, casting off the remnants of her dream but not the lingering lust. She wanted another kiss, another dozen. Now she knew his lips were firm but the skin smooth, thathe tasted not of peppermint but of smoke, the scent of the air just before a snowstorm.
