“Has it ever overflowed?”
“Several times over the years, for different reasons. Neglect mostly.”
“What happens to the flooded land?”
“It’s put out of production for at least two years. The salt water has to be drained off, then rain and snow has to leach the salt out of the ground. But perhaps I’m telling you too much. I’m sure you’re not interested in the science of it.”
“Of course I am. It’s fascinating, Adam.” Too late, she caught herself using his given name, as she had so many times in her daydreams.
His head turned. She refused to look up at him. How could she? She was afraid he would see the awe in her eyes, and know how desperately she had wanted him the day she’d stepped off the boat.
“Sounds like a risky way to farm,” she continued, trying to keep her tone light, pretending she hadn’t even noticed that she’d used his given name.
“Perhaps.” He finally turned his attention back to the river. She swallowed over her heart, now thumping in her throat.
“But good management dulls the risk,” he said. “The dykes are well worth the effort. We don’t have to clear forests, there are virtually no stones, and we don’t have to fertilize the marsh soil. It’s already fertile enough. We can even use the marsh mud to fertilize the uplands.”
“Sounds like a perfect scenario.”
“Nothing is ever perfect, Madeline.”
Madeline.Hearing him usehergiven name sent a flurry of gooseflesh down her back. He spoke with such a deep, resounding voice, yet her name spilled past his lips with fluid grace and buoyancy.
She looked him straight in the eye. “I’m all too aware of that.”
For a long moment, he gazed at her in the sunshine. She wondered what he was thinking, what he thought of her, what he saw. Was he trying to understand her meaning? Was he wondering what kind of a life had shaped her into the person she was, or was he looking into her eyes and wishing he was looking into Diana’s?
He turned his gaze toward the river again. “Perhaps we should go.”
“Yes, we should.”We definitely should, before I feel more of what I shouldn’t be feeling.
But she didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay here with him—here alone on the dyke with the sun on her cheeks and the breeze in Adam’s hair and the sound of her skirts whipping lavishly in the wind.
Then she thought of her sister and knew that even if Adam wanted to stay here with her, too—which he didn’t—it would be wrong.
He tried to lead her down the steep slope, but she let go of his hand and broke into a run.
Adam laughed. “Are you all right? You practically flew down, Madeline!”
She burst into a fit of laughter herself. “I’m fine!”
He walked her to her horse and helped her mount. As she settled into the creaky leather saddle and gathered up the reins, he discreetly took a section of her skirt in his large hand and flipped it over to cover her leg, which she hadn’t realized was exposed almost to the knee.
Good God. Her belly wentwhooshas his hand brushed over her petticoats.
Without even acknowledging that anything had been amiss, Adam mounted his own steed. Madeline felt a tremor of disappointment that he had not flushed or nervously cleared his throat or expressed some other kind of abashment. Then she chided herself.
Why she should think Adam would feel awkward or shaken at seeing her leg was beyond her, for men had never stumbled over themselves with her the way they did with Diana. They looked right through Madeline as if she weren’t there. She did not stir passions in men, and that fact was demonstrated to her yet again, as Adam hadn’t evennoticedher leg. He flipped her skirt as if it was the folded-back corner of a faded tablecloth.
She wondered then what it would be like to be Diana, to always feel beautiful and to know she captivated men wherever she went. What power Diana must have felt when they dissolved at her feet.
The horses started walking in the direction of the fort, and a moment of disconsolate silence hovered over Madeline.
At last, Adam spoke. “Care to race?”
Madeline shook her head. “No, I don’t really think I’m up to it.” Then she kicked in her heels and swindled a head start across the grassy marsh, just to put some distance between them and avoid any more reminders that she was invisible.
Adam galloped after Madeline but did not push to win the race. He intentionally lagged back a bit in order to recover his composure after the shock of his intense response to the unexpected, startling sight of Madeline’s long, slender leg.
