Page 20 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

‘Lovely. A nice part of the country.’

‘Very nice. Thanks again, Cat.’

He remembered too late he’d called her the wrong name, but she didn’t correct him.

She just smiled a little and said, ‘Nice to see you again Theo.’

* * *

Will came out of the forge, stripped to the waist, the sweat standing on his skin. He had a mallet thrown over his shoulder and he had tied his hair back for once. It was a hot day and it was even hotter in the forge.

‘Hello, Blacksmith Will.’

‘Cat!’ He saw her sitting on a little wooden stool outside his cottage. She made to stand up, leaning heavily on a stick she’d procured from somewhere.

He was at her side in an instant, throwing the mallet to one side, shrugging his shirt on, taking her hand. ‘What are you doing here? Did you walk here?’ He looked around for the Bath chair.

‘I did. Didn’t I do well?’ She smiled up at him as he supported her and then laughed as he swung her up and cradled her in his arms.

‘What have I told you?’ he asked, teasing. ‘Come on. Shall we go to the river? It’s so hot, we can maybe find a patch of shade up there.’

‘I have the most terrible urge to dip my toes in the water,’ Cat said. ‘Shall we?’

‘I don’t see why not. I’ll take you to the stepping stones. We can sit on those.’

He carried her around the side of the cottages and was gratified to feel her arms tighten around his neck. It stirred all sorts of dangerous feelings up and he tried not to think about what his body was urging him to do. That wasn’t seemly and he could never think of her like that. Not until—

He forced his mind to stop that train of thought. He had been about to add the words ‘after they were wed’. He shouldn’t be so daft. She’d never think of him like that.

‘Here we go,’ he said, eventually setting her down. ‘Can you stand?’

‘Of course I can stand!’ she almost scoffed, but he saw her face blanch as her leg gave way a little. ‘Come on. Help me onto the stones.’

She held her hand out and he took it, leading her towards the lazy current and the sun-warmed stepping stones. ‘You’ve done too much,’ he scolded her. ‘What devil took you, that you might decide to walk all the way down here?’

‘You. You’re the devil,’ she replied, teasing. ‘I can’t stay away from you.’

‘I hope you’re not blaming me.’ He laughed. ‘I’ve been naught but an angel with you.’

‘Very true. Shall we sit here?’ She manoeuvred herself into a sitting position on one of the wide, square blocks of stone.

Will dropped to his knees on the stone next to her and took her leg gently in his hands. ‘May I? I’ll undo your boots, and then you can feel that water on your toes.’

‘Would you? Thank you.’

He carefully unlaced the sturdy little boots and saw with a start that her feet were bare inside them.

‘It was simply too hot for stockings,’ she said, blushing.

‘Makes no difference to me. How does that feel?’

‘So much better.’ She shuffled around and dipped her feet into the water. ‘Oh! Oh, that’s wonderful.’

Will shuffled into a sitting position too, and pulled his boots off. He put his feet in the water next to hers and they sat, enjoying the water flowing over their skin, listening to the distant noises of animals in the fields and the lazy breezes rustling the top of the trees.

‘I could stay here forever,’ said Cat on a sigh. ‘It’s just perfect.’ She leaned forward and scooped up a handful of water. Letting it dribble through her fingers, she moved her feet and swirled the water around.

Will leaned down too and stared into the crystal depths. ‘When I was a boy, I used to tickle trout. In a river just like this, near the Malverns. I lived with my grandparents, and my grandfather gave me his love of horses. He apprenticed me to a blacksmith in Norfolk, who already had a Scottish lad working for him — Cameron, who was coming to the end of his learning. After my apprenticeship was done, I worked in Norfolk for a time; then I came here.’