Page 54 of Watch For Me By Candlelight

He drew her closer still, and she could feel the smile on his mouth as he kissed her a second time, more slowly and more sensually than before.

‘Cat. My beloved Cat. I think I’ve always loved you. From the first moment I saw you up at the Hall. The first time I came up to tend to the horses. You were sitting outside, watching me and trying to give me advice. Do you remember?’

She nodded. She did. She’d been fascinated by his work, the way he talked to the horses, soothing them as he ran his strong, capable hands up and down their legs.

‘You were the new blacksmith. I had to make sure you would treat the horses properly,’ she whispered. The memories were flooding back, so strongly and so completely she could hardly believe she’d lived any other life; any life that he hadn’t been part of.

‘I fell for you right then,’ he told her, ‘but I knew that the way things were, I couldn’t do anything about it. I still can’t — not with me still working for the estate and you being part of the family. So I’m leaving, Cat. I’m going to find work elsewhere and then, when I’ve made enough to buy us a home and keep you like a lady, I’ll come back. I can book a passage from Felixstowe and from there I can travel through Europe. I have good friends over the sea and they promise me there is money to be made and they can help set me up in business.’ He touched his hand to her face. ‘Can you wait for me?’

‘Of course,’ she said, a little stunned. ‘I have no plans to go anywhere. You do know we aren’t important members of the family, though, don’t you?’

‘You’re important enough,’ he said with a laugh. ‘And too good for me, a mere blacksmith. Which is why I have to do this.’ He picked up her hand and kissed it briefly. ‘I’ll come back and claim you, I swear. No matter how long it takes. You’re here.’ He touched his heart. ‘And, God willing, you’ll always be mine.’ He transferred the kiss to his lips, then he touched her face and smiled. ‘I’m grateful you had the accident, you know. It gave me the chance I’d longed for. When I held you, that first time and carried you back to my cottage, I almost believed we were wed and I was carrying you across the threshold.’ He shook his head, reddening slightly. ‘I know. I’m a dreamer, aren’t I?’

‘I like your dreams. I liked being in your cottage. Why do you think I keep searching for you and visiting you? You don’t have to do this, you know. I’d move into the cottage tomorrow.’

‘Oh, how I wish that was possible.’ He smiled. ‘But for my own self-respect, I have to go. And in answer to your question, I leave next week. It’ll be an adventure, my love.’

Kate felt a twenty-first century warning at that word — damn Cassie and her opinions. Kate didn’t feel adventurous at all.

She crushed the thought. ‘So we still have some time together,’ she said instead.

‘We do. But now, I’m afraid I have to go. I need to see to the horses on the farm before nightfall. I am glad I saw you, Cat.’

‘And I you.’

‘One more thing,’ he said with a hint of mischief in those eyes. He scooped her up in his arms and strode across the bridge. ‘After you promise to look after Hector for me, I’m going to take you back to that chair and you’re going to behave. You’re going to sit in it and let your leg heal, and then when I come back, I’m going to walk you down that aisle and you’re going to dance back up it.’

As he lifted her, Kate caught a glance of the reeds where the paper boat was trapped, and her eyes widened as the boat collapsed in on itself and sank, sodden by the water, lost for all time. For a crazy moment, she wanted Will to take her over there, so she could fish it out and dry it off. She just wanted something tangible remaining of him, if he was leaving her like this.

‘Your boat—’

‘It was never meant to be seaworthy. Look, we’re here anyway.’ He settled her into that awful chair. ‘I’ll take you so far up the pathway,’ he said, smoothing her skirt down gently where the frills had ruffled up, ‘then leave you and your family to enjoy yourselves.’

Far in the distance, the bells in the church began to strike three. At that moment, Kate hated them. She hated the sound of them and she hated what would happen next. She wanted to stay there, crippled or not, safely in Will’s heart and loved by the Hall.

‘No,’ she whispered. She reached for his hand, desperately entwining her fingers in his. ‘Please don’t. I want to stay here, with you . . .’

* * *

It was done. It was the hardest thing Will had ever had to do in his life — walk away from her and try to make a life elsewhere, even if it was just for a little while. Just until he could come back to Hartsford and claim her. And he’d do that. He swore it to the river and to the woods and to the Hall, standing guard over it all; and he swore it to her. No matter how long it would take him, he would come back for her.

It was a promise nothing could break.

Chapter Nineteen

By the time the bells had stopped, Kate was back on the fallen tree trunk, her ice-cream bicycle hidden beneath the very tree that her Bath chair had been next to. She felt bereft. She wanted to be back there, back with Will.

Kate squeezed her eyes shut, trying to magic him into the future, trying to recapture that moment. A shadow fell over her — the pinkish light behind her lids darkened and her heart skipped a beat. He was here! He was—

She opened her eyes.

And staring at her, extremely curiously, was Theo Kent.

* * *

‘Aren’t you supposed to be by the pool?’ Theo asked Kate. She was sitting on a tree trunk, a half-eaten sandwich in her hand, her blue eyes looking gloriously heavy-lidded and sleepy. ‘May I?’ He indicated the trunk and she stared at him for a moment, before obligingly bunking along.

She rested the sandwich on her knee; her hand was shaking a little bit and she looked pale, despite the sunshine. ‘I’m having a break,’ she said. ‘It’s pretty full on at the Spa.’