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He was pretty sure she’d go along with it this time, if he did. Last night’s awkward resolution notwithstanding, he’d seen the signs. The way her body swayed into his whenever he got close, the way her eyes widened when her gaze caught his. And the way her teeth had pressed down into her lip, displaying just how plump and kissable it was. Her resistance was definitely crumbling.
He had to stop thinking about this. He had to wait. Otherwise he’d be seducing her up against a very cold stone castle keep.
Inside the castle walls Ben found a bench near an information board, brushed off the snow as best he could and sat down to watch the show. Cilgerran was a nice enough castle, he supposed, but not exactly his main area of interest. That, right now, would be Luce.
The castle had free entry until the end of March, but no one else was taking advantage of it. Clearly the weather had scared them off, but they were missing out, Ben thought. Luce flitted from wall to wall, from snow-covered step to window, from arch to arrow-hole, the breeze keeping her skirt plastered against her curves under her short jacket, her colour high and eyes bright. From time to time she’d call out to him, telling him about what she was looking at, what had happened here. The wind whisked away every other word, but it didn’t matter. Ben didn’t care about the castle. He was too entranced by her.
She was beautiful.
It wasn’t as if he hadn’t noticed before, of course. But it had always been a pale, reserved beauty. The sort you could look at but not touch. Hell, she’d practically had ‘Keep Out’ signs plastered all over her. But here...here she was radiant. She was real. And how he wanted to touch her.
He couldn’t have said how long it was before she jumped down from the low remains of an interior wall, sending a puff of snow flying up. Time seemed to pass differently when he was absorbed in watching her.
Her cheeks were pink and flushed as she flung herself onto the patch of bench he’d cleared beside him. ‘This place is fantastic,’ she said, sounding slightly out of breath from hopping around the castle walls.
‘I’m glad you like it.’ The urge to lean back against the bench, stretch an arm around her shoulders and pull her into him was almost overpowering. In an attempt to resist, Ben leant forward instead, resting his forearms along his thighs. ‘It must have been pretty impressive back in the day.’
‘It’s impressive now.’
Luce’s voice held a tone of reverence, and he knew she saw something here that he never could—something beyond his world. It didn’t matter. He was content to enjoy it through her, to see her eyes light up at the history she saw here. He’d bring her back every week if he could. Just to see that sparkle, that life in her face.
Except maybe it would wear off over time. Maybe they’d have to tour all the castles in Wales. And the rest of Britain. And overseas. I wonder how she feels about French châteaux?
Or maybe he’d take her back to Cardiff and never see her again, as planned.
That thought made the winter air colder, the clouds overhead more threatening. Ben squinted up at the sky. The reports said no more snow until that night, but those skies just screamed bad weather. They should get going or they might not make it to Cardiff. Again.
But he didn’t want to leave. Not yet. He wanted a little more time with this Luce first. Excited, vibrant, castle Luce. Was that so much to ask?
‘So, where do you think Nest was taken from?’ Ben got to his feet as he spoke, reaching a hand out to pull Luce up again.
She rolled her eyes as she stood. ‘The castle would have looked completely different then. Most of what you see today was probably built in the thirteenth century—a hundred years or more after Owain took Nest.’
‘Okay, so tell me what it would have looked like then.’
‘Earth and timber building, probably. We can’t really be sure.’ Luce gazed around her again and Ben realised he was staring at her the same way she looked at the castle. He didn’t stop.
Luce carried on talking, almost as if to herself. ‘It doesn’t matter that it looks different now. The landscape’s the same. The feeling. She was here, and now I am. And I feel... It’s ridiculous.’ She dropped her head.
‘Go on,’ Ben said, trying to resist the desperate temptation to move closer to her.
Luce reached out to place a hand against the stone of the castle wall, palm flat, as if she were connecting herself to the site. ‘I feel like I can understand her better here. Make more sense of her life and what happened to her. There’s so few facts that we can be sure about. But here they come together better.’
