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She scrambled around the unfamiliar room in the dark for her housecoat, and then for the flint and tinder to light a candle. She flung the window open and squinted at a pale figure in the garden.
“Caroline!”
“Bell.” She grinned. “Fancy a late-night walk?”
Arabella’s heart gave her the right answer. “Of course.”
Without hesitation, she would go where Caroline led.
Caroline waited for her at the back door, a lantern in one hand and a wicker basket in the other. A flickering fire beckoned to them from the beach. “Jacob and I set up a bonfire for us to enjoy. Look, Jacob and the footmen have a separate one over there. I thought you would like a quiet moment or two under the stars with me.”
The stars were sparkling above like a thousand bonfires, magnificent and distant and no longer frightening, and she shivered in delight. Caroline sat her down on the sand, then wrapped her in a warm wool shawl. “I have wine, unless you would prefer brandy? That’s what Jacob brought.”
She drew a pair of glasses and a wine bottle from the basket.
The light danced across Caroline’s face, warm and wonderful, and Arabella felt like they were in their own private world encompassed within the circle of firelight. It was beautiful out here in the darkness. Elemental.
Natural.
Arabella was wide awake now and was grinning so hard that her face hurt. “You thought of everything.”
“I wanted to bring you pleasure,” she said, and handed her a filled glass. “I thought about what you said. Of course I want to court you. I want to show you how much you are desired, how much you are wanted. How much you arebeloved.”
The words meant more than poetry.
“This is wonderful.”
“I may have more than a farthing to my name now, but I don’t have nearly as much as I did in the height of the summer. I can’t buy you what you deserve. Jewels. Silks. Champagne.”
“I don’t need those things.” Everything she needed was right here.
“What I can give you is love.”
Caroline slid her hand into Arabella’s hair and pulled her close for a kiss. Arabella melted against her, the heat from her lips rivaling the warmth from the flames. She parted her lips and tasted wine on her tongue, tart and sweet. The waves crashed on the sand and matched the roar of her heartbeat as she gripped Caroline’s shoulders like she was the rope that would pull her to shore. She didn’t ever want to let go. She would be drawn to Caroline forever.
“That was anI-love-yousort of kiss,” Caroline told her as they pulled apart. “But really, they were allI-love-youkisses, ever since that very first one that changed my life forever. I just hadn’t known it yet.”
Arabella slid her feet from her shoes deep into the cool sand as she breathed in the smoky firewood and the lemon scent from Caroline’s hair. “I love you.”
“I love you. And I plan to show you. Every day of our lives.”
* * *
The next day, Caroline arrived with two more baskets. From one, she produced a fish for Byron (and assured her that Shelley had enjoyed the same). She set the other basket by the door.
“I assume you would like to be courted quite thoroughly before we discuss anything further about our arrangement?”
Arabella nodded. “No bedchamber visits, either,” she reminded her, though it was killing her to say it. She missed Caroline’s touch.
Caroline leaned forward and kissed her. “We could make do without a bed,” she said. “Name the place, and I can accommodate it.”
Arabella laughed. “I’m sure we could, but I am insistent.”
She loved this. Every moment of Caroline’s attention was on her. Courting. Wooing. However she wanted to call it.
She felt whole.
She feltloved.
