AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 11
The next afternoon, Julie wrapped some meat pies, bread, and wine in a clean cloth and put them in the basket for their outing to the pond. She asked Alice to dress Mary as warmly as possible without bundling her into heavy blankets since she wanted her to have freedom of movement.
Robert met them downstairs with three pairs of skating blades in his hands.
“I hope you wore comfortable boots,” he said, looking them over from head to toe.
Mary raised her skirts up to her knees, showing off her black leather half-boots.
“Good.” Robert chuckled lightly, and Julie was again taken aback by the smooth, silky sound. “Ready?” Robert looked up at her at that, and Julie smiled in answer.
Once they came to the pond, however, Mary’s expression changed. She became guarded, sporting a concentrating frown on her face. She studied the pond and the people around her while Robert sat her on a log by the pond and tied the blades to her boots. He took her by the hands and tried to help her up. Mary wobbled on her feet, tightly gripping his hands before plopping down theatrically and absolutely refusing to stand on the blades again. Robert tried to coax her gently to join him on ice and, after a while, finally gave up and took her blades off. Mary sat on her log and happily observed the proceedings before her.
“I don’t know about you,” Robert said after a while, “but I came here to skate.” He stood up, flashed a smile toward Mary, and walked to the pond.
Julie watched him with a broad smile on her face. He moved assuredly on ice, gliding, as if he were born there, his form athletic, his muscles moving beneath his clothes, straining against his coat. Julie caught herself imagining his naked thighs as they moved beneath his breeches. She colored and averted her gaze. She’d only seen him naked once, and it was dark while she was stressed and frightened. She remembered how huge he looked in his naked form, how menacing he seemed to her. She was curious what he’d look like naked in broad daylight. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to chastise herself for her wanton thoughts. It wasn’t as if she’d ever see him naked in the daylight, anyway.
“Are you not going to try?” Robert asked after circling the pond once and stopping in front of them.
Julie smiled at the invitation. He looked so joyful, gliding around children on the ice, almost boyish. Not a trace of the formidable earl was left on his features. She couldn’t possibly refuse. She stood and, with a wave to Mary, stepped onto the ice. She hadn’t skated in years, and she wasn’t that good at it to begin with. So, by the time she finally made it to the middle of the pond, Clydesdale had already made several laps around it.
“Is that all?” he called mockingly. “Is that as far as you can go?”
That sounded almost like a challenge. Julie dug in her heels and pushed away from the surface, trying to gain momentum as she chased her earl of a husband around the icy pond. Julie laughed, as she couldn’t come even close to her husband’s speed. She stopped at the side, gripping the tree branch nearby so not to fall.
She noticed children clearing away, unsure whether they were allowed to share the pond with their master and mistress of the estate. Julie didn’t want to make them uncomfortable; it was her duty as a mistress to make sure everyone felt welcome. But of course, for the children, a couple of aristocrats probably looked threatening. Julie looked around, thinking of a way to make them seem playful. She saw the snow on the surface of the ice and got a silly idea.
She bit her lip, watching her husband’s back, as he stood a few paces away from her, shouting something to Mary. She bent down awkwardly without him seeing her, picked up a bit of snow and rolled it into a ball. Julie glided toward her husband just as he turned to her and threw the snowball right in his face.
Julie gasped and shut her mouth tightly and covered it with her hands so not to burst out laughing. Clydesdale sputtered as the snow got into his eyes, nose, and mouth. She was stuck between laughter and embarrassment. She didn’t mean to hit him in the face. In fact, she hoped he would have time to duck away. She’d just wanted to lighten the atmosphere, and now she worried she’d made it worse. She noticed how the people around her grew suddenly quiet.
Clydesdale raised his hand and slowly, deliberately wiped the snow off his face. “Was that a challenge, wife?” he said, his face stony.
Julie let out a smothered laugh and covered her mouth with her palm tighter.
“Oh, do you think this is funny?” He raised a brow, still looking dark and sinister. Something about the severe features of his wet face brought on giggles in Julie. “If you think,” he intoned with his eyes narrowed, “that you will get away with this—”
At that Clydesdale made a lunge for her, and Julie started with a shriek. The sudden movement made her stumble, but Clydesdale caught her by her waist and drew her to him. Julie was laughing earnestly now, clutched in her husband’s protective hold. The momentum carried them farther. They made a couple of twirls together before Julie tried to disengage herself, resulting in her stumbling again and, this time, falling on the ice.
Julie laughed breathlessly as she tried to sit up, her skirts tangled around her feet. The laughter and slippery ice made her clumsy as she tried to get up to her knees unsuccessfully several times, falling repeatedly. She was about to chastise her husband for not helping her up when she heard an agonizing scream from the bank of the pond and saw Clydesdale’s face stricken in horror. Before she turned to see what happened, he was already halfway to the edge of the pond.
What she saw made her gasp in worry. Mary was running toward her, stomping heavily on the ice, her hands flailing about her, her eyes covered in tears. Screaming for her.
Julie got up and glided toward her hysterical sister when another quick cry broke out from Mary as she fell to her knees. There was a sound of a crack before Mary’s feet fell beneath the surface of ice just in front of her eyes. Robert reached her at that moment and quickly tugged her out of the icy water before she was even wet to her knees. But Mary was crying inconsolably, screaming, and twisting away from his touch.
“You hurt her!” Mary was screaming against Clydesdale’s chest. “You bad!” She was hitting him in his chest and arms and trying to wrench away from his hold.
Julie reached their side and extracted Mary from her husband’s arms. “Look at me, darling,” she coaxed her frightened sister. “Look at me,” she repeated more firmly. “He didn’t hurt me. I am all right; we were just playing.”
Mary wiped her tears with the side of her arm. “Playing?” she said, looking at Julie with sad round eyes.
“Yes, playing. Remember? Like we used to do?” She tried to smile at her sister reassuringly.
“With John?” Mary asked unexpectedly.
Julie was shocked into silence for a few seconds before regaining her composure. She didn’t realize Mary remembered John. She hadn’t mentioned him before. Julie raised her head and saw that her husband stiffened at Mary’s words.
“Yes,” Julie said carefully, “with John.”
