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Maybe he was always like that, and I just didn’t notice.
“Miss Moore?”
Isabel blinked. Arnaud was standing in front of her with a frown. How had she not heard her move? Isabel cleared her throat.
“Forgive me, I was thinking about ... something else.”
She wasn’t comfortable discussing Richard with Arnaud. Not until she was sure about what had happened earlier. Never had she thought there would be a desire to be kissed. Nor had Isabel expected that desire to be directed at Richard.
Stop thinking about him, or you’ll never get to sleep.
“Don’t fret about your future, Miss Moore.” Arnaud gave her a gentle smile. “Things are going to work out in the end. If I can manage it, then so can you.”
“You’ve got more courage than I have, Arnaud.”
“You think I had courage? I was terrified. And you have more than you realize.” Arnaud bowed her head. “Will there be anything else you need, Miss?”
“No, thank you, Arnaud. You can go now.”
“Very good, Miss Moore.”
“And Arnaud?” Isabel got to her feet as Arnaud reached the door. “Thank you. I’m glad you’ll be coming with us. I’m going to need a friend on my side.”
The maid’s smile was warm as she left the room.
“You don’t need to worry about anything, Miss Moore. You’ll do well at whatever you put your mind to.”
Isabel didn’t know about that. She felt like she couldn’t do anything right now.
#
“Cohen, come and look at this!”
“What?” Cohen came hurrying over, almost tripping over the rocks jutting out from the ground. “What is it?”
“Just look at that view.”
Richard gestured at the landscape below them. They had headed onto Dartmoor to search for new plant species – Cohen was adamant there was more than what the previous naturalist had found – and Richard had settled himself onto a flat rock with his sketchbook. He had taken an avid interest in drawing while in Vienna and had found it fascinating. It was one of those ways to immortalize a moment, and Richard found he was actually a decent artist.
He had planned to sketch their surroundings while Cohen pottered around trying to find that elusive species of plant he was certain grew close by, but the view had distracted him. Especially with the sun barely clearing the horizon. Everything was covered in an orange-golden glow. It just looked beautiful, and Richard couldn’t take his eyes off it. He hadn’t even picked up his pencil because he was so distracted.
Cohen shielded his eyes and squinted at the sun.
“You called me to get a look at the view? I thought you had something important to show me.”
“I think it’s important. It’s a wonderful sight. How can you not appreciate the beauty?”
Cohen chuckled and clapped his hand onto Richard’s shoulder.
“I swear you’ve become very romantic over the last week. Are you trying to become another Lord Byron? God help me if you are because we only need one of him.”
“I just thought you might want to share it with me,” Richard protested. “That’s all.”
“And I see the beauty, but that’s not what we came up for.” Cohen sat on a nearby rock and yawned. “I think we came up here too early. I’m not going to find anything with this light.”
“Do you want us to go back?”
“No, let’s soak up the scenery. You seem to be doing that already.”
