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Perdie laughed. “Afraid he is too slippery for you? I bet I could catch him.”
He stilled. “Would you like to try?”
Perdie could not deny a spark of excitement at the prospect. “I could fetch my bow and arrow from the carriage?”
“And forgo this excitement?”
Thaddeus beckoned her over and Perdie surprised herself by going over. He broke off another long, slim branch and sharpened the tip.
“Now, this is not as easy as I made it look,” he said, “I am just excellent.”
“No modesty I see,” she said, smiling.
“It is not easy to pierce the scales of the fish. And they move fast. Your aim must be true, and strong, aiming at the soft underside.”
He handed her the stick, and she was careful not to let her fingers touch his. She waded out in the small stream, uncaring she was soaking her best gown. This was too thrilling. Perdie almost laughed. Fishing was thrilling.
She followed Thaddeus’s instruction over and over, and each time she missed the fish. At one point she forgot her desire for the large one and tried for a small meal. They were even harder to catch. Worse, Thaddeus chuckled when she tossed down the stick and tried to grab the fish with her bare hands.
Narrowing her eyes at him, Perdie bent and dipped her hands into the icy water and flicked it at Thaddeus, also wetting herself with the spray. Perdie chortled at the befuddled look on his face.
“Ah, lass, I should have warned you that water romping is my forte. Never too late to learn a little bit about your darling husband.”
To her shock, he lowered his hands to the water, and sensing his intention she started to run from the water, laughing. She made it to the mossy bank before he caught her around the waist and spun her around.
The incredible intimacy of his touch stole the rest of the laugh from her mouth. Perdie faltered and stared up at him with widened eyes. Slowly, so slowly she believed he did not want to release her, Thaddeus lowered his hands from her waist.
He lifted a hand to her face and used his fingers tenderly to trace the lines of her cheekbone and her jaw.
“You are all wet,” he murmured, a little bit wickedly to her ears.
Perdie didn’t dare breathe. In truth she could not even bring herself to speak.
“I cannot escape the feeling you are going to curl your fist and plant me a facer,” he said, a glint of humor in his eyes.
He held up his hands as if in surrender and stepped back. Perdie was keenly aware of the frightful heat in her cheeks. Without waiting for her reply, he turned around and went back for the stick.
It turned out Thaddeus not only knew how to catch fish, but how to cook them over an open flame, a most wonderful scent redolent on the air. Lionel had cleaned the fish, all six of them, downstream. Thaddeus had even appeared with different leaves which he crushed together and rubbed over the fishes. Before long, Perdie had laid a shawl across her lap like a napkin and was picking at the white flesh with her fingers.
Thaddeus ate at her left, and Felicity had yet again orchestrated to give them some privacy by insisting everyone else share a log she had rolled up across from the fire. Perdie tried to ignore her friend’s encouraging glances, but it was difficult.
She cleared her throat and turned to Thaddeus. If the others were too far away, at least she could prove herself something other than a silent dinner companion.
“This is delicious,” she said on a soft, greedy sigh.
“Keep this talent in mind when you try to divorce me,” he replied.
Perdie rolled her eyes. “Where did you learn to catch fish and cook like this? If ever my shadow was seen near the kitchen, I was shooed away.” Usually with a slice of seedcake to keep her hands busy.
Thaddeus gave her an easy smile. It warmed her more than the open flame crackling mere feet away. “My da, actually. He’d take me and my sisters out for treks across the property. We’d pretend we were miles away, with no hope of coming home to supper.”
“It sounds charming,” she said wistfully. “My papa…before he died, he spent most of his time with my brother. Teaching about the duties and responsibilities he would one day inherit. I was a small child, but I would sit by the window in my nursery and yearn to join them on their long walks about the property.”
Even now Sebastian was too engrossed in the duties and responsibilities of the dukedom. She’d enjoyed the freedom his preoccupation had given her while in London, for a time. Until he’d seen to it that she was barred from the only house where she’d felt comfortable. She shook her head at her wayward thoughts, trying to tuck away the pain in her chest that bloomed at the memory. “You have sisters?” It was then she recalled he had said so last night!
His smile widened. “Six.”
“Older? Or younger?”
