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He’d takentheir friendship from Proverbs to Song of Solomon in the span of a heartbeat. “I’m sorry, Alice. Forgive me.”
Her cheeks flushed a deep red. “You’re sorry?” Her eyes glistened. “Sorry?” Incredulity laced the question. “How can you say that?” She touched her red lips, still plump from his conquest.
“I . . . acted like a bull. I should be ashamed.” Should be was the proper term, but he was having trouble forcing his heart to feel it. “I can’t ask you to work with me if I haul off and kiss you every time I’m angry.”
A giggle burst from her lips and her eyes sparkled. “If I’ve got to choose, I’d much rather kissing than yelling.” She touched her hair, feeling the sides and back, especially the nape of her neck. Had he plunged his hand into her hair and tugged the pins?
Try as he might, he couldn’t recall the feel of her hair. “You look lovely. There’s no need to worry.”
Her chin dipped to hide a smile. “Says you. But if there is any indication of what we just did when I return, my father might see and guess at what happened during our little meeting here by the river. I will have to explain it. I can certainly account for some loose hairs from the ride, but if my knot were so undone as to fall out . . .”
“Ah, so you can’t blame the horse for that. May I?” He turned her slightly around so he could see the damage he’d apparently done without realizing it.
Pins had come loose on either side of her neck, and soft wisps of hair had pulled free. He gently finger-combed them back into place, then tugged the pins out and replaced them where they’d once been. Much the same as singular sutures, they held the pieces together snuggly.
He turned her around to face him and her cheeks were again flushed like she’d pinched them, but he knew she hadn’t. She was beautiful with such color and her bright eyes. “I should help you mount and escort you home.”
She shook her head and bit her lip. “You may not want to work with me. You might be sorry about what happened just now, but that doesn’t put an end to my curiosity. I will find out what’s happening with this river. Don’t you find it strange that the spring after that industrial plant became fully operational, our animals got sick?”
He hadn’t thought about that. The fertilizer was a boon to the community. Not only did they ship them near and far, but locally, farmers used them to get a better yield on their crops. “I don’t think it could be them and I think looking into them would be dangerous.” He headed back for his horse, hoping she would follow.
Instead, she held her riding skirt up almost to her knees and took a step closer to the water. She crouched and ran her fingers through the ripples, then wrinkled her nose. “Something is foul right down by the water.”
He came over next to her both because he wanted to make sure she didn’t fall in and because he’d smelled nothing when they’d sat on the sandbar. The moment he turned his head toward the plant, he could smell something offensive, like rotting fish.
“Kent, we can’t ignore this. But, if you don’t want to work with me . . . It’s only that I think we would do well for each other. I could ask the questions and you could figure the answers. One of us is inquisitive, the other scientific.”
Which meant he would have to see her every day and curb his desire to hold her, to gather her close and tell her why he was no good for this. Because if he did that, she might break the gruff mask that had held him together like stitches for years. His mask had kept him sane.
“You’ve had to think hard about my question.” She stood and headed back for her horse. “I can manage on my own.” She glanced down the river, then up it.
“What are you looking for?”
“Something to help me mount. If I don’t go now, I’ll run out of time before I have to get back home.”
He took her reins and held them. “You’re going to go with that armed guard, and look around? Whether or not I’m there?” Not that he’d let her go by herself. There was no way he’d let her put herself in danger like that. “How about you let me go talk to them and see what I can find?”
“They won’t let you in.” She tugged her reins free of his hands and headed for a small rock jutting out from the ground.
“Then they won’t let you in, either.” He watched as she climbed atop the rock and tried to angle her horse alongside it. The rock wasn’t tall enough, and she risked yanking her riding habit up too far or putting too much pressure on the saddle and the horse by mounting that way. “Why don’t you let me help you?”
She stopped and frowned at him. “I said nothing because, well, I didn’t want to encourage you because you feel obvious guilt for going near me already.”
He smiled, hoping to dissuade her of her concern. “I guess worry isn’t the word I would use.”
“I believe the word you used was sorry. Doesn’t that mean you regret your actions?”
He wrapped his hands around her waist and realized she was inches from his mouth once again. This would never do. “Regret isn’t the word I would use, either.” He swallowed hard against emotions raging inside him. He would win this battle.
“Then why did you apologize?”
“For not asking you first.” His throat let the words spill before he could think them through properly.
“If you had, I’d have said yes.”
Chapter14
