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"Oh, yes, could we?"
"Absolutely. Let's put your books inside and then we'll see if we can get Cook to pack us something tasty."
A little while later Quinn and Nickie sat on the river's edge with fishing rods in hand. Quinn had removed her shoes and stockings so she could dip her feet in the water.
"It's beautiful here," she said mostly to herself but Nickie responded anyway.
"I've never fished in the river before."
Quinn looked at him incredulously. "Never? Your father never brought you?"
Nickie's little head lowered before he answered, "No."
Regardless of the warm feelings burning through Quinn for Archer Scarcliff after eavesdropping on his conversation last night, she couldn't deny the disappointment Nickie's words caused. She reached over and covered his hand with her own.
"Maybe we should ask him to join us one of these days?" she pondered.
The light that filled his little eyes almost broke Quinn's heart but as quickly as it flashed, it faded again.
"He won't. He's very busy."
"I think he can find the time to share an hour or two with his son." Even if he didn't agree, she would drag him to the river by his hair if necessary. The visual of that brought a smile to her lips.
As the sun moved across the afternoon sky, Quinn found herself humming. There was nothing she liked more than jamming to tunes on her iPod.
"What is that you're humming?"
It was, in fact,AM Radiofrom Everclear and Quinn told him as much.
"Sing it for me?" Nickie begged.
Quinn looked around her to make sure they were alone since most of the words in the song would make absolutely no sense to anyone living in this time. In fact, eavesdroppers would be more inclined to believe she was speaking in tongues.
"Okay."
Quinn started singing softly but anyone who had ever heardAM Radioknew it wasn't a very soft song. The more the beat took over, the more you just wanted to get up and dance: which was exactly the sight that greeted Archer and Thaddeus when they appeared, drawn to the boisterous singing.
Quinn was singing to Nickie, holding a "microphone" stick to her mouth, while he wailed with laughter. And when she wasn't singing into the stick, her hips, hands and head were shaking wildly. For Archer, it was both the oddest and most erotic thing he had ever seen. He wanted to put his hands on those hips and pull her up against him while he buried his face in her hair. He wanted to kiss her: wanted to feel as her lips molded to his. He shook his head to clear it before he called Quinn's name and if his voice sounded harsher than normal, well, he couldn't help that.
"What are you doing?" he insisted.
Quinn immediately stopped singing and stood straight up realizing with embarrassment that Archer and Thaddeus had been watching her. Archer looked pained which was completely unfair since she had quite a good voice. And Thaddeus was not even attempting to cover his laughter. She started to speak when she realized she was still holding the stick to her mouth so she quickly dropped it and innocently clasped her hands behind her back.
"Singing lessons," she explained which only made Thaddeus laugh louder. Archer said nothing, only continued to stare at her with that odd pained look.
"Well, instead of spying, why don't you two come and join us?" she asked.
This suggestion was met with blank looks causing Quinn to roll her eyes as she added, "Rather than catching flies with those open mouths of yours, how about catching some fish?"
Nickie literally rolled off his rock in a fit of laughter. Thaddeus was the first to recover as he stumbled toward them.
"I'd love to throw in a line. How about you, Arch?" Archer knew he had a thousand things to do and the idea of wasting his day away doing something as unproductive as sitting by the river where he most likely wasn't going to catch anything was ridiculous so he was just as shocked as everyone else when he replied, "I'd like that."
Nickie stopped laughing and looked at his father with intense love and gratitude. Quinn's heart warmed watching Nickie help his father set up his line because though Archer clearly knew how to do it, he listened closely and took instruction graciously from his son. After all the lines were cast, Quinn looked over at Nickie. When she finally caught his eye, her breath stilled at the expression of pure love and contentment staring back at her.
Quinn was on her way to the library to locate the household journals that Mrs. Hamston had told her about. She was very interested in the accounting for such a grand estate and didn't want to disturb Archer with her questions. She was only halfway to the library when she heard her name being called. She turned to see Archer making his way towards her.
"Miss Shaughnessy."
