Free Sweet Bargain by Kate Moore Page A

night. His gaze makes me hot in the coolest muslin."
    She had not been herself since the earl had come to Ashecombe. She felt oddly restless and in need of something, some adventure, some chance to act, to take some part in larger affairs, as Tom was doing. That, she supposed, was what Tom had been feeling that summer he had tried to kiss every girl in the county. He probably no longer thought about kissing at all, not while the Turks attacked British ships. If only she had Turks to battle, she would not be staring at the empty custard cups, thinking about ... kissing .
    When Bel stepped out on the terrace, the Shaws had drifted down across the sloping lawn toward the river, which took a lazy turn here behind the vicarage. Her mother and the other women were strolling in the rose garden. Her father and uncles were leading the earl and the squire closer to the river, where Auggie and Joe were punting. Ellen hovered between the group with the earl, and Darlington, who lagged behind them. From the left where the river lay hidden behind a stand of willows came her niece and nephew, Kit and Sarah, running and calling her name. Diana followed her young charges. Bel turned and crossed the lawn to meet them.
    "Auntie Bel, come see what we found," urged Sarah, easily outdistancing her younger brother.
    "What is it?" asked Bel.
    "Frogs," said Kit, "new ones. Just this big." He put his chubby forefingers together so there was no space between them. His stockings were wet and mud—streaked and limp about his ankles, and there were bits of sedge tangled about his shoes.
    "And you can catch them right in your hands," said Sarah. Her skirts bore prints of wet hands.
    "Do you have a pail to put them in?" asked Bel.
    "Yes, come see, come see, Auntie Bel," said Kit.
    "Well, of course," said Bel, allowing herself to be tugged along by her impatient nephew. "Clever girl," she said to Diana as they reached her.
    "Do you think so, Bel? Won't Aunt be livid that I've let them spoil their clothes?"
    "She will hardly notice, when you've kept them so happily busy. Do you want to go on? I'll go with them to the frogs."
    "Thanks, Bel," said Diana, and turned to the crowd watching the older boys punt.
    Nick watched Bel Shaw pass the other women and come down the lawn toward two small children. "Auntie Bel" he heard them call, and saw Bel stoop to listen to whatever they had to say. The three disappeared along a path at the river's edge. If he could follow without his absence being remarked, he might talk to Miss Shaw and win some good opinion from her.
    He knew from his meeting with her father the afternoon before that he had been hasty in his judgment of her family. His complaints had nearly choked him in her mother's drawing room he had been so angry, had felt so taken in. But he had returned to Courtland to find the waterwheel already repaired and the work on the stable underway as if nothing untoward had happened. Then Augustus Shaw had appeared. He had patiently examined the damaged timbers and pulley, questioned all the carpenter's men, the master carpenter, Farre, and Nick. The man's thoroughness, his energy and attention, spoke an integrity Nick could not doubt. He did not present the incriminating cap. In light of Mr. Shaw's actions, Nick's anger, vented on a lovely young woman, had seemed a boorish thing. He had had to come tonight, if only to apologize to Miss Shaw.
    He turned back to the punting race and found himself obliged to talk to, or rather to listen to, Miss Fletcher, who had appeared at his side. The next time he glanced down the river, he saw Darlington disappear along the path Bel had taken. The other man's manner reminded him of his own lustful thoughts about Miss Shaw, and he considered how to free himself from the company. Just then the punters called for new passengers, and Miss Fletcher and Phillip Shaw pressed forward toward a short dock to join the others. Nick strode purposefully away.
    The party on the bank was calling