The Officer's Temptation | A Regency Romance

Chapter Fourteen: Shadows Gather

It was almost sunset, and the house was growing dark and still. Marlowe's parents, along with the Jenningses, had gone out to meet old friends. Kate had chosen to eat dinner alone in her room. Marlowe had contemplated skipping the meal himself, but although his appetite was lacking, he had lingered in the dining room, half-hoping that Kate would eventually arrive so he could talk to her. He had not seen her since that morning, and when she did not come down, he knew what he had to do to make things right. Tensing his jaw, he hesitated at her door, steeling himself before he knocked. He could hear rustling in her room. It stopped as soon as he tapped on the door. "It's Marlowe," he said after clearing his throat.

"Come in." Her voice was muffled from behind the wood. He opened the door slowly and blinked as the warm light spilled out into the shadowed hall, the illumination caused by the setting sun outside her window. He stepped into the golden light, but just to the threshold of her room. Though their families were gone, there were still plenty of servants around, and he did not want to risk being seen alone in her room.

Kate was still in the blue dress that he had seen her in that morning, bent over a trunk, where she was gently placing art supplies. Glass bottles clinked as she nestled something inside the trunk. She was mostly a shadow, silhouetted in front of the sun, but the light caught tiny details of her, highlighting the edges of her curling tendrils of hair. "It's such a chore, moving," she said, closing the trunk with a thud. Dust motes swirled in front of the window.

"You could let the servants do that."

"I don't trust them with the paints. I like to see to it myself." She wiped her hands on her apron. Marlowe noticed that she still hadn't caught his eye. She was looking everywhere, in fact, but at him and a pale pink flush was creeping up her neck, rising up from under her fichu.

"I wanted to talk to you," he said. "Perhaps you'd take a walk with me?" He searched her face, looking for anything, signs of distress or a hint of her humor, but her expression was carefully guarded, her eyes mysterious and dark underneath her long lashes.

Finally, she nodded. "But not very far. It's almost dark."

"Just to the park down the street," he urged. "I just don't want to be overheard."

She nodded, and took a shawl, quietly following him downstairs. The sky was luminous as they stepped outside. Tendrils of fiery orange and vivid pink lit up the tips of clouds and rich purple and violet dappled their shadowed dips. Kate tilted her face up in wonder. "I should love to paint a sky like this," she said.

It was stunningly beautiful, but he thought that a much finer painting would be of her face, tipped up in quiet delight with her cheeks kissed by the rich warm light and the recess of her eyes and the shadows around her pursed lips embraced by twilight's shadows. Looking at her, he felt as if his very heart was being torn out of his chest. He could not stand the wall between them, the rift that Arabella had caused with her actions that morning. He felt a flare of anger ignite in his chest, but suppressed it. It was not fair to place the blame squarely on Arabella. She had been the catalyst, of course, but the mistake was his. He should have never allowed himself to become involved with her.

Kate did not take his arm. After admiring the sky, she said nothing, walking beside him without deigning to look at him. Marlowe longed to break the silence several times, but the words were just out of his reach, heavy and leaden at the back of his tongue. By the time they arrived at the edge of the park, the light was growing pale, more blue than gold. He directed Kate to a wooden bench in view of the street. The lamplighters would come by soon. He did not have much time.

She sat beside him, and though they were not touching, he could still feel the faint heat radiating from her body. He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering the feel of her pressed closely against him. "I wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier."