“What was what?”
“That sigh.” He crossed his arm and turned to face her so she was forced to stop walking or ignore him entirely. “What was that sigh about?”
“I told you—”
“You’re lonely,” he said.
“It sounds silly, I know.”
“It doesn’t.”
She blinked at the certainty in his tone. “It’s just that...well, Minerva has always been my closest friend and now she is gone. And the others, too. And my father is occupied with business at the fort.”
“I don’t think that’s all there is to it.”
She wet her lips. He was right, of course. But the rest was not something she could confide in him.
She wasn’t just lonely, she was useless. All her sisters had something. Something that was theirs. Sally had her medicine and her science, and Rebecca threw herself into entertaining, while Hattie was more than content with her fictional worlds.
Abigail had her children. But more and more recently she’d been forced to reckon with the fact that they were not her children.
And she supposed that was the heart of it. She’d watched with all the happiness in the world as her closest sister had fallen in love and was swept off her feet by the man of her dreams. But now...well, now she’d been left behind and the truth of her current state was suddenly undeniable. It was everywhere she looked.
She was of a marriageable age, but there were no prospects to be had. And no marriage meant no family, and no family meant no place for her to belong. And that...
She placed a hand over her belly. Well, that was terrifying.
He was waiting for her to say something, but this newfound fear had her scrambling to think of something pleasant to say. She couldn’t think of anything. So instead she said, “You were not there to see them off.”
“Hmmph.” He glanced down at her. “I don’t do goodbyes.”
“I see.” They continued in silence until they reached her property. “I will be fine from here, Mr. Calhoun—”
“Caleb.” His voice was curt but that did not explain why her heart gave a start. She was used to his curt manners. And this was far from the first time he’d tried to insist that she use his given name.
“Caleb, then.” But this was the first time she’d used it. Before she hadn’t because...well, she could not quite say why. It had felt too intimate when she was already skirting the rules of society by visiting him every day. Even if it was to nurse him and bring him food, using his given name had been a boundary of sorts.
Judging by the flare of his nostrils, he’d been surprised by her sudden acquiescence as well.
“I will be fine from here, Caleb,” she said with a smile.
He stared at her.
“I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow,” he grumbled as she started to turn away. It was the same thing he said every day when she was ready to leave, but today it made her chest ache.
“No, I’m afraid not,” she said as evenly as possible. “My father has asked that I visit my aunt in Thermon tomorrow.” She was not looking forward to it. But the old dear was elderly and in need of company now and again. She and her sisters typically took turns visiting, but with Hattie feeling under the weather and the others gone, it was left to her.
“The day after then,” he said.
She turned back in surprise. “I do not think so, Caleb. You said it yourself. You do not need me anymore.” She bit her lip and drew in a deep breath. She would not cry here, not now. How mortifying that would be. “But I am certain I shall see you while you are still in town.” She forced a smile she did not feel. “Should you wish it.”
Chapter 3
Should you wish it? Of course he did not wish it. He’d been trying to get this stubborn lady and her irritating little brats to stop visiting him for a fortnight and to no avail.
And now...
Now he found himself chasing after her. “Are you going alone?”
“Pardon me?”
He scowled down at her. Sometimes her innocence was just plain annoying. “Alone,” he repeated. All right, fine, he barked. It wasn’t his finest moment, but he was heartened when she merely smiled in return.
He was less heartened to see that her smile, for the first time since he’d met her, did not quite reach her eyes.
Oh blast it all. What was wrong with him? His hands curled into fists as the urge to fight her demons drove him to distraction. His temper had never been his best trait, but he wasn’t one to fly off the handle either. And now was not the time.
Still, all he could do was clench his jaw, his fists, and every other muscle as frustration stole over him. How was he supposed to solve her problems if she did not tell him everything?
Loneliness.
Perhaps that was part of it, but he suspected there was more. After all, she had these children forever underfoot. And then there was Hattie and— “What did you say became of your other sisters?”
Her brows arched. “Sally and Rebecca?”
Sure. Those two. He’d only really gotten to know Minerva, and that was only because Marcus hadn’t let her out of his sight from the moment she’d promised to marry him. The other girls had seemed nice enough, but he’d been too distracted by this blonde angel before him to ever remember which one was which.
“Well,” she said with a long exhale. “Do you recall the Earl of Elwood? He was at the ball that night.”
‘That night’ needed no further description. It was the night his very life had flashed before his eyes. It was the night he’d seen this angel held at knifepoint. The villain was a coward. A greedy weakling looking to make some extra money through smuggling.
His only regret from that night was that he hadn’t
