She pulled back, then met his gaze and nodded.
“What…is it?” Nathanial asked slowly, getting the sense that he was walking right into a trap.
Indeed, in the next moment a teasing smile lit up her face. “Boredom.”
Unable to hide his smile, Nathanial briefly closed his eyes. “For a moment, you had me worried,” he admitted.
Charlaine laughed. “You looked so serious. I couldn’t resist.”
“I’ve never seen you bored,” Nathanial remarked, envious of that cheerfulness that seemed to be innate to her.
“I’m never for long,” she confirmed. “However, at times, defeating that particular enemy does pose a challenge.” She looped her arm through his and pulled him toward the curved stairs leading up to the front door. “Now that you’re here, though, I have no doubt that, together, we shall defeat it.” She smiled up at him. “Will you have my back?”
“Always,” Nathanial replied, and he meant it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Of Frogs & Princes
Charlaine had not missed the joy lighting up Nathanial’s eyes upon his arrival. She had sensed his loneliness, the hesitant way his heart had begun to open, to long for companionship, for joy, for someone to stand beside him. His brother had always been that person, but now things had changed and it seemed Nathanial was at a loss as to how to adapt.
However, that was what friends were for, were they not? To lend a helping hand when it was most needed.
“Should I not greet Lord Markham and his wife?” Nathanial asked as she led him through the house, giving him a quick tour so the poor man would not get lost too often. “After all, it was very kind of them to invite me. Are you certain they do not mind me staying for such a long time?”
Charlaine marveled at his constant concern to overstay his welcome. “We’re on our way to see them,” she told him, her watchful eyes lingering on that occasionally twitching muscle in his jaw. “However, it was I who invited you, not them. So, if there’s anyone you want to thank,” she grinned up at him, “it is me.”
Nathanial’s gaze narrowed as he regarded her. “But you did ask them, did you not?” Concern clung to his voice.
Charlaine sighed. “You sound like Pierce. He made me promise I—” She bit her lip, realizing that she was about to say more than she had intended to.
Nathanial stopped and turned to her. “What did you do?” he asked, marked tension in his shoulders. “They do know that you invited me, do they not?” He glanced down the corridor as though fearing that Pierce and Caroline might appear at any moment, demanding to know what he was doing in their home.
Charlaine reached for his hands, tense and cold. “Of course, they know. Are you truly worried they would not want you here?”
He huffed out a breath. “I do not want to intrude where I’m not wanted. I—”
Charlaine reached out and cupped a hand to the side of his face. He immediately stilled, and his blue eyes dropped to meet hers. “You are wanted,” she told him gently. “You are wanted very much.”
Holding her gaze, Nathanial inhaled a slow breath. “Then what is it that you’re not telling me?”
Charlaine sighed. “Pierce made me promise not to lure you here under false pretenses,” she admitted, dropping her gaze. “He insisted I ask instead of…demand.” A bit of a contrite smile teased her lips as she realized that she had done exactly as Pierce had feared. “I think he was afraid for you, afraid that you might feel trapped. You might have noticed that, at times, I can be a bit…forceful.”
With her head lowered, Charlaine could not see Nathanial’s face. She all but sensed a small smile dance across his features a moment before his hand settled under her chin, urging her to look at him. “A bit forceful?” he asked, a teasing note in his voice now. “You’re a menace.”
Charlaine frowned. “I’m not certain how to take this.”
“As a compliment,” Nathanial replied, warmth in his blue eyes. “Thank you for demanding I join you here. Indeed, you might be a bit forceful at times, but I…I cannot say that I mind.”
“Oh, yes, you do.” Charlaine laughed. “I do remember a moment or two when you looked utterly scandalized, as though you wished the ground would open and swallow you whole.”
“Very well,” he admitted good-naturedly. “While that might be true, I’ve come to realize that being the man I am, it is only to my benefit to surround myself with a friend of…your forceful nature.”
“Is that so?” Charlaine asked, delighted to hear that he had come to see that she only meant to help.
“It is,” he assured her.
“I’m glad to hear it,” Charlaine exclaimed as she once more slipped her arm through his and they proceeded down the corridor toward the terrace.
Beside her, Nathanial frowned. “Your mind is already at work on new, outrageous ideas, is it not?”
“They do take time and diligence,” she told him with a wink. “But I promise you’ll come to love them.”
As they stepped out onto the terrace, Pierce and Caroline rose from their seats and came over to welcome their visitor. “Mr. Caswell, it’s good to see you again,” Pierce exclaimed. “I hope your journey was pleasant enough.”
“It was. Thank you, my lord.”
Charlaine rolled her eyes. “I do believe we should all address each other by our first names,” she stated, looking from Nathanial’s somewhat shocked face to Pierce and Caroline. “This strict formality sounds ludicrous.”
“I quite agree,” Caroline immediately said. She smiled at Charlaine before meeting Pierce’s gaze.
“I do not mind at all,” Pierce stated, giving her a look that said he could not believe she would doubt him. Then he turned back to Nathanial. “We’re all quite informal here. So, if you have no objection?”
Nathanial shook his head. “Not at all.” Still, he looked more than a bit uncomfortable and, as expected, the moment they left Pierce’s and Caroline’s presence behind, he voiced his discomfort. “You shouldn’t have urged them to—”
“I didn’t,” Charlaine was quick to reply as they strolled down into the extensive gardens. “It was merely a suggestion, and as Pierce said, we’re all very informal here. You’ll see.”
Again, he huffed out a breath.
“You call your brother’s wife by her first name, do you not?”
He eyed her curiously. “How do you know?”
“Am I wrong?”
“No, but—”
“Then where is the problem?”
His mouth opened and closed, then opened again. “She is now my sister-in-law, that’s the difference.” His free hand gestured around wildly, suggesting he was making up this reasoning as he went. “She’s family and, therefore, it is not unreasonable for me to—”
“Well, if that is the case, then it is also not unreasonable for you to call Pierce and Caroline by their first names because Caroline is your brother’s wife’s cousin which, in turn, makes them family as well.” She grinned up at him.