A Royal Kiss and Tell

She continued making dresses into the early winter, more than there could possibly be demand for in a village as small as Bibury. She took long walks in the afternoon to the extent that her boots began to wear at the heel. The weather was colder, so she began to wear Beck’s buckskins, belting them at the waist. And she continued gardening, shoving her hands into dirt, turning it over, preparing it for spring.

Beck came to call from time to time. He remarked one evening that she seemed different.

“How so?” she asked him as she stacked her feet into a chair at the dinner table and picked up a cheroot.

“More mature,” he said. “You’ve always been sure of yourself, darling, but now you are...comfortable somehow. I can’t rightly put my finger on it. It’s as if you don’t really care that smoking a cheroot is unacceptable and would ensure you’d not receive another invitation.”

She laughed. “I only mean to try it, Beck. Life is so boring without an adventure here or there.”

Beck leaned forward. “Are you happy, Caro?”

She shrugged. “I’m not unhappy. I suppose I’m as happy as I can be for the time being.” She drew from the cheroot and coughed violently. “You mustn’t worry about me, Beck. I always find my way.”

“I have no doubt of it, darling.”

The days grew short and now there was a bitter nip in the air each day. Caroline wrapped a shawl around her neck and wore Beck’s hunting coat when she walked. She had two dogs as companions now, having stumbled on them in a village market. They’d seemed happy to come along on her adventure, trotting along after her as if they belonged to her.

Today, Caroline hadn’t walked a mile when she realized that the dampness on her cheek was snow. She and the dogs turned back.

She cut through on a forest path and came down a hill to where the Hawke estate was spread below them. Caroline happened to notice three riders approaching the house. So did the dogs. They raced ahead, barking at the intruders. Lord, she hoped whoever it was would carry on. She did not like the idea of playing hostess to strangers on a snowy evening. She and Martha liked to play gin rummy on nights like this.

But as she walked down that hill, a strange little current slipped down her spine. The first rider suddenly spurred his horse forward, galloping ahead of the other two. Heat began to fill her chest and rise in her cheeks. She stared at the rider, certain it had to be an apparition. She had to be imagining it. Wouldn’t someone have told her?

But there was no mistaking the Arse of Alucia, her beloved. She threw off her hat and began to run, slipping and sliding down the hill to the road.

He leaped from his horse and raced toward her, pushing his way through the dogs and up the hill. They met midway, where Caroline vaulted into his arms. He caught her, spread his hand against her face and kissed her. He kissed her so hard that they tumbled to the ground and rolled a bit until he managed to stop them. When at last he lifted his head, he grinned at her.

“How?” she asked.

“Oh, that is a long and boring story, but suffice it to say I have returned against my father’s wishes and I’m fairly certain I’m not welcome in Constantine Palace at present. Or in Mayfair.”

Caroline sat up. She put her hands on his face, on his chest, feeling him to see if he was real.

“I went to Beck first,” he said as she continued to assure herself he was real. “He told me where you were. He warned me that you’d changed, and that you might not want to see me.”

“He doesn’t want you to see me,” she said breathlessly.

“He does,” Leopold said, and caught her hands. “Caroline, listen to me. I have spent the last many months wishing for you every day. Every bloody day. I’ve not been able to get you out of my head. Not for a moment.”

She laughed because this was so fantastic, so extraordinary. She had literally dreamed of a moment like this.

He cupped her face in his hands. “Do you understand why I’m here?”

“Eliza said you’d vowed to find all the women they abused.”

He laughed. He stood up and pulled her to her feet. “I have. I will. But I’m here for you, Caroline. Only you. I don’t know where we will go, precisely, but I’ve bought an old castle ruin, and I’ve a lad, Bobbin, who has come along to serve me—seems he was rather taken with me on the voyage to Alucia—but never mind that. I don’t know what else I can offer you but my heart, my love, my undying devotion.”

Caroline blinked. “Beck won’t—”

“He will. It was the only way he’d let me see you.”

Her heart was suddenly hammering in her chest. “This is a dream,” she murmured.

“It is no dream, mang leift. I am here, before you now.”

“But Leopold... I’m not her anymore,” she said. “Look at me! I’m not her, I’m someone else now. Everything changed. I changed.”

He ran his hand over her head. “So have I. I know what I want now. I know what matters.”