“Hence, my use of your facility.” As she spoke, Ellen’s gaze was focused on the blue fleur-de-lis pattern decorating a row of tiles at waist height. “I wash my clothes here and use the other tub on occasion, as well.”
“You’re welcome to, of course.” Val glanced around at the pipes lest he be caught staring at her. “I suppose it’s you who’s kept the place so clean.”
“I use the farm pond in warm weather,” Ellen said, coloring slightly, “but when it’s cold, this little springhouse is a godsend. I never dread laundry day.”
“And you must not now.” Val shoved himself back to sit on the worktable beside the only door—the door he had left wide open in deference to the lady’s sensibilities. “What day is laundry day?”
“Thursday or Friday. Wednesday is market; Sunday is services. Little market is Saturday, if need be.”
“I ask, lest we attempt to use this facility on the same day. One wouldn’t want to intrude on a lady at her bath.”
“Or a gentleman,” Ellen agreed, this blush more apparent.
“I hadn’t considered the issue of our laundry. Working on the house, Darius and I will pile up a deal of dirty clothes.”
“It will be no trouble to toss in a few more shirts and socks when I do my own,” Ellen suggested, still not meeting his eyes.
“I will not allow you to do my laundry, Ellen.” Val shoved off the table and crossed the space to frown down at her.
“I will not allow you to use my given name without permission,” she retorted, her gaze meeting his then dropping. His arched an eyebrow but held his ground, peering down at her.
“Show me where this pond is,” he said abruptly, taking her hand and placing it on his forearm. “I love nothing at the end of a hot summer day so much as a good swim, and that will be equally true when I’m not playing… idling my days away indoors.”
“I did not mean to bark at you,” Ellen said as they walked into the woods. “I am used to my solitude here.”
“I have intruded,” Val guessed. “You hear us over here, like you did this morning. You heard the hammers and the sawing. The birds are quiet, and we are not. You sense movement beyond your woods, and it isn’t little beasts or even local boys. It’s change, and you can’t control it.”
And what was he going on about, as if he could divine her thoughts?
“And because I can control who calls me what, up to a point,” Ellen said with a slow smile, “you must ask permission to call me Ellen.”
“My name is Valentine,” he said quietly. “I beg you to use it and ask your leave to adopt comparably informal address when private with you.”
“Valentine,” she said, enunciating each syllable as they moved toward a break in the trees. “It’s a lovely name. It shall be my privilege to use it. And you must call me Ellen when we are not in the churchyard.”
“Thank you,” Val said, releasing a breath. “So this is your pond?”
“Yours, actually.” Ellen dropped his arm and hopped up on the dock that extended a good forty feet out over the pond. “I use it after dark, and the local boys use it whenever they please.”
“A pond should be used.” Val stepped onto the boards, as well, watching Ellen move to the end of the dock, her features obscured by the floppy brim of her hat. While she surveyed the tranquil surface of the water, he sat about ten feet from her and started tugging off his boots.
Ellen’s gaze lit on him where he sat. “You are going to soak your feet?”
“And invite you to do likewise.” Val tugged off his second boot. “Ellen.”
She surprised him by nimbly slipping off her shoes and taking a seat beside him. Their bodies did not touch, and yet Val caught a whiff of the lovely honeysuckle and lavender scent of her. She carefully hiked her skirts just a little and let her toes dangle in the water.
“My feet are going to love this pond.” Val cuffed his breeches to just under the knees and slipped his feet into the cool water. “All of me will love it, in fact.”
“You are a good swimmer? The far end is quite deep.”
“I am a very good swimmer. You?” He swirled his toes in the water, unabashedly letting her fix her gaze on his feet. They were big feet, of course, in keeping with the rest of him, and long, with high arches.
“I am competent,” Ellen replied, “in a pond. I would not take on the ocean.”
“Nor I. Who are these boys you despair of?”
He distracted her with questions for about the next twenty minutes, regarding it as time well spent in his efforts to set her at ease. They were going to be neighbors at the very least, and a man was hardly a man if he didn’t take a little opportunity to appreciate a pair of bare, very pretty female feet.
“You have guests,” Ellen reminded him. “I should not monopolize your time, Mr. Windham.”
“Valentine. And they are uninvited guests.”
“Good manners do not distinguish.” She lifted her feet from the water and looked around as if searching for her shoes.
“Here.” Val took his feet out, as well, and spun to sit facing her, cross-legged. He pulled his shirt over his head and held it over his lap. “Give me your foot.”
“My foot?” Ellen’s eyes were glued to the expanse of his chest. Val knew it was a chest that boasted an abundance of nicely arranged male muscle—mostly courtesy of years at the keyboard—and for a widow, it could hardly be considered a shocking sight.
“I’ll dry you off.” Val gestured with his makeshift towel, holding her gaze as if to imply he exposed himself like this to women every day, when in fact, he was by nature fairly modest. Cautiously, she leaned back on her hands and extended a foot toward him.
He seized the foot gently and buffed it with the linen shirt. He dried first one foot then the other, then tarried over his own feet before finally putting the somewhat damp shirt back on.
“Shall we?” Val had put his boots on and risen to extend a hand down to her. He’d left her no choice but to accept that hand and allow him to assist her to her feet. She didn’t protest when he kept hold of her hand as he led her off the dock.
A year ago, Ellen had taken him by the hand to show him the wood, a casual gesture on her part—Val was sure of it. She could hardly object that he was turning the tables now, lacing his fingers through hers and setting a sedate pace back toward the house.
“Belmont’s boys will be staying for a while,” he said as they gained the shade of the woods. “They’re good boys, but I think the professor wants to test out being separated from them before he must send them to university.”
“I’m ten years away from my parents’ house, and I still miss them both desperately. But I’m also relieved they’re gone in another sense.”
“Relieved?” Val stopped walking to peer at her. “Was there illness?”
“My father was quite a bit older than my mother,” she replied, frowning down at some ferns trying to encroach on the path. “He was probably failing, but I was a child, and his death seemed sudden to me. My mother wasn’t young when I was born, so I was their treasured miracle.”
“Of course you were.”
“And were you somebody’s treasured miracle?” Ellen asked, bending to tug at the ferns.
“I was one of ten such miracles,” Val said. “But I do not doubt my parents’ regard for me.” He fell silent on that thought, a little disconcerted to realize it was the truth. He had never doubted their regard for him, though he’d also never felt he had their understanding. He was pondering this realization when Ellen shifted her hand so her fingers gripped his arm near the elbow, which was probably prudent. They would soon be out of the trees, and he had no desire to rush his fences.
Though what fences those would be, he would have to puzzle out later.