Amethyst (16 page)

In the midst of shouting at his brothers, Colin didn't spare Kendra a glance when she walked into the drawing room. "
She's still here?
I cannot believe it!"

"It hasn't been that long," Jason stated calmly.

"Nine weeks! Don't tell me she hasn't recovered enough in nine weeks."

"I haven't asked her," Jason admitted. "She does seem to be getting on fine, though."

Colin stormed over to where his older brother lounged against the carved stone mantel. "You never asked her?"

"I just said so, didn't I? We've been quite busy these past weeks."

"
You've
been busy?" Colin's fists clenched. It hadn't been easy to walk away from Amy, but he'd done it, trusting he'd never be tempted by her again. " Too busy to take a day or two to deliver her as promised?"

Jason only shrugged. "With the end of the harvest, Ford and I have been out collecting rents. It's that time of year, you know."

"Yes, I know," Colin said between gritted teeth. Jason's nonchalance wasn't improving his mood in any way. "
I've
been busy. Disposing of the harvest, looking after the livestock, overseeing the quarrying and logging operations, collecting rents, directing restoration work, working on the damned account books—and all by myself with just Benchley for help.
You
have Ford and a battalion of laborers and servants, and you hadn't the time to—"

"Amy's been doing my ledgers for me," Jason interrupted. "I reckon she'd be willing to help you out. She's quite grateful, you know."

Colin made his way to one of the salmon-upholstered chairs and dropped onto it, defeated. "She's been doing your ledgers," he stated in a dead voice.

"Oh, yes," Kendra bragged, "and she's much faster than Jason ever was. Why, she says she's just about caught up."

"That's a miracle," Colin allowed. "However did this come about?" They were bound to tell him anyway, so he might as well cooperate.

"I was showing her the portraits in the picture gallery," Kendra explained brightly, "and the door to Jason's study was open. He invited her in to look around, she asked what he was working on so hard, and that was that. She kept the books for her father's shop." Kendra smiled in a way that set Colin's teeth on edge. "She's so smart, Colin, you wouldn't believe it."

"Oh, I'd believe it all right." Yet one more thing to add to the shining qualities of Amethyst Goldsmith.

"She became great friends with little Mary." Jason made his way to the chair beside Colin's. "Why, you should have seen her with that child. She's a born mother." He sat and stretched out his long legs, crossing them at the ankles. "I found a home for Mary in the village, with the widow of one of my men who was killed in the mill accident."

"Good." Wonder of wonders, his brother had actually followed through with something he'd asked of him. "Thank you for taking care of that."

"My pleasure."

With a gleam in her eye, Kendra turned to her heretofore silent twin for assistance.

"We've been discussing Amy's fine education," Ford put in helpfully. "She's interested in science"—Ford was forever complaining that no one in the family shared his fascination with science—"although she prefers history. She spends hours and hours in the library."

"She does, does she?" Colin crossed his arms and leveled a stare at Jason. "When are you taking her to Dover? You
are
taking her to Dover?"

"Of course, Colin. Whyever would you think not?"

"She should stay here," Kendra protested. "She's clever and sweet and helpful and a good friend and she has no one—just one aunt—and she fits right in with the family." Kendra paused for a deep breath and squared her shoulders. "You should marry her, Colin. We all think she's wonderful."

Colin had seen it coming. "Then you can all marry her," he suggested lightly, rising to go out the door. "I'm going to get cleaned up."

"Wait!" Kendra yelled after him.

He whirled around. "
You
wait," he returned fiercely. "I'm marrying Lady Priscilla Hobbs, or did that slip your mind somehow?" He turned to Ford. "You want Amy in the family?
You
marry her."

Ford's blue eyes widened at the mere suggestion. "
I'm
not ready to get married!"

Undaunted, Colin turned on Jason. "You marry her, then. You seem to enjoy having her around."

"I'm—I'm not attracted to her," sputtered the unflappable Jason. "She's—she's a bookkeeper!"

"Exactly." Colin turned on his heel and headed up to his bedchamber, shaking his head.

Sometimes his family was more trouble than they were worth. Kendra, especially.
You should marry her, Colin.

Hmmph! He'd get Kendra for that one. Tonight. He'd get her good.

A nice warm bath would calm him and inspire a clever idea.

"DEFENDING THE
castle?"

Taken off guard, Amy turned to see Colin framed in the arch to the keep's stairwell. He was dressed casually, in breeches and a billowing white shirt, his hair still damp from a recent washing.

The last time she'd seen him, he'd been mentally and physically exhausted. Now the circles were gone from under his eyes. He looked relaxed and rested, his body hardened by healthy manual labor.

She swallowed hard, her hands tightening on the iron grille set into the keep's window. "Defending the castle?" she echoed.

His smile reached his compelling emerald eyes. "This is where the castle guard lived, and you were watching through the window."

"Oh." She blushed, feeling thick-witted for not catching the reference. What was it about him that robbed her ability to think straight? "I was just…ruminating." She glanced out the window, struggling for some relevant comment she could make. "How could they see to guard? The windows are so narrow."

"The better to deter arrows in days past." Colin moved toward her, then abruptly stopped. She thought she saw a frown flit across his tanned features. "In truth, they only lived and stored weapons in here. There used to be a level above where they took turns day and night, watching through the notches in the battlement all around."

Amy looked up at the sky, streaked with colors from the setting sun. She imagined the guards up there, pacing back and forth, clanking around in their armor. Colin's words seemed to do that to her: make her imagine other places, other times.

She stole another glance at him. His gleaming black hair was loose for a change, cut just to his shoulders, easy to manage if not fashionable. It was odd, but the color she hated on her own head looked perfect on his.

She'd been convinced that her response to his kiss, that one time that now seemed so long ago, had been an outgrowth of her grief, a method for escape. But suddenly she knew she'd been fooling herself. It seemed each time she saw him, the pull was stronger.

She took a step closer. "I can picture the knights up there when you talk about them."

"A romantic image, but they weren't knights decked out for battle." Colin took a step back and leaned against the wall, crossing his ankles and arms. "Just regular men, mostly. Each of the lord's vassals—all the men granted use of his land—was obligated to spend part of his year as a member of the castle guard."

"I've been wondering what it was like to live here."

"Well, Kendra sent me to find you for supper, but I can give you my famous tour on the way down."

Amy laughed, a happy sound that tapered off into the night as he led her to the stair tower and down a level.

"It's hard to imagine living in anything so primitive as a keep today," Colin's words floated up to her, "but in the twelfth century, it would have contained the best residential lodging for the lord. In those days, others lived in the smaller towers set into the castle walls, while the rest of the people had their homes constructed against the inside surfaces of the enclosure."

When they came out on the next floor, Amy wandered to a window where she could oversee the quadrangle. "No wonder it's so big," she said, imagining hundreds of people milling below.

"The castle was like a small town, and this keep was the ultimate in luxury accommodations." He joined her at the window, grazing her arm. "There was a poultry yard where all the animals were kept." When he moved closer, the pit of her stomach began tingling. "Soldiers, skilled workers, servants and their families—everyone made their home within the castle walls."

Suddenly she felt giddy. His words weren't going in one ear and out the other, not quite, but she was having a hard time concentrating.

"Tell me more," she begged.

"The portcullis, that wooden iron-banded gate at the barbican over there, would be down all the time, not just at night like it is now. The drawbridge would be raised unless someone needed to leave or enter."

When Colin paused, she turned to look at him. He captured her gaze with his. "This would have been the lord's bedchamber."

"Oh." She blushed furiously.

"It would have been decorated with beautiful tapestries, and the beds would have been draped with yards and yards of fabric that could be pulled together to keep in the warmth. Enormous beds, so that on cold nights they could all get in, the whole family together, and cuddle to keep warm."

Though Colin's words were simply informative, his voice was deep and husky, as though…

No, it was all her imagination. He hadn't asked how she was, or anything else of a personal nature. She had to stop fooling herself. He'd come only to fetch her for supper.

And to take her away.

Well, there was no sense dwelling on such a depressing subject. "Is supper waiting?" she asked.

Colin blinked before answering, and when he did, his words were clipped. "I reckon it is. We should go."

Amy followed him down the twisting staircase, but when he headed toward the courtyard, she slowed on the bottom floor. Despite everything, she didn't quite feel ready to share him with his family.

"What was this room for?"

He hesitated before turning back. "This would have been the main living quarters for the lord and his family." He was the tour guide again, his voice instructive, nothing more. "They would have eaten here, food brought to them by servants from the castle kitchens. The lord's children would have had their lessons here, and the family would have played games and received visitors here. There would have been lots of food and supplies in the storeroom underneath, in case of a siege."

Amy ran her fingers down the ancient wall. "You've a lovely home, my lord."

He shrugged. "It's Jason's, really."

She walked around the circular chamber, trailing one hand along the rough stone. "I can picture your lord and his family living here. Were they happy, do you think?"

"I imagine so." Colin chuckled. "The Chases were always a boisterous lot, I'm told."

Amy halted, startled. But of course it had been his family living here these past four hundred years; it just hadn't occurred to her before. They'd been peers for all that long. Just as her own family had been jewelers for an untold number of years. It was an intriguing thought, and a sad one, emphasizing the many reasons they could never be together.

"They're surely waiting for us by now," Colin said, breaking her reverie. "Shall we?"

WHEN COLIN AND
Amy reached the dining room, they found the family arranged the same way they'd been seated the night before he'd left, forcing the two of them to sit beside each other again.

Colin wasn't surprised.

He took his seat, and supper was served. Conversation swirled as usual, but tonight he was the one not participating. He was so aware of Amy, he could swear he felt heat emanating from her body. It had taken all his willpower not to touch her in the keep.

She seemed different tonight. She wore a different gown, a hunter green he remembered Kendra wearing at a house party last year. Her hair was in curls again…

It was her eyes, he decided suddenly. The amethyst sparkle was back.

No one would think of describing this self-assured woman as "a wreck" now. She laughed and joked with his sister and brothers, kept up with their repartee as though born to a large, noisy family.