Sweet Deception Regency 07 - The Divided Hearts by Karla Darcy Page A

as Patrick gulped the lemonade, his face blank of all
expression. He set the glass down on the plaid blanket, staring at
the profusion of flowers scattered across the sprigged muslin of
Judith’s skirt. He extended his hand, one chubby finger stroking
the petals of one of the blossoms.
    “Look at all the flowers, Judith,” Patrick
said, his voice just above a whisper. “I never seed anything like
it in England. I wish Mam coulda seen all this.”
    “She’s seeing it all now through you,”
Judith said, aware now of the source of his dejection. “All you
have to do is tell her about everything, because I doubt if she’s
very far away from you.”
    “She’s dead just like your ma,” Patrick
said, his eyes suspiciously damp. “She can’t see nothing.”
    “Perhaps,” Judith said. “But I like to think
my mother knows what’s happening to me. I can remember when I was a
little girl and I was away from her. I could sometimes feel her
presence. When I’d come home she’d tell me that she’d been thinking
about me and wondering if I was having a good time. So I like to
think that no matter where she is, she’s still wondering about me,
and I talk to her inside my head.”
    Judith lightly touched the boy’s hair,
although Nate suspected that she wanted to hug him to her. He was
impressed at the common sense way she spoke, talking to the boy as
though he too were an adult. She didn’t mouth the normal
platitudes, just offered a suggestion that might ease the boy’s
pain.
    Patrick was silent as he mulled over
Judith’s words. She waited, seemingly in no hurry for him to digest
the information. His chin trembled for a moment but steadied and he
licked his lips, turning shining eyes up to Judith’s face.
    “I’ll give it a go,” he said. Then becoming
aware of Nathanael’s scrutiny, he shrugged to his feet, bracing his
shoulders. “It probably works better for girls, but I’ll do what
you say.”
    Nate chuckled as the boy ambled away.
Judith’s mouth widened in a smile as their glances touched. There
was an electric quality that surrounded them as they became more
aware of each other. Judith was the first to drop her eyes.
    “It’s very hard to be ten.” Nate’s deep
voice rumbled in amused remembrance.
    “Were you a beastly little child?” Judith
asked. She liked the way his eyes crinkled at the corner as though
he were quite accustomed to laughter. His amusement today was far
less caustic than she had previously seen. She felt no bite behind
the words and his laughter was natural, not the affected braying
she had heard before.
    “I was the despair of my mother,” he
announced. “My father was convinced that a good thrashing,
delivered occasionally, would keep me in good form. It usually
worked for a day or two and then some other wonderful adventure
would seduce me away from the righteous path.”
    “All in all, it sounds as if you were a
normal, mischievous boy.” Judith studied Nate wondering what he had
looked like as a child. Tumbled curls hanging over devilish blue
eyes must have been a devastating combination in a boyish face.
Even with the powdered hair, Nate was an extraordinarily handsome
man.
    “How are you liking your visit to Newport?
Is it much different than you expected?” Nate asked.
    “You must remember that Father has been
filling my head with visions of America for as long as I can
remember.” Judith narrowed her eyes, staring across the
flower-dotted landscape. “But no matter how much he told me, I was
unprepared for the beauty. It’s raw and untamed; unlike any place
I’ve ever seen. I’m used to neatly hedged fields and patches of
forest. All very controlled, not wild and fierce like I find here.
In a way it’s rather intimidating.”
    “I wish there was time for you to see more
of the country. There are forests so vast that they fill the
horizon from edge to edge without a break. You can travel for days
and never meet another human being. And there are