The Risqué Resolution by Jillian Eaton Page A

explanation,
for what could he say? I did not come
home because I was in the process of ruining a young woman’s life. What woman?
Oh, the very same one you met at the Heathcliff’s ball. He hoped Natalie would be satisfied with the fact that he was home now and leave the matter alone, but he
should have known better. His sister had always been curious and, when it came
down to it, often quite nosy. As a girl she’d been caught eavesdropping behind
doors on more than one occasion, a habit which seemed
unbroken even after all this time.
    “Did you go into town?” she asked,
resting her chin on her knees and looking very much like the baby sister he had
left instead of the waif like, sad eyed woman he’d returned home to. “Or to the
pub? Or perhaps you went—”
    “Leave it alone Natty,” he said, a hard
edge to his voice. Her face paled, and he could have kicked himself. “What I
meant to say, is my absence is nothing you should concern yourself with…
sweetheart.” The endearment sounded odd even to his own ears, but he was
determined to be softer with his sister, and what better way than to begin
using terms of affection? Unfortunately, it did not have the effect on Natalie
he would have hoped.
    “Do not call me that,” she said fiercely.
    James’ forehead creased in
bewilderment. “Sweetheart, I did not mean—”
    “STOP IT! STOP IT! STOP IT!” she
shrieked, and in the aftermath of her sudden outburst they were both silent.
Natalie was breathing heavily, her small chest pushing in and out quick as a bird’s.
    James noted her fingers were pressed
into the arms of the leather chair so hard her knuckles shone white in the
drowsy light of morning. She was terrified, he realized dumbly. Absolutely
terrified. But of what? Of him? Somehow, he did not think he was the cause. The shell shocked expression on her face was the same he’d seen worn by men on the battlefield
after they’d witnessed an unspeakable horror. “Natty,” he began, careful to
keep his voice calm so as not to upset her further, “is there something you are not telling me?”
    She shook her head quickly. Too
quickly, James thought.
    “Did… did something happen to you while
I was away?” he persisted, not willing to let the matter drop until he had
answers. They could not go on like this. He could not go on like this: walking on eggshells around his own sister, afraid
of what to say, never knowing what to do. It was time she faced her demons and
started healing. It was time they both faced
their demons and started healing. For some reason, at that very moment, Lily’s
face rose unbidden in his mind. He saw her quick smile. Her violet eyes, filled
with laughter. Her long, silky legs, wrapped around his hips…
    “I do not wish to speak of it,” his
sister whispered, efficiently drawing him back to the present.
    “Natty…”
    “You should marry,” she said suddenly.
    James blinked, as caught off the guard
by the sudden change in conversation as he was by the topic. “I should… I
should what?”
    “Marry,” she repeated. “I think it
would be good for you to have someone.”
    “I have you,” he said automatically,
but Natalie only shook her head, her smile impossibly sad.
    “You need someone else,” she insisted.
“Someone to help care for you and this house. Someone to make you laugh.”
    Lily makes me laugh .
    “You deserve to be happy again.”
Natalie’s blue eyes were wide and beseeching. James looked away, unable to meet
her gaze and the truth he saw reflected within. Pain recognized pain, he
thought. Which was why his sister could so clearly see what he kept hidden
inside.
    “I have not thought of marriage.” A
lie. It was all he’d been thinking
about since he woke up that morning tangled in the arms of a beautiful,
mischievous sprite. He knew what he had to do. What he was honor bound to do.
He had taken Lily’s virginity, something that should have exclusively belonged
to her future husband, and while