A Prince for Aunt Hetty by Kimberly Truesdale

Author:Kimberly Truesdale [Kimberly Truesdale]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Toast and Tea Publications
Published: 2014-03-09T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

RUPERT STOPPED FOR a moment on his trek through the woods. Overnight the snow had fallen in thick drifts that now blanketed his garden and the woods that separated him from Hayes house.

He held his breath, stilling his own noise. The snow muffled all sounds of life. To Rupert, it sounded like he had covered his ears with his hands and was hearing the world through his own flesh. His heartbeat sounded louder and louder in the silence. He listened to it for a moment before he had to draw another breath.

With this breath he let out a heavy sigh. He'd been unconsciously doing that all morning. Even the prospect of seeing these woods with snow for the first time, a sight he had been looking forward to painting, couldn't distract him from what had happened the day before with Miss Masters. He was afraid he'd made a complete mess of it. But he didn't know how to make it right. He should probably destroy the painting. Even that painful act seemed better than the feeling of having Hetty angry at him. What was more important? The art or her feelings?

Rupert hadn't thought that way before, placing emotions next to his art. He'd always painted and sketched his subjects as interesting specimens to examine. For a year in his youth he had painted nothing but the face of a girl named Fanny. The lines and shades of her skin had drawn his artistic interest. He'd appreciated her beauty but had been startled one afternoon when she tried to kiss him. So the idea that now he was the one who wanted to kiss his subject worried him. What he felt with Hetty was more than just an appreciation of her interesting beauty. But what exactly was it?

Wasn't it the normal thing for old men like him to be attracted to youth? To want the strength and innocence and virginity of a young woman? He'd seen it happen all around him as his middle-aged friends married young girls of seventeen and eighteen. And Rupert supposed he could be persuaded to join that game. He had a good pension, after all. And he fancied that he wasn't a bad looking man. Surely there would be some young woman who would have him. And they might have a nice, quiet life together.

But really? He'd left London, after all, without taking a wife. And he'd not thought anything about it since leaving.

Not until Hetty, that is.

Well, Rupert caught himself, maybe marriage was jumping too fast into his feelings for her, but he was intrigued in a way he hadn't been by any woman of his acquaintance so far. A woman of London who seemed completely at her ease here in the country. He desired to know her more, not just as a subject on his canvas.

But he had made a mess of it. Rupert sighed again and began to walk toward Hayes house. He was terrified to have his fears realized and anxious to learn his fate.

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