Chapter Five
The tiny buttons on Juniper’s dress were a godsend. Focusing on them let him stop focusing on the water and how much of it there was, and how very far they were from the shore. It hadn’t seemed like much at all when he was rowing out to the middle, but now it stretched out in an endless expanse that seemed to grow larger every time he looked at it.
When the buttons were undone, he closed his eyes. It heightened the sensation as he let his fingers trace the laces of her corset, untying them with deliberate precision. With each loosened tie, a new section of her back was exposed—the warmth of skin radiating through the thin fabric of her shift.
“Jasper?”
“Hmm?”
“Is that all of them?”
“I think so.” He ran his thumbs the length of her spine, pushing the thick weave of the corset away with his fingers. When he reached the indent of her waist, she jumped away.
“Your eyes are closed?” she asked.
“As promised.”
The rustle of cloth filled his ears. Jasper’s imagination supplied the vision of petticoats and undergarments sliding off her hips and landing on the bottom of the boat. “You should know, this is a special kind of torture.”
The only response was two thuds against the boards.
“What was that?”
“My boots.” Her voice was barely audible. “I’m going to get in now.”
“Do I need to do anything?”
“Lean to the left until you hear the splash.”
She might as well have asked him to hold a pit viper. “Is the boat going to tip over?”
“It shouldn’t. Just balance out my weight.”
Heaven help them. The boat started tipping right, so he leaned left. There was a lurch, followed by a splash. Jasper’s heart stopped. “Juniper? Juniper!”
He gave up keeping his eyes closed and leaned over the right side of the boat.
A blond head surfaced, darker now for being soaked, and Juniper sputtered as she wiped water from her face. “I’m all right.”
“Well, I’m not. Please don’t go under again.”
The woman had the audacity to giggle. “I’ll try not to.”
“I’m not kidding. If you go under, I’m jumping in after you. And then when I drown and die, it will be your fault.”
“Head above water, I promise.” She walked her hands along the rail of the boat until she reached the back and started kicking her legs, moving the boat forward.
He couldn’t watch. He couldn’t. He peeked behind him and caught the flash of a perfectly rounded buttock flexing beneath Juniper’s ineffective, waterlogged shift. Perhaps he could find the fortitude to watch a little.
“Are you looking?” she demanded.
Damn. “…Maybe.”
“You promised!”
“I thought that was just while you were in the boat,” he lied. Jasper didn’t have to suppress his grin because she couldn’t see his face. “Your backside is flawless, by the way.”
The splash of the kicks lost their rhythm for a moment. “Keep your eyes forward.”
“As you wish.”
They made steady progress toward the shore. Without the distraction of Juniper’s curves, Jasper was forced to contemplate his situation. He’d broken down in a panic in front of the woman he was trying to impress. He hadn’t embarrassed himself this thoroughly since he’d propositioned Lady Melton at age thirteen. And yet, he wasn’t embarrassed—he was grateful. Juniper had simply rescued him rather than judging him. Of course, there was still plenty of time for her to ridicule him once they were safely ashore.
The splashing stopped.
“Is everything all right?”
She let out a deep breath and her head rose above the edge of the rail. “It’s shallow enough for me to touch the bottom now.”
Sweet deliverance. Relief rushed through him in a wave, followed immediately by guilt. Jasper started stripping off his boots.
“What are you doing?”
By way of an answer, he crossed himself and rolled over the side into the water. The panic sprang up in an overwhelming burst.
“Jasper!”
His feet touched the ground, and his shoulders broke the surface. “Well, that was awful.”
“Then why did you do it?” she demanded.
“You’ve rescued me enough for one day. I thought I’d try to be of use.”
She shook her head at him. “We didn’t both need to get wet.”
“You should hardly be dragging boats around with your ankle. Besides, wet looks so good on you. I got jealous.” He didn’t need to look to know she blushed. Jasper grabbed hold of the boat and started towing it behind him with a smile.
As he squelched through the mud and dragged the boat ashore, he realized he was the only one squelching. He spun around—to make sure of what, he didn’t know. That she hadn’t collapsed in the mud? Been dragged back to the depths by some fanciful lake monster?
Juniper was standing in the shallows with the water lapping around her hips. With her hair plastered flat around her face, her eyes were impossibly large. Water adhered her shift to her body, rendering it all but useless.
Jasper blinked. “You’re breathtaking.”
“You’re not supposed to be looking.” Her arms came up, crossing over her chest and blocking out the view of her breasts.
“Sorry,” he answered softly. He’d thought something had happened to her.
Her smile was small. Private. “Up the shore and turn around.”
Jasper turned away from her. “I feel like we should discuss this. Negotiations might be in order.”
“What happened to being a gentleman?”
“Highly overrated. Who needs it?”
Her laugh rang out like bells across the water. “Walk up the shore, please.”
He started walking, calling over his shoulder. “You’re missing out. My ungentlemanly talents are world-renowned.”
“So I hear.” Light splashes sounded behind him as she left the water.
“I’ve already seen most of what there is to see.”
“Then you should be content in your good fortune.”
“Never.” If he glimpsed Juniper undressed a thousand times, he would still want the one thousand and first.
After a moment, she said, “You can turn now.”
Jasper turned. She’d eschewed the other layers and just put on her dress. It was sticking to her damp curves with tantalizing precision.
“You’re going to cause a riot.” He reached into the boat and handed her his shirt. “Here.”
She ran her eyes the length of his bare chest and waterlogged trousers. “What will you wear?”
“My irresistible masculinity.”
She choked a laugh as she pulled the shirt over her head. “Well then, you should be well covered.”
Jasper chose not to ruin his boots by putting them back on, so he traversed the lawn in bare feet. Juniper walked beside him, swallowed up by the billowing fabric of his shirt. They were a ridiculous pair, but there was something so intrinsically right about it, something that resonated satisfaction through him. When he reached for her hand, she looked up at him with a question in her eyes.
“I almost drowned. I’m feeling quite vulnerable.”
She looked down with a laugh. “Liar.”
He pushed open the door off the terrace with her fingers threaded through his. The halls leading to the foyer were empty, and they almost made it through the ground floor of the house without causing a fuss—until they ran smack into their absent hosts at the foot of the main staircase.
Jasper hadn’t realized how closely Juniper resembled her cousin until he saw Amelia standing there; a brunette version of his dripping companion. There were small differences—Amelia’s face was rounder, and her eyes were darker brown, but there was no denying their relation. She was frowning up at the much taller, dark-haired figure of her husband. Nicholas was looking down at his wife with the embarrassingly besotted expression Jasper suspected he’d worn his entire life. How Amelia had failed to notice it for so long was a mystery of the universe, but she certainly noticed it now. Her expression softened to a doughy ridiculousness of her own, and Jasper felt a warming sensation in his chest. He’d helped make that happen.
Then Nicholas ruined it by spotting them.
“What in the bloody hell?” Nicholas took in their disheveled states with a scowl.
“You’re back!” Jasper did his best not to sound disappointed.
“You’re wearing my trousers,” Nicholas countered.
“Why are you wet? What is Jasper doing here? Hello, by the way.” Amelia rushed to her cousin and Juniper’s hand left his as they embraced each other. “Is everything all right?”
Juniper answered her cousin with a beaming grin. “Perfectly.”
A storm was brewing on Nicholas’s face, and Jasper had no intention of facing it half-dressed and dripping, or of subjecting Juniper to one of Nicholas’s conservative diatribes in their present state. “Why don’t we tell you both about it after we’ve changed?”
“Jasper—”
“Oh, I owe you a boat,” he called over his shoulder as he reclaimed Juniper’s hand and led her up the stairs. “And two oars. See you at tea—and not a moment before!”
For the second time that day, Julia ended up in a bath. However, she agreed to this one with significantly less resentment. For one thing, she smelled like lake water. For another, instead of being anxious to see Jasper, she could lean back against the copper tub and relive their afternoon. He’d told her he intended to hide out from Nicholas until tea time, so she had a few blissful moments to relive her adventure.
It wasn’t the idyllic rendezvous she’d envisioned when she sent him out to the boathouse, but in some ways it was better. He was clearly terrified of the water, but he’d gone anyway. Because she’d asked him. And the way he’d looked at her when she was standing in her shift—if it was the last thing she did, he would look at her like that again, and next time she would not make him walk away.
“Nora, the water’s getting cold. Could you get some more to heat it up a little?”
“Of course. I live to haul kettles up and down the stairs.”
“You’re a ray of sunshine.” Julia rested her head against the edge of the tub.
Nora opened the bedroom door and gasped, hand on her heart. “Lady Amelia. You gave me a fright.”
“I’m sorry, Nora. Is my sister decent?”
“No, but there’s no force on heaven or earth that’s going to change that.”
“I can hear you,” Julia called.
“Can you? So, when I told you it was a bad idea to go gallivanting off with his lordship—”
“Go away, Nora.”
As Nora left, Amelia came in and sat on the bed. “You should be nicer to her, you know.”
“Then she’d be forced to be nice to me, and we’d both be miserable.”
“So, this gallivanting.” Amelia stacked a pile of pillows behind her back. Not a short visit, then. So much for waiting until tea. “What is going on?”
Oh, you know. Just desperately trying to engage a known rake in a scandalous affair. “Welcome back, by the way. How was your trip?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
Julia should never have wished her sister would come back. Not having to explain herself had been delightful.
“What’s going on with you and Jasper? Why were you soaking wet? Why is he even here?”
“Well, I was out riding, and we came across each other…”
“And you get on famously, just like I always said you would.” Amelia was beaming with I told you so pride.
“We do, but there’s a slight complication.”
Amelia’s smile dropped away. “What complication?”
Julia cringed in advance, knowing what was coming next. “I told him I was Miss Juniper Fairchild.”
Amelia blinked at her. “Who the devil is Miss Juniper Fairchild?”
The woman I could have been—would have been—if not for my spine. “Your cousin. From Kent.”
“We don’t have a cousin in Kent.”
“We do now.”
“But surely…how did you explain your back and the schedule?”
“He thinks I limp because I turned my ankle. I figured I would think of something for the rest of it when it came to that.”
“Oh, Julia.” Amelia sighed, the same way she’d sighed whenever Julia had gotten herself in too deep with some scheme or another. “How do you get yourself into such trouble? If you’d only—”
Julia sank down until the water covered her ears and she was staring at the ceiling. Amelia’s answer was just a distorted warbling of sounds. Julia smiled—until a palm flattened against her head and pushed her all the way under. She came back up flailing and stuttering. “You’re hateful.”
“Very. So.” Amelia returned to her pillow nest. “What happened today? Why were you all wet and wearing Jasper’s shirt? Are you lovers?”
“No,” Julia sighed. “Not for lack of trying. The bloody man has an incredible knack for not kissing me.”
“Julia!”
“What? Don’t pretend you didn’t seduce Nicholas with dishonorable intentions.”
Amelia ignored that. “What happened today?”
The pink flush that crept over Julia’s skin was not from the hot water. “I asked Jasper to row us around the lake while I sketched him.”
“Like we used to imagine we would do with our imaginary, perfect future husbands.”
Julia started to sink back down under the water.
“I will dunk you again,” Amelia promised.
She sighed. “I just wanted to know what it would be like, once.”
“And?”
“And Jasper has never rowed before, he let go of the oars, and apparently, he does not know how to swim.”
A laugh escaped Amelia. She pressed her hand to her mouth. “It was a disaster? I’m so sorry.”
It hadn’t been, though. It had been perhaps the greatest afternoon of Julia’s life. Nothing so exciting had ever happened to her. Again, she wished it had involved kissing. But it was progress, and what’s more—she felt closer to him. They shared something now that was just theirs. No one else could claim any part of it.
Amelia was watching her face. She sighed. “Oh, Jules.”
Julia stood up and stepped out of the bathtub, wrapping the towel around her body. “It was just a row around the lake. Don’t get all sentimental about it.”
“You’re falling for him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I fall for everyone in my imagination. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“But this isn’t imaginary. This is really happening.”
“He doesn’t even know who I am.”
“While we’re back on that subject…” Amelia scooted over, making room for Julia. “Why on earth did you choose Juniper, of all names?”
Julia tossed an embroidered pillow at her sister. “I was halfway through telling him my actual name when I realized I couldn’t. It was the first ‘Ju’ name that came to my mind.”
“What an unfortunate time to lose your silver tongue. Goodness, what are we supposed to call you? Is there a single good nickname for Juniper?” Amelia broke down in giggles again. “Juney.”
“No.”
“Niper?”
“They will never find your body.”
“Really, I could pick whatever I wanted and claim we’ve called you it since childhood. This is the sort of power you’ve placed in my hands with this ridiculous lie.”
Julia groaned. Twenty years of being the dominant force in their relationship was about to be paid back all at once. “As long as you go along with it.”
Amelia’s eyebrows raised and her mouth pursed in a dreadful similarity to Nora’s favorite expression. “You could just tell him instead.”
She couldn’t. Every time Julia thought about it, a sick feeling rose up in her stomach. “He wouldn’t like me as…me.”
“Why not? From where I was standing, it seemed like he liked you just fine.”
It seemed that way to Julia, too, but the idea of telling him was terrifying. “I just need more time, Mia. I’m not ready to risk it yet. Will you ask Nicholas not to give me away?”
Amelia sighed. “You know we’ll do anything for you, but we’re awful liars. You should tell him before we mess it up on accident.”
She should. She would. Just not quite yet.