Page 72

She didn’t want to just hold Arabella. If everything was going to change, she wanted to throw caution to the wind and press her lips to hers and search for escape. It would be a moment that she could point to later and laugh off, using the stress and confusion of her newly disordered life as an excuse. She hadn’t meant anything by it, she imagined saying to Arabella with a little laugh and a dismissive wave.

But that wouldn’t do at all.

Firstly, Arabella would be shocked. Maybe she would slap her for trespassing where she ought not dare. And secondly—Arabella deserved far better than to be dismissed.

But then why was Arabella staring back at her, her eyes wide and her full lips parted slightly, as she—leaned forward?

Caroline couldn’t resist any longer. She put the dish back in the sink and tipped Arabella’s chin up with a soapy finger, her heart pounding so loud that she could no longer hear the sea, then bent her head and captured those soft lips from a hundred illicit fantasies with her own.

Chapter Four

Caroline’s whole world tipped upside down. Everything she had ever known flew out the window and nothing felt solid anymore. The one sure thing was right here between her and Arabella, in the soft press of their lips. She clung to it for dear life. She moved closer, her hands tight on Arabella’s full hips, her body flush against her own.

If this moment was all that she could have, then she needed to make enough memories for it to last through her lifetime. She darted her tongue into the crease of Arabella’s lips, daring to risk as much as she could. She tasted the gin that they had tipped into their tea when they took it into the kitchen with them earlier. Arabella made a little moaning sound that thrilled Caroline and encouraged her to suck Arabella’s bottom lip into her mouth before meeting her tongue with her own.

She tried to memorize Arabella’s body with her hands, moving them from her hips up her back and then stroking her arms beneath the puffed sleeves of her evening dress. By the time Caroline had settled her hands against Arabella’s waist, Arabella was leaning against her, her own hands on Caroline’s shoulders, her head tilted back and allowing their kiss to deepen.

A crash sounded from the parlor, and Caroline jerked away. Arabella stumbled and grasped the kitchen table, her eyes wide and shining as she looked up at her. Caroline felt like the veriest cad.

How dare she take advantage of her best friend? How could she have been so foolish to let her own desires slip? Arabella must be horrified.

Caroline managed a little laugh, her heart beating in triple time and her hands clammy as she jammed them into the soapy water. “It’s a time for celebration, is it not? Forgive me, the mood of the moment overtook me.”

Arabella laughed too, and the tension broke. “Nothing more than I would have expected.”

Caroline stepped back and smiled. “Wherever I go, you know, you are sure to have a standing invitation to tea,” she said, trying to infuse as much lightness to her tone as she could. “Steeped only once, just for you.”

She deserved far more than tea, of course. Arabella was worth diamonds and furs.

Arabella laughed again. “It is the least that I would expect of your new situation.”

“But do you see now why I am so concerned about the inheritance? It is the strangest of circumstances, is it not?”

“I understand what you mean,” Arabella said, her eyes bright with curiosity. She dried a cup, slowly working the towel around it as she thought. “Why would the former heir be so happy to see the money transferred to Jacob? Mr. Taylor was remarkably at ease tonight for a disinherited baronet.”

“Exactly!” She was glad to latch back onto the matter at hand. Anything to keep her mind off that kiss. “I am grateful—but still ever so confused.”

“I am determined to get to the bottom of this mystery with you,” Arabella said, pushing her spectacles up.

“Together,” she said, and was rewarded with a brilliant smile.

They finished up the dishes, listening to the crickets chirp and the sound of the sea crashing upon the shores, and her siblings laughing together.

Come what may, Caroline knew she would miss these moments.

All of them.

But especially that kiss.

* * *

As the hour neared eleven, Arabella hugged the Reeves good-bye. Instead of slipping upstairs to her second-floor bedroom, she satoutside on the swing in her back garden, the wood cool beneath her thin dress. The waves always sounded tenfold louder at night, but she welcomed the sound, finding comfort in its presence as she tried to settle herself.

Nothing could have prepared her for what had happened tonight.

A heady mix of exhilaration and despair swept through her. The way her mind was whirling, she wasn’t sure if she would find sleep at all.

The assembly rooms were still busy at this hour with dancing, and the coffee shops and taverns always bustled with nightlife, nestled in the ground floors of the hotels that hosted visitors accustomed to the later hours of the city.