Page 141 of Modern Romance September 2025 5-8

He stiffened. Did he not remember? These urges, these impulses would not protect them.

He wouldn’t lose himself again.

He would not let himself…feel.

‘I’ll help you,’ he said, and forced himself to reach for the romper in her hands instead of her.

‘Thank you,’ she said, and released the romper to him.

She was right. It was as soft as brushed velvet. Nothing like the over-washed ones handed down to Amelia that were too thin, too worn.

Agony flooded his chest.

But he would not examine his pain in front of her.

He refused to feel it.

He would feel nothing.

For a millisecond before the shutters came down, Aurora had seen it written all over his face. Etched into every sculpted bone.Fear.

And she understood it.

She had known it.

She turned back to the windows overlooking the green- and autumn-tinged forests and valleys of the highlands. And with the view in front of her, she set about folding.

‘Like this,’ she said, and reached for a romper from the pile. She folded the arms in first, and then the legs, before putting the two halves together. And his eyes watched every pull and push of her fingers with intent.

She started a new pile in front of the unfolded ones.

‘Your turn,’ she said, and she didn’t know why she felt so breathless as he spread the romper in his hand, flat on the surface beside her, and copied what she’d done. But he did it faster, with the precision of practised hands. As if by rote…

She frowned. Maybe she’d been wrong…

Her eyes lingered on the tightness in his shoulders beneath his black jumper. His thick, corded neck.

No.She wasn’t wrong.

She collected another.

Side by side, they folded.

The silence was thick with something domesticated, but somehow it wasn’t a task performed for duty. It didn’t feel cold.

A closeness, a vulnerability, pulsed in the air between them.

She swallowed. ‘I was scared the first time I saw them,’ she whispered.

‘Saw what?’

‘How small they are.’

‘The baby’s clothes?’

‘These suits are so small. So delicate,’ she explained.

His hands halted in their task. Only a momentary pause before he continued, but she saw it. And her hands itched to reach for his. Too smooth her fingertips over the veins on the backs.