Page 14 of The Bastard Heir (The Gilded West #2)

Chapter Six

C aroline awoke the next morning more excited than she’d ever been in her life.

Well, perhaps more excited was extreme. She’d been excited when she’d been accepted to the medical program.

This feeling was simply a different kind of excitement, a new excitement.

It was similar to when she was ten and she’d been given a pony for her birthday.

She’d unwrapped the papers for her new treasure and had had to wait until Sunday when her father could drive her out of town to the stables to see it.

The whole way there she’d felt like she might burst out of her skin because she was too wound up for it to contain her.

This excitement was like that. Only better.

Because it wasn’t a mere pony who waited for her.

It was Castillo. One of the most intriguing men she’d ever met in her life.

Hunter Jameson was very handsome. A few of the men at the charity balls in Boston had been every bit as handsome.

This man was handsome in a different way.

He was dark sensuality mixed with rugged intensity, an enigmatic combination she’d never encountered before.

And when she looked into his eyes, she saw that he knew things that she’d never know on her own.

Things that she wanted him to teach her.

Castillo. Even his name was exotic and mysterious.

She said it to herself as she sat in front of the mirror at her dressing table.

He’d called her Carolina. Not Caroline. Nothing so boring and normal as that.

She’d lain awake in bed for hours last night just remembering the way his smooth voice had practically caressed the sounds as they came out of his mouth.

If she wasn’t so befuddled by her reaction to him, she’d take the time to chastise herself for it.

But that’d have to wait until after she saw him again.

Right now she was too busy getting ready.

She tugged on one of the perfect sausage curls that fell across her shoulder and wondered if she shouldn’t have had Mary spend the time with the hot iron.

Caroline had perfected a series of simple twists and pins years ago to deal with her heavy hair.

It’s how she wore it every day at her father’s office.

Father and Aunt Prudie were bound to know something was amiss if she was putting extra effort into her hair now, when it wasn’t even evening.

Then she smiled at her own foolishness. If she was pretending to fall in love with Castillo, then they’d expect her take the extra time with her appearance.

She kept forgetting that. This was all pretend, only the flutters in her belly didn’t know that.

Standing, she ran her hands down the skirt of her morning dress.

It was a sunny yellow with white tulle around the bodice to keep it modest and with just enough of a bustle to keep it fashionable.

The fact that it went well with her coloring had only figured a little into her reasons for choosing it for this particular morning.

The blush staining her cheeks in the mirror called her a liar.

The truth was that she’d never felt this way about a man before.

She’d found some handsome, but this level of attraction was beyond her experience.

She shook her head at herself as she made her way to the door to collect her father and go down to breakfast. There she hoped to see Castillo again. She practiced saying his name, trying to get the Spanish double L to sound the way it had when Hunter had said it.

“Castillo.” The sound of a man’s voice saying his name left her dumbfounded.

Castillo was leaning with one shoulder against the wall just outside her door with his arms crossed over his chest. He smiled and repeated his name, this time enunciating each syllable, taunting her. “Go ahead, try it again.”

Her cheeks flamed in embarrassment. “I thought…if we’re to pretend…I thought I should know how to say it correctly.”

Castillo inclined his head in acknowledgement. “Of course, Carolina.”

A shiver of pure pleasure snaked through her body at the sound of his voice saying her name again.

It raised gooseflesh on her arms and made her skin tingle.

Even her breasts seemed to tighten somehow, though Caroline had no firsthand experience with what that meant or even why it happened.

She cleared her throat and pulled her shoulders back to disguise her reaction.

Surely he couldn’t tell what he did to her.

He smiled as if he did know. His eyelids lowered slightly, heavy, and one corner of his mouth quirked upward, bringing her attention to his fuller bottom lip.

He was dressed like a gentleman this morning in a plain yet perfectly tailored suit of dove gray.

The coat was stretched across the broad width of his shoulders, emphasizing their strength.

The men at the charity functions in Boston definitely did not have shoulders like that.

His dark hair was parted at the side and pushed back from his forehead.

It fell in rich waves just past his collar, too long to be fashionable but it looked appealing on him.

He was a strange mixture of gentleman mixed with rugged handsomeness that she found very appealing.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“To watch you.”

He didn’t mean that with any sort of intimacy, quite the opposite actually, but the words plucked a chord of longing deep inside her.

Across the hall, just a couple of yards back toward the staircase, her father’s door was cracked open.

She lowered her voice a bit so her father wouldn’t hear. “And what if someone catches you here?”

“I’ll say that I’m enamored of you and can’t stay away.” His lips twitched as he tried to contain his smile. “You do look lovely.” His glance went from her hair to her morning gown before lighting on her face again.

Her heart pounded in her chest. Never had such a casual, possibly disingenuous compliment had such an effect on her. Instead of addressing that, she said, “The charade was my idea. I’d hardly change my mind about it.”

“Trust must be earned, Miss Hartford. I can’t very well give you my trust after one conversation. For all I know, now that it’s morning, you might’ve reconsidered.”

She sighed, but she couldn’t dispute that. If she were in his shoes, she’d be equally suspicious. “Well, I can assure you, Mr. Jameson, that I’m not some faint-hearted dolt. I made a commitment and I’ll see it through.”

Something like respect shone in his eyes. He straightened a bit and gave her a once-over, as if sizing her up in a different light. “Then let’s go down to breakfast.” He held out his arm as if he intended to escort her like a proper gentleman.

This man was so contradictory that she was quickly becoming fascinated with him. Here, in this hallway on this grand estate, he had the aura of a gentleman, but that dangerous man she’d seen on the train lurked just beneath the surface. “I need to collect my father first.”

He nodded once and led the way to the bedroom, though he stayed in the hallway while she pushed the door open and went inside. Her father was sitting outside on his balcony with a medical text in hand. She recognized it as the one she’d read on the train. “Good morning. Are you feeling rested?”

Her father set his book down on his lap and took off his reading glasses. A gentle wind blew wisps of his gray hair out of place. “I’m feeling much better. Thank you, dear. I apologize for my disappearance last night.”

“I assumed you’d decided to go to bed early when you didn’t come down for supper.

” She crossed his room and took in the healthy color in his cheeks and the clear whites of his eyes.

The sallowness was gone. The rest had done him good.

His tired spells were happening more often lately, but they never seemed to last long.

“You look much better.” She leaned over and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“As do you. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you curl your hair when your mother didn’t demand it for a function.” He grinned and rose to his feet, going into his room and placing his book on the bedside table. “I’ll let her know as soon as she arrives.”

Caroline smiled. He was right about that. Her mother was constantly after her to pay more attention to her dress and hair, all in the name of catching a husband, of course. “We’re on an adventure. I thought the change was called for.”

A twinge of guilt at the fib tugged at her chest. She wanted to tell him about the plan she’d concocted with Castillo.

She’d never kept anything from her father before.

While a part of her thought that he might understand and actually go along with it, another part knew of his deep loyalty to her mother.

He sent her daily letters whenever he traveled.

There was no way he could keep quiet about this, and then Caroline would be right back in the position of facing marriage to a virtual stranger in order to continue her education.

Or worse. That stranger might actually demand she not go through with medical training.

As much as she despised the deception, it was necessary.

He smiled back at her as he offered her his arm.

“You look beautiful. You may find yourself a husband yet.” He winked at her and she took his arm and laughed at the jest, but she thought of Castillo.

Somehow she knew that there would be no one else to draw her attention the way he had.

In just two brief meetings he’d fascinated her in a way no one else ever had.

Her reaction to him was almost frightening, because it was completely unprecedented in her experience.

She’d been attracted by a handsome face before, but this was more.

This was deeper. She reacted to him on a visceral level she didn’t quite understand.