All About Seduction(122)

“You know it is silly for you to live at Mrs. Goode’s place and sleep on a cot when you could share a bed with me. If we got married.”

He frowned. If it were his baby, she’d tell him. “When are you due?”

Her eyes filled with moisture. “Early fall.”

A little after Caro was due, so it couldn’t be his. Jack heaved a sigh of relief.

“I’m sorry, Lucy. Why don’t you tell the father?”

Her mouth flattened and she looked toward the mill. He followed the line of her sight to a group of men, all of them married. He didn’t know which one, but it didn’t matter. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Caroline approaching the mill office.

“I can’t be late.”

“What are you going to do, Jack? Wait your whole life for a woman who’ll never have you?”

“I got to go, Lucy.” He pulled his arm free. He wasn’t waiting so much as biding his time, studying the book he’d bought, The Origin and Progress of the Caoutchouc or India-Rubber Industry in England, by one Thomas Hancock. But what the hell was the difference?

For a second Caroline’s face revealed a stark yearning to match his. Then she ducked her head and entered the office.

He walked away without another glance at Lucy. If there was the ghost of a chance with Caroline, he wasn’t ready to give up. Not when he’d already ordered several sheets of rubber and the chemicals to alter it. He might not be able to afford to start a business, but he could at least experiment with covering the handles of his crutches and padding the brace he wore on his weakened leg. Once he had products, he could go from there.

When he entered the office, Caroline greeted him as she greeted all the other clerks. He was never first or last in her notice. She never did anything to call attention to him.

Later he was engrossed in going over ledger entries, making sure the tallies added up, when his skin tingled. Caroline stood beside him with a sheaf of papers in her hand.

He stared at the ledger, even though the numbers blurred. He couldn’t notice the porcelain cast to Caro’s skin, or inhale too deeply of her sweet scent. His heart shouldn’t be pounding, but it was. She put the papers in front of him and asked a question that she knew the answer to.

“Ma’am?”

She let out a sigh and twisted. “Everyone has gone outside.”

He looked behind to discover the office had emptied.

“A caravan with a Punch and Judy show.” Caroline shrugged. “I suggested a break to watch.”

Jack leaned to see out the window where the clerks and a few of the villagers had gathered around a brightly painted wagon. It didn’t matter. He didn’t dare leave his work. The few times he’d gone to the production side of the mill to show his brother David how to fix different pieces of machinery, he was careful to get permission, and then stayed late to make up any clerical work.

Caroline reached across, grabbed his far hand and placed it on her belly. “Do you feel that?”

The bulge of her pregnancy was slight but surprisingly firm. It popped under his hand.

Even getting clobbered by a life-size Punch couldn’t have erased the grin from his face. That was his baby kicking. “Damn.”

“Jack . . .” Caroline’s voice quivered.

Had seeing him with Lucy caused her concern? He opened his mouth to reassure her, but then clamped it shut again.

“I need to see you,” she whispered.

“You know where to find me.”

She hesitated, and he realized he was rubbing her belly. He pulled his hand back.

“I understand if you don’t want to . . . if you’ve moved on.” She blushed furiously. “Are you ever alone?”

“When Mrs. Goode attends a birth.” Twisting on his stool, he looked past her toward the door. God forgive him, but he’d thought this out too many times. “Molly Chandler is due any day. I will place a lamp in the apothecary shop window when Mrs. Goode goes to attend her.”

Her forehead crinkled. He wanted to rub his thumb along her soft skin and smooth the worry away. He wanted to see her eyes bright with desire, not fear. Having her in his arms again would be worth any price.

“You should be able to see it from the upper stories of your home.”

The outer door opened and she sprang back.

“I will see that those figures are entered,” said Jack.

She nodded and escaped into the inner office as the clerks filed back inside.