The Longing (28 page)

He came back three hours later wondering if
he’d lost his damned mind. It was bad enough having a rocking chair
in his parlor that continually attacked his toes, and prissy
pillows on his sofa he didn’t dare to touch, but now he was about
to add two banshee kittens to the mix. Someone should shoot
him.

“Stay put, for God’s sake.” Kyle tucked one
kitten back into his shirt pocket, but a tiny paw took a swipe at
his finger for the umpteenth time. “Ouch! You little . . .” He
glanced at the wound and cursed. He’d stopped counting the pricks
and scratches halfway home. “If it wasn’t for my wife, you two
would be going right back to Evelyn and Rebecca.” Missy’s litter of
six kittens had been born three days after Kyle’s wedding and
Evelyn was thrilled to send the two most misbehaved female terrors
home with Kyle. Rebecca had given Kyle the evil eye all the way out
of the yard. Just remembering her scowl and those tiny fists
propped on her hips made Kyle snort. God help Radford when that
girl got old enough to speak her mind.

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief to see that
Lucinda’s buggy was gone. He wanted to give Amelia the kittens in
private. If she hated the little devils, Kyle would gladly take
them right back to the livery. But if she liked them, if they
brought even a spark of joy to her eyes, he wanted to try in that
moment to reach through her resentment.

He stepped into the parlor and nodded to
Amelia, who was still sitting in that cursed rocking chair.

“You didn’t have to leave just because
Lucinda was here,” she said, but Kyle only shrugged, his mind too
busy planning how to present the kittens.

Several tiny needles sank into his chest and
Kyle yelped, grabbing for his pocket as the kittens announced
themselves. Amelia’s eyes widened, but he was occupied with the
squirming tyrants that were attacking him through his thin shirt.
“Ouch!” He reached for his pocket and felt another set of needle
marks pierce his skin. “You damned demons!” He grabbed each side of
his open collar and yanked. Buttons flew in all directions.

“What are you doing?” Amelia asked, her
shocked gaze jumping between Kyle and the buttons rolling across
the oak floor.

“Saving what’s left of my skin.” Gripping his
shirt above the pocket, Kyle worked his arms out of the short
sleeves, then shoved it toward Amelia as if it were a soiled
diaper. “Here,” he said, scrapping his plan of trying to romance
his wife. The little hellions would flay him alive before he could
get one of them out of the pocket.

The instant Amelia took the shirt, her eyes
registered the squirming mass in the pocket and she shrieked. She
would have dropped it if Kyle hadn’t cupped his hands and saved the
kittens’ miserable lives.

“It moved!” She glanced at Kyle with a
horrified expression and he knew he’d totally destroyed any
romantic effect he’d hoped for. “What in God’s name is in
there?”

“Demons.” He lowered the shirt to the floor
and stepped back, not trusting the miniature maniacs. “Don’t ask me
what the hell I was thinking to bring them home.”

One fuzzy plum-sized head poked from beneath
the shirt, and eyed Kyle as if deciding whether or not to attack.
“Don’t even think about it,” he warned.

Amelia gaped at the kitten, but it ducked
back under the shirt. “You brought home a kitten?” she asked.
Before Kyle could answer, two furry heads peeped out at them. “Oh,
look! There’s two of them.” Amelia glanced at Kyle with warm
surprise in her eyes. “Are they Missy’s?”

“Yes, but stay back. They’re miniature female
warriors.”

Amelia laughed and knelt beside the shirt.
“They’re precious.” She tapped her finger on the floor and the
kittens barreled out from their hiding place to follow the winding
trail she drew across the floor. Kyle watched with a mixture of
surprise and gladness. He hadn’t heard Amelia laugh in weeks.

The sound of her laughter made it worth
having his chest shredded. So what if his fingers were filled with
more holes than a sieve? It was a small price to pay for the joyful
expression on Amelia’s face.

“I can take them back if you don’t want
them,” he said, fighting the urge to beg her to exile the rat-sized
terrors.

“You got them for me?” she asked, warmth
radiating from her eyes.

“I thought you might miss Missy. Evelyn said
she used to belong to you.”

“She was a stray that made the schoolhouse
her home, but that was my fault for feeding her.”

“If you’d rather have Missy back, I’ll see if
Rebecca will trade her for these two...kittens,” Kyle said, his
hopes soaring that he might yet find a way out of his own bad
decision.

“Of course not. Rebecca loves Missy. I would
never ask her to give her back. Besides, these babies are
adorable.” Amelia swept her fingers across the back of the darker
colored kitten and it rolled onto its back, paddling her fingers
with its paws. “What are we going to name you two?”

“How about Demon and Hellion?”

Amelia laughed and tickled the kitten’s
belly. “Did you give my husband a hard time on the walk home?” The
kitten squirmed and nipped at her fingers. “Well, I don’t blame
you. I wouldn’t want to be stuffed in a pocket, either.”

“I would have wrung their scrawny necks
otherwise.”

Amelia sat back on her heels, her smile
slowly fading as she met his eyes. “No you wouldn’t.”

Because he didn’t know how to respond to the
soft assurance in her voice, Kyle just shrugged.

“Thank you for the kittens.” Her gaze shifted
to his bare chest that was lined with scratches, then back to his
face. “I love them.”

That’s all that mattered. The demon twins
could have the damned house, just as long as they continued to
light Amelia’s eyes with happiness.

“I’ll call you Cinnamon,” she said,
finger-wrestling the dark brown kitten. She swept out her free hand
and chucked the other kitten under the chin. “You’re Ginger.”

The kittens were the color of the spices
she’d named them after, but Kyle still thought the names Demon and
Hellion were more appropriate.

After playing with the kittens all evening,
Amelia turned on the mattress to face her husband, her heart aching
with emotions that were still raw. She loved Kyle. She knew he
regretted pushing her father into a collapse, but the fact remained
that he had. No matter how she turned it, the situation made her
ache. She wanted to forgive and forget, to love Kyle and enjoy
their marriage, but every time she turned toward him, she felt she
was turning away from her father.

“If those scrawny rats don’t stop their
damned crying, I’m going to haul them right back to the
livery.”

Amelia knew Kyle wouldn’t do any such thing.
“The kittens don’t like it out in the woodshed.”

“Well, they’re not sleeping in the
house.”

“It would stop them from crying.”

“No.”

“They can’t climb out of my laundry
crate.”

“I don’t care.”

“It’s their first night away from their
mother.” Kyle sighed and Amelia pressed forward, knowing his
resistance was weakening. “If they aren’t quiet in here, I’ll take
them back to the livery myself.”

Kyle tossed back the sheet and climbed out of
bed. Amelia smiled as the sound of his feet thudded across the
floor. She heard the door open into the woodshed and the sound of
angry mewling increase. Please God, make the little rascals
sleep.

“Where do you want them?” Kyle asked,
returning to the bedroom.

The moonlight coming through their huge
window washed across his naked body and Amelia stared in
admiration. He stood before her, godlike, all sinew and muscle,
broad shoulders and narrow waist, with long, hard legs planted two
feet apart. He was so handsome, so incredible, so oblivious to his
own perfection.

“I can take them back to the livery now if
you like.”

She smiled. “Bring them over here by the
bed.”

“Are you insane?”

“If they don’t quiet down in a few minutes,
I’ll take them back to the woodshed.”

Kyle plopped the crate on Amelia’s side of
the bed. “If I ever do something this stupid again, shoot me.”

She laughed and reached over the side of the
bed to stroke the kittens. They curled together and purred and
after less than three minutes of having their soft fur stroked,
they had fallen asleep.

They were so precious Amelia had to resist
the urge to bring them into bed with her. Instead, she turned
toward Kyle, who lay on his back with his arms folded behind his
head. That he’d been trying to please her, that he was willing to
do anything to make her happy, melted Amelia’s resentment. The
sadness and pain lingered, but the anger had finally dissolved.

“Thank you for bringing the girls inside,”
she said, trying to do her part to heal their marriage.

“Thank
you
for putting them to
sleep.”

“I love them, Kyle.” She slid her palm over
the muscles and mounds of his chest, letting her fingers slip
through the coarse hair. “They’re a wonderful gift.”

His chest shuddered and he gripped her hand
to stop her from moving it farther down his abdomen. “I don’t need
to be rewarded, Amelia. I just wanted to make you happy.” He
lowered his arms and slipped one around her shoulders, her head
pillowed by his thick muscle. “Get some sleep while you can. The
demon twins will be raising hell before you know it.”

o0o

The kittens lived up to Kyle’s prediction,
and he’d spent two grueling weeks thinking he was going to pull his
hair out. While one kitten was mewling and swiping at him with her
sharp little claws, the other was darting from beneath furniture
and giving him heart seizures thinking he was going to accidentally
step on the damned thing.

But Amelia loved them and she was always
playing with them. Her laughter filled the house and her eyes
sparkled again. She took the kittens, or the “girls” as she called
them, everywhere, including the lumberyard, and to Kyle’s disgust,
everyone ended up fawning over the little rats.

Even now she cradled them in her lap, petting
them as they pulled into Radford’s driveway to attend a picnic
Evelyn was having.

Rebecca tore across the lawn, running toward
their carriage. “Did you bring the kitties?” she yelled, and when
Amelia smiled and nodded, Rebecca whooped. “I’ll get Missy!”

While dodging the swipe of kitty paws, Kyle
helped Amelia from the carriage. Evelyn immediately took one of the
kittens and nuzzled its soft fur as they stood on the front lawn.
“They’ve grown so much already.”

“That’s because Amelia feeds them all the
time.”

Amelia wrinkled her nose at him and Kyle
grinned, glad to see her spirited personality returning.

Rebecca skidded to a halt beside them with
Missy clutched in her arms. “Are they hungry?” she asked. “Their
mama can feed them now.”

“Let’s see if they still know each other.”
Amelia knelt and put Cinnamon in the grass.

Rebecca lowered Missy. “Do mamas forget their
babies?” she asked, and Kyle’s heart jolted as Evelyn and Amelia
exchanged a heartbroken glance. Although Evelyn treated Rebecca
like her own daughter, another woman had borne Rebecca, but she’d
abandoned her at infancy. With the help of nannies, Radford had
raised Rebecca alone until he’d brought her home a year ago. For
the first time since Evelyn had broken their engagement, Kyle could
honestly admit that he was grateful Evelyn had chosen to love
Radford and his daughter who desperately needed her love.

Missy sniffed at Cinnamon, but the little
rascal was too busy swatting at a piece of grass to pay her mother
any attention. Evelyn laughed and put Ginger in the grass beside
her curious sibling. Rebecca flopped down beside them, giggling as
the kittens hunched their little backs and pounced on old dandelion
stalks. They played with Rebecca’s fingers, and crawled over her
stomach as she lay in the grass beside Missy.

Watching Rebecca made Kyle’s chest ache. She
was so innocent, her child’s laughter so beautiful to the ear. He
would have his own daughter someday. She would be silly and playful
like Rebecca. She would have her own personality and a laugh unique
to her, but she would share the natural, carefree spirit that
Rebecca possessed.

Amelia possessed that natural playfulness,
too, he thought, looking down to see Amelia and Evelyn sitting in
the grass with Rebecca. Though Amelia’s pain had suppressed that
part of her nature, it was beginning to rise to the surface again,
and hopefully soon, Kyle would have back the woman he’d
married.

“Kyle!” He lifted his head and saw Boyd
waving him out to the backyard. “Help us get this horseshoe pit set
up.”

Kyle’s spirits lifted for the first time in a
month, and he gladly headed toward the backyard where Radford and
Duke were working with Boyd.

“You can thank me later for rescuing you,”
Boyd said, then shoved a mug of ale into Kyle’s hand.

As they finished digging out the pits, Kyle
drank and talked with his brothers. Soon the yard would be filled
with the crews from the depot and lumberyard. Their neighbors, Tom
and Martha Fisk would come. Victoria and his mother would come,
too, and maybe even some close friends like Agatha Brown and
Richard and Lucinda.

By mid-afternoon they were all there and Kyle
enjoyed one of the best days he’d had in years. Shouts and cheers
came from the men surrounding the horseshoe pits. Giggles and
screams came from Rebecca and all her little friends who were
chasing through the yard with her. The women stayed mostly on the
porch, but their roars of laughter told Kyle they were having a
grand time.

Occasionally, he would spy Amelia through the
cluster of women, and the joy in her expression would ease his
mind. He could see that she was finally beginning to feel at ease
with his mother, who sat between Amelia and Evelyn, talking. Kyle
couldn’t hear what she was saying, but he would wager a dollar it
was a story about some crazy thing Kyle and his brothers had done
when they were boys. Amelia laughed again and Kyle could tell she
wasn’t thinking about her father today, or the problems in their
marriage. She was relaxed and enjoying herself with her family the
way she should be.