Storing Up Trouble, стр. 98
“Norman? Can you hear me?”
A moan was his only response. Turning, she nodded to Murray. “Help me over?”
Murray immediately got down on all fours. “Don’t know if you’ll have enough height, but give it a go.”
Beatrix stepped up on Murray’s back, finding herself a few inches short, but then Theodosia gave her backside a hard shove, which had Beatrix moving upward at a rapid rate. She promptly tumbled over the hedge, landing directly on top of Norman, who let out an “Oomph.”
“I’m so sorry,” she said, scrambling off him. “Can you tell me where you’ve been injured?”
“I think you knocked the wind out of me just now, but . . . I’ve got an odd ringing in my head.”
Bending over him, Beatrix began probing his head, concern flowing freely when she felt him begin to shake, until she realized he was laughing. Sitting back, she gave him a swat. “Is your head even injured?”
“Well, no, it might just be my ear since I landed on one of them, but the last time I told you I injured my head, you leaned over me exactly as you just did, allowing me to enjoy the most delightful scent of your perfume.”
“You really have injured your head, haven’t you?”
Norman pushed himself up to his elbows. “I don’t have an injured head, Beatrix, although I am most assuredly suffering from an injured heart, a condition brought about by my own stupidity.” He sat up before reaching out and taking hold of her hand, the action and his recent words taking her by such surprise that she didn’t even try to tug her hand from his.
“I was an idiot, but I’m here to try to make amends,” he said. “I’ve already spoken to your father and extended him a most fervent apology for even entertaining the thought that he was behind the continued threats to my research, so now I’m here to do the same with you.”
“How did my father react to your apology?”
“He was quick to accept it, although he did launch into a rather scathing lecture about how I’d mistreated you. He told me he’d be happy to take me to Grace Church so that I could seek out the advice of a man of the cloth. However, when I hesitated about that because I really wanted to seek you out without delay, he then launched into a bit about how men of science should not dismiss religion but should embrace it since God is the only explanation for life . . . or something to that effect.” He winced. “I must admit I missed some of it because your mother began whispering things to your father to add, and then your aunt Gladys chimed in, and then Edgar a moment later.”
“Did you come to New York with Aunt Gladys and Edgar?”
“No, it was one of those unexpected happenstances I’ve been experiencing ever since I met you.”
“Were you able to make amends with my father?”
“I believe so, although I’m relatively certain Gladys is still put out with me, because after I told him I wanted to borrow his fastest horse, she’s the one who convinced your father that Lightning would be a good choice for me.”
“She knows you don’t ride horses, Norman.”
He glanced at the hedges. “Clearly, although I’m getting rather proficient at tumbling off them.”
“You should have told my father that, because he would have never chosen Lightning for you.”
“I didn’t have time. As I said, I wanted to get to you quickly, but in all honesty, even if I had admitted to your father that I am less than proficient at riding a horse, there is a possibility he still would have given me Lightning, what with the way he was going on about how I mistreated his daughter.”
“Is everyone alive over there?” Theodosia called.
“We’re fine,” Norman called back. “How’s Lightning?”
“I think he’s snickering.”
“Of course he is.” Norman turned back to Beatrix and blew out a breath. “I owe you a heartfelt apology.”
“Did someone tell you to add that heartfelt business?”
“Gladys might have mentioned it.”
Beatrix pressed her lips together to keep from smiling. “Of course she did, but since you did travel all this way to apologize, I believe it would be churlish of me to do anything but accept it.”
Norman rubbed his head. “Perhaps I have suffered some type of head trauma, because I swear you just accepted my apology, and with absolutely no fuss.”
“I’m not a fussy kind of lady. I’m practical. I told you I wanted you to apologize to my father, which you have done, and then you apologized to me, although I’m not sure how you came to the conclusion I wasn’t guilty of the charges your mother laid against me.”
“Well, I wrote out a summary of everything, and after studying it for a full day, I—”
“Decided there wasn’t enough evidence against me?”
“No. I abandoned the summary because it didn’t matter. What mattered was that I know you—know you better than I’ve ever known anyone, including Theo—even though I’ve not known you for that long, if that makes any sense.”
Beatrix blinked to keep the unexpected tears that were threatening to blind her at bay.
What Norman had said did make sense because . . . she knew him too.
He was annoying, opinionated, and too intelligent for his own good, but he made her laugh, was incredibly kind when one least expected it, and she found him more interesting than any man she’d ever known, and . . . she was rather certain she loved him.
He’d been willing to carry her straight out of her aunt’s house when he’d thought she was in danger, and then he’d come to visit her at Marshall Field & Company, parading past her in the most outlandish jacket she’d ever seen, the sight of him in that jacket leaving her laughing. He’d also abandoned his work on his electrical conveyance vehicle to help his little niece and her