Magic In The Storm (13 page)

Adriana jumped at the sound of his voice, and
twisted her body around to look at him.

“Oh, you startled me.” Her cheeks turned a
little pink and she tried to quickly gather up her things. Putting
on her hat, she closed what Morgan could see now was a box of
paints, and tried to stand up at the same time.

She stumbled as she stepped on the hem of her
dress, but Morgan took a few quick steps forward and caught her
elbow before she fell.

“There is no need for you to get up,” he said
soothingly. She seemed to be very agitated all of a sudden.

She gave a nervous little laugh, but then
looked down and noticed that part of the hem of her dress had torn.
“Oh dear!” she gave an exasperated sigh. “I wish I weren’t so
clumsy!”

Morgan smiled. “I just can’t imagine anyone
as graceful and beautiful as you could be uncoordinated.”

Adriana shook her head, as color flooded her
cheeks. She was clearly at a loss for words. But Morgan didn’t
think she needed to say a thing as he sank into the warm pool of
her green eyes.

He could have just stood there, staring into
her beautiful eyes, and maybe caressing her soft pink cheek. But
then that wouldn’t have been enough, he’d want to kiss her
again...

Oberon gave a bark, abruptly recalling Morgan
to his surroundings. When had his dog become so annoying and rude?
He took a step back, away from Adriana, although he wanted nothing
more than to get closer—much closer.

“What were you were painting?” he asked, in
an effort to pull his mind away from where it had been heading.

“What? Oh!” she gave another nervous laugh
and looked down at her sketchbook that was still lying on the
ground where she had left it.

Morgan bent down and picked it up. The
picture was that of the flowing stream. She had caught the flow of
the water beautifully, its ebbs and eddies and the slightly
turbulent nature of it as it moved briskly downstream. She had
begun to paint the greenery surrounding it, but that was where she
had stopped.

As with Adriana’s drawings, she had somehow
infused feelings into the painting as well as simply depicting what
she saw. This one gave a sense of longing and sadness, as if she
wished she could continue on with the flowing water instead of
being trapped here on the bank. And there was something more...
there was a feeling Morgan was more familiar with than, he thought,
anyone.

He looked up at her questioningly.

Her eyes were unusually large as she watched
him look at her painting. Their green depths were dark with
anxiety.

“It’s lovely,” he said, reassuringly.

She released her breath, and gave him a
little smile and a shrug. “Some people hate my work.”

“Why? It’s beautiful.”

She bent down to pick up her paints, which
had fallen when she’d lost her balance. “My guardian says they are
too emotional. I believe he finds them disturbing.”

Morgan nodded his head. He could understand
some might find that to be so. The painting did carry a lot of
emotion within it. But he wasn’t disturbed by it, only intrigued.
He’d never experienced anything like this before when looking at a
painting—then, of course, he hadn’t spent much time looking at
paintings. The only ones he’d ever seen were those of his ancestors
hanging in the abbey, but clearly none had ever made much of an
impression on him. And they were nothing at all like Adriana’s
work.

Morgan marveled at the emotion in the
painting he was holding. This time knew better than to ask her
about it, but it was there—that desire, that need to escape that
was sometimes so strong within him that he could barely contain
himself. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he would go riding
through the forest—riding as fast as he could. Or sometimes he ran,
feeling the blood pumping through his muscles as he zigzagged
through the trees. It made his heart pound. And that was what was
depicted here in the swiftly flowing stream—the desire, the need,
for freedom.

But it couldn’t be. Adriana
was
free.
She wasn’t caged in like he was. She was free to go wherever she
wanted, while he could never leave these woods.

No, it must be a mistake. He must be
misinterpreting her painting. But there was definitely something
there. “What do you want?”

“I’m sorry?” she asked, straightening her hat
and tying the ribbon underneath her chin.

“In the picture, it looks, er, feels, as if
you want something.”

Her cheeks turned pink once more and she
shook her head, but didn’t say anything. She turned to stare at the
stream. Morgan allowed her a moment of silence to collect her
thoughts. He had clearly hit on a nerve.

“It is nothing.” She took her sketchbook from
his hand and carefully closed the book.

Whatever it was, he supposed she wasn’t ready
to tell him about it. He let it go.

Remembering that he had come here to collect
water for the animals, he walked down to the bank and bent down to
fill the pail.

“How are the animals in your barn?” she
asked, watching him.

“Most are better. There are still a few who
have not yet fully recovered.” He stood up, careful not to spill
the water. He had managed to fill the pail very full. “Would
you...” he stopped. He’d almost forgotten—girls generally didn’t
like animals. At least, none of his sisters had, although Kat had
never seemed to mind them too much.

“Would I what?” she asked.

“I was going to ask if you’d like to see
them, but I don’t suppose you would.”

“Well, yes, actually, I would very much. What
sort of animals do you have?”

Morgan came closer to her again. “Squirrels,
rabbits, hedgehogs, a vixen with her cubs. And there is a foal with
his mother. Unfortunately, he’s having the hardest time of it. Are
you truly interested?” He could hardly believe she would be.

Her smile was like a ray of sunshine. “Yes, I
am. I would love to see them. May I?”

Heat shot through him as he gave a nod before
leading her back to his barn.

How did Adriana make him so happy? Did she
just know that wanting to see the animals would make him feel this
way? Did she do it on purpose, or was she actually interested?
Morgan hadn’t a clue, he just knew that his feet hardly touched the
ground as he led her back to his barn.

Morgan propped open the barn door to let in
some fresh air. It was getting rather ripe with so many animals all
living together like this. He was almost embarrassed to have
Adriana visiting when things weren’t so clean.

He poured some of the water into a trough
small enough to allow even the smallest animals to drink from it,
while Adriana stood looking out of place in her pretty frock.

Many of the animals, upon smelling a
stranger, had quickly run to hide, but Adriana, after carefully
placing her painting materials on a shelf by the door, sat down in
the middle of the floor, heedless of her dress. She put her hands
out, palm up and waited.

Morgan stood off to the side to see what
would happen. After a few minutes, a few of the rabbits and a
squirrel ventured out of their hiding places. Slowly approaching
her, they sniffed, taking in her scent. Clearly they liked it as
much as Morgan had, for they came closer, and even, eventually,
allowed her to gently touch them.

She turned and gave Morgan a brilliant smile.
Heat burned through him, hotter than if he’d been hit by
lightning.

He could no more resist her allure than the
animals. He walked over and picked up a rabbit that was sniffing at
her skirt. He settled himself next to her, gently petting the bunny
in his hand.

He saw her eyes slide towards him briefly,
but she kept her focus on the animals surrounding her.

“They are so sweet,” she said, quietly.

“They trust you.”

“Well, I would never hurt them.”

“Neither would Kat, but they don’t come so
near to her.”

“That’s right, Kat told me she sometimes
comes to visit you.”

Morgan nodded. “She does, but very rarely
does she interact with the animals. They usually keep their
distance. But they can sense when someone is friendly and
trustworthy.”

She gave a little smile, and a comfortable
silence fell between them. It was so wonderful, amazing really, to
just sit here with her like this—to share these little details of
his life with Adriana.

“Freedom,” Adriana said quietly, while
watching a fox cub smell around her foot.

“Freedom?” Morgan asked. He had been lost in
his own thoughts, and wondered for a moment if he’d missed
something.

“It was what I am longing for in the
painting.”

Morgan felt his throat clench and he
swallowed hard. He had been right! But it still didn’t make
sense.

“How could that be? How do you not have
freedom?” he asked, wishing desperately he could tell her that he
had recognized the feeling—it was one he was all too familiar
with.

“I told you I was here to become engaged to
Lord Vallentyn.”

“Yes, but you said you were going to find a
way out of it.”

“I had hoped I could find a way to do so, but
Lord Devaux informed me today that I was going marry Lord Vallentyn
no matter what and I should just get on with it and accept the
proposal.”

“What would happen if you refused?”

Adriana shook her head. “My guardian would
destroy all of my paintings and never allow me to sketch or paint
again. It’s not something I could live with, and he knows it.” She
paused to wipe away the tear that was making its way down her cheek
and to take a deep shaky breath. Morgan marveled at her
restraint.

“Painting is my life,” she continued. “It
is
my freedom. It’s the only thing I have... in a world
where I am not even allowed out of the house without Lord Devaux’s
express permission, painting allows me the freedom I desire— to
roam the world. To visit places I long to go. To do what
I
want. If he takes that away from me...” She sniffed, taking in
another deep breath. “He knows I would never give it up. I would
rather marry a man I don’t know than stop painting.”

She turned her face to him. It was filled
with such sadness, and yet she had the strength to endure her
guardian’s dictates in order to keep what was most important to
her.

This time Morgan didn’t pause, or even try to
stop himself. He kissed her. Pressing his lips to hers, he let her
know he understood exactly what she was feeling, and took all of
her sadness, anger and frustration away. He knew—he knew so
well—what it felt like to be imprisoned like this. To have your
freedom denied to you. To want, no, to
need
to be free.

He longed to share with her what he had been
going through. How he lived. Caged in these woods, he could no more
escape his situation than she could escape hers. He too felt as
trapped as she did—only she had her painting to free her. And he
had... nothing.

Adriana pulled away. Everything rushing
through her was disturbingly wonderful. She could hardly think—her
mind was so full of Morgan, and how incredible he made her feel.
But she had to think, she had to keep her wits about her, or else
she would find herself in a situation that even Henrietta wouldn’t
be able to accept. She had already gone too far, she knew, just by
allowing him to kiss her. She would not give any more fodder to
Lord Devaux and his disdain of her.

But when she was so close to Morgan... it was
impossible to say no.

She needed distance. That’s what would allow
her to regain control over her wayward emotions. Distance.

She carefully removed the fox cub that had
crawled into her lap. Getting up, she tip–toed through the animals
which surrounded them and moved toward the door.

She stared out at the seemingly unending
forest of trees, trying to compose herself. Her lips were still
tingling from their kiss, and her skin was hot where he had touched
her. “How wonderful it must be to live here in the woods with the
animals. You can do whatever you want.” She shook her head. She
didn’t want to wallow in her problems any more than she already
had. She wanted... she wanted what he had, the freedom to be
carefree and to have fun.

She spun back towards him. “What do you do
for fun—besides play with your dog in the river?” She took a few
steps toward his horse, Apollo, who was watching her from his
stall. “Do you ride?”

Morgan too stood up, and carefully moved away
from the animals, which were wandering about now that they weren’t
the center of attention any more. “Yes. That’s how I feel free. I
ride or run through the forest.”

“It can’t be easy riding with all of the
trees growing so closely together,” she said, peering outside
again.

“There are some straighter paths where the
trees aren’t so close. It is mainly around this area that the trees
are so dense.” He followed her out of the barn door.

She looked around at the trees that
surrounded his home. A neat and very definite line seemed to have
been drawn between the well–tended ground around Morgan’s cottage,
and the dense wild growth of the woods, making his home into a sort
of haven amidst the forest.

“It must be a fun challenge to run as fast as
you can without colliding into a tree,” she laughed, daring to
forget her troubles, even if it would just be for a short time.

Morgan stood next to her and looked around at
the trees trying to see them as she did. “I used to do that when I
was young. Kat and I would have races through the woods—the
toughest one was always going from here to the stream.”

An idea began to form itself in her mind.
Adriana turned and gave him a sly little smile. “Ready?” She paused
for the briefest moment and then said very quickly, “Steady. Go!”
And took off running toward the stream.

She ran, wishing she could throw her arms out
with abandon. She ran, taking the fresh air of the forest deep into
her lungs and breathing in the freedom. She laughed as she weaved
in and out of the trees, nearly colliding with one after another.
She hoped she was running in the right direction—she thought that
she was, but she wasn’t entirely sure of the way. Because of that,
too, she laughed.