Read Online The Antique Love by Helena Fairfax - Free Book Online

dusty nook and cranny, but more than that, she had a magical way of telling a story. He could have listened to her for hours as she conjured up the sort of people who would have lived in the house. She made them seem so real, it was as though they’d just walked out the door.
    He took in her fresh, glowing features and was filled with a sudden warmth, an urge to reach for her that took him by surprise. He reached a hand to touch her temple, making light of his sudden swell of tenderness.
    “There’s a cobweb.” He brushed the trail away. And then, because he didn’t want the morning with her to end yet, he surprised himself further by adding, “I’m going to take a walk out there in the park. Want to come with me?”
    Penny flinched a little at the touch of his fingers. She stepped back, so her shoulders were pressed against the glass.
    “Yuck, spiders,” she said after a minute, brushing at her fringe, her face hidden beneath the sweep of her long hair. “You’re right. Let’s take a walk and get out of all this dust.”
    * * * *
    Penny took a deep breath as soon as she stepped outdoors. A walk in the fresh air would do her good in more ways than one. The huge old house was beginning to feel too small to contain them both, and she felt again the urgency of putting as much space as possible between herself and Kurt.
    Noon was chill and misty when they reached the park. Although a scattering of hopeful crocuses had pushed their way through the grassland, the chill damp of winter continued to hang in the air. She had swathed herself in a woolly scarf and hat. Only her eyes and broad cheekbones were showing, invigorated by the fresh air. Kurt had thrown on a thin fleece. She could see him visibly relaxing as they left the traffic-filled streets and entered the wide green space of the park.
    “Aren’t you cold?” She knew the answer to the question before she’d even asked it. Kurt seemed to radiate health and vitality, even more so now they had reached the outdoors. He looked at her across the couple of feet of distance she had made between them and laughed, his outbreath joining the mist.
    “This isn’t so cold. You should see the ice and the snow in Wyoming—now that’s cold.”
    “Do you miss it?” she asked curiously, lifting her head from the path they were treading. “Home, I mean?”
    “I miss the scale of it all. The sky and the mountains. I don’t like to feel too boxed in.”
    They trod the muddy path in silence for a while. Penny wondered what it must be like to be living abroad, far from family and in an alien landscape. She couldn’t imagine leaving her grandfather and her shop and being happy. Kurt spoke again, almost as though he’d read her thoughts.
    “I miss the landscape, but I wouldn’t call Wyoming home. Apart from my sister, there’s no one there I miss.”
    It was the first time since they met that Kurt had revealed anything of himself unprompted. He was looking straight ahead, apparently concentrating on the scene unfolding as they moved through the thin mist.
    “Don’t you have anyone else? Other family?”
    He gave a small shake of the head. “Like you, my mom died when I was small. My dad died a couple years back. My sister’s really my half-sister. And my step-mom’s around somewhere, but me and my sister, we haven’t heard from her for years.”
    For someone as taciturn as Kurt, it was a long and revealing speech. Penny concentrated on the path for a while, the moisture from her breath fading and falling. The leaves from the previous autumn were sodden and decaying underfoot, masking the sound of her boots. When she drew in a deep breath to speak, the sound was clear in the cold air.
    “Haven’t you ever tried?” she asked. “To contact your stepmum, I mean?”
    Kurt kept up his loose-limbed stride, both hands in the pockets of his fleece. When he didn’t answer immediately, she carried on impulsively.
    “I mean, family’s important, isn’t it? Doesn’t