Just to Have You (Blackwood & Friends #3)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

"I hope you are aware of the esteem I hold you in considering how averse I am to feeling cold and wet by willingly stepping onto this boat when the weather bodes ominously indeed," Amy pointed out, hugging his coat tighter about her shoulders as he stepped inside the raft. Using a splintering oar, Oliver propelled the rowboat the rest of the way into the murky water of the lake, and they skirted away from the shore, rocking from side to side.

"You are certainly petulant today," Oliver muttered, settling himself as gently as he could on the bench opposite her. Locating the other oar from beneath their feet, he positioned them in the water. "I have never known you to shy away from a bit of an inconvenience before."

Eyeing the sludge that rippled over the toes of her boots, Amy raised her brows. "You have forgotten the picnic basket," she teased. "And perhaps it is about time I make you well aware of any inconveniences I feel personally affected by. Lest I remind you a dry set of clothing lies a few miles away from here."

Oliver jerked his head to the shore, frowning. "Oh, blast. Shall I return for it? It was part of the plan, after all."

"Perhaps it would be better to partake of the food ashore." Was there more water than before gathering at the bottom of the boat?

"I suppose that is fine," Oliver remarked, turning back to her with a grin that creased his swarthy cheeks and reached the depths of his eyes. "I can woo you well enough without strawberries and wine."

Something was definitely causing the murky water by her toes to ripple. Wondering briefly what poor creature had joined them on their adventure, Amy crooked her lips into a smile at the man opposite her. Their legs were close together and his arms and shoulders moved with smooth grace and strength as he propelled the oars, slicing the water with broad strokes that skimmed the rowboat swiftly to the centre of the lake. "Whatever do you need to woo me for?"

The expression that crossed his face was decidedly wolfish then. "If you would let me, I'd spend the entirety of our lives finding different ways to woo you. However, today I deduced something special would need to be contrived considering the contents you will find in the pocket-"

His words caught as both their eyes dropped to the faint splash originating from between Amy's ankles. There was definitely some small creature swimming about, and it made its presence known in the next moment when a pointed greenish snout and a pair of liquid eyes blinked up at her.

Oliver made a strangled sound.

"Oh, it's just a little frog," Amy chided. She bent over, well aware of the man's distress at the harmless creature, and intended to scoop it out and toss it into the lake, but the amphibian darted from the reach of her fingers and disappeared under the bench she was sitting upon.

"Amy, don't-"

But she had stood already, twisting around to locate the frog that had swum behind her. The boat dipped and veered dangerously to each side and Amy teetered, slanting backwards. A cold, wet something suddenly clung to her ankle and she yelped, her fright reeling her backwards and her legs caught on the bench. Wheeling her arms, she collapsed with her bottom in the water on the other side of the bench, her legs dangling over the wood, boat tilting wildly from side to side.

It was then that a tiny little frog decided to render the most damage that day as it leapt out from within her petticoats and skirts and landed itself firmly on Oliver's horrified face.

His yell reverberated across the trees and off the stone walls of the house. Frantic, the oars were tossed aside, landing with a splash into the water on either side of the boat as they jerked haphazardly from side to side, sloshing icy cold water over them both. "Ben!" Amy hollered, her fingers tightening on the sides of the raft as they tippled closer and closer to capsizing, but Oliver was beyond hearing, especially when the little frog hopped over his nose, its sticky toes clinging to the lenses of his spectacles, and then it leapt into a lock of his auburn hair.