Chapter 96
Washington, DC, USA, 1892
Kit’s grandfather was a splendid gentleman by the name of Carson Kennedale, and Jamie had formed quite a friendship with him over the last few years. While he had no idea that Kit often spent the night in Jamie’s apartment, which was located just down the hall from hers in the building the team now occupied near Bannaker Circle, he did know how serious their relationship had become, and he seemed to like Jamie enough not to want to test the new bullets Jamie had been working on with his son on the doctor.
While they had yet to perfect an amalgam that allowed the integrity of the silver to stay in place while keeping the strength of steel, they were getting closer all the time. Jamie knew another team, one in Philadelphia, was working on the same thing, and he hoped someday the could all meet up to put their heads together.
Despite the fact that Carson was well over a hundred years old, it was difficult to tell, as he only appeared to be in his mid-fifties. Hunters didn’t age nearly as quickly as humans, though they changed much more rapidly than Guardians who often stopped aging altogether before they even hit middle age.
It was the aging that was Kit’s hang up, and many a discussion had been had between the pair of them as to whether or not it was wise for a Hunter and Guardian to marry when Jamie would live forever and Kit would eventually die.
Sunlight was streaming through his bedroom window, and Jamie knew it was time for them to untangle from each other and get on with the business of the day, but Kit was sleeping. Stretching over her, he picked up his pocket watch off of the dresser and noted it was almost noon. They had stayed out late the night before scrounging for information about a particular bloodsucker they were interested in ending. Carson was of the opinion he now knew where to find the man that evening, and the team would be meeting in a couple of hours to go over the plan. Later that night, they would be executing the attack.
Kit slept much more than Jamie did. Now that he had been a Guardian for several years, he no longer needed as much shuteye. Kit was a relatively new Hunter, and their type tended to need more rest anyway. So, it wasn’t surprising to him that she slumbered on almost eight hours after she’d gone to bed.
Not that they’d gone right to sleep, and once he set his watch back on the counter, he pulled his arm back and draped it over her. The blankets were wrapped up around her, exposing only her bare shoulders, and the look of repose on her face made her fair skin look pristine, her long eyelashes fluttering only occasionally. He compared her to a sleeping princess in a fairy tale and thought of kissing her awake.
He didn’t need to, though. The weight of Jamie’s gaze drew Kit out of her dreams, and she opened her eyes to find him smiling at her. “What are you doing?” she asked, her voice husky.
“Looking at you,” he admitted.
Kit giggled quietly but closed her eyes again. “Why? Haven’t you anything better to do?”
“I can’t think of anything,” he admitted, leaning down and finding the soft flesh between her shoulder and neck with his lips. She squirmed a bit but then slid into him, the warmth of her body meeting his beneath the blankets.
“What time is it?” she asked, breathing into his chest.
“Time for another round?” he asked, brushing her curls back away from her face.
“Jamie….” She said his name as if it had several consonants. “I don’t think we should. We’ll be missed at the office.”
“No one has come knocking on our door.”
“Your door,” she corrected him. Her eyes were open now, and she leaned back a bit. “You don’t know that Grandfather hasn’t come looking for me. Or sent someone.”
“If he was looking for you, I’m certain he would’ve come here to see if I knew where you were.” It seemed logical, but he could tell by her expression that Kit didn’t agree.
She swallowed hard, and he could tell whatever she said next, he wasn’t going to like it. “I don’t like sneaking around behind his back.”
“You didn’t seem to mind much last night.” He hoped it came out as a tease but could tell by her expression that she was offended. “Kit….”
“James!” she sat up, pushing back against the pillows so that she was leaning against the iron headboard. “I’m serious. I know you think we can just have a little fun and everything is fine, but that’s not how my parents raised me.”
Jamie tried to keep his voice calm so that they wouldn’t have the same argument again. “Kit, you know I love you. I’d marry you right now, if you’d stop telling me no.” He didn’t sit up, only gazed up at her. “I’ve asked you a dozen times.”
Running her hands through her unruly curls, Kit scrubbed at her face. “It’s not all that simple, now is it?”
“It is to me.” As much as he didn’t want to argue with her, he also didn’t want to have the same conversation again. It happened at least once a month, maybe more often now.
“I’m going to die someday,” she reminded him, her words even. “I’m going to turn into a hideous old bag, incapable of hunting anymore, and you’re going to wish you had a young, spry wife.”
He sat up now, leaning against the wall behind him. “Kit, you’re talking about a hundred years from now. Why can’t we just be happy until then….”
“Oh, so only a hundred years from now before I’m atrocious to look at?”
“No, I was rounding….”
She shook her head and pulled the sheets around her as she pulled herself out of the bed, covering her bare skin. “We can’t keep doing this, Jamie! I’ve been telling you for almost two years!”
“All right, Kit.” He was exasperated now but tried to maintain his composure. “What would you like to do?”
Her pink, plump lips pressed together. “I don’t know,” she said quietly.
Jamie sighed and scooted over so that his legs were dangling off of the bed now, not caring that the blanket had all but fallen away. “Kit, I love you. I want to marry you. I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I don’t care if you’re young or old. You know your ring is waiting, right there, in that drawer,” he pointed to the dresser, “and as soon as you want it, it’s yours.”
Tears began to roll down her face. “I need to go,” she said quietly.
Jamie nodded and watched as she stooped down and gathered up her clothes, walking behind the screen he had set up in the corner of the room to get dressed. He knew that her lack of answer was not a refusal but only yet another attempt to stall. He couldn’t quite understand why she kept dragging him along the way she did; perhaps she was simply scared of commitment and it had nothing to do with getting old, but he would wait for her, for as long as it took.
