“You work hard,” she acknowledged, her swallow visible.
“I do,” he said. “I have to thank Rhys for that, for the most part, although I’d appreciate if you didn’t share that with him. Then the rest is from my job. It can be hard work.”
“I can imagine,” she said, pausing for so long that he wondered whether she had fallen asleep before she asked, “Can I do anything to help you? What does your employer’s wife do with her time?”
It took him a moment to realize her offer to help was not for anything in the present moment, for which he could have thought of an answer or two.
“Mostly, she looks after the house,” he said. “They havefour daughters, although they are nearly all grown now. Before I took on most of the work, she would also help in the shop, preparing and cleaning tools, and even doing small jobs that didn’t require much expertise, although she became rather more adept the more she worked.”
“I could do that,” Minnie said eagerly.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” she said definitively. “I would also like to learn to cook. Mrs. O’Connor, the cook at Lily’s parents’ house, is willing to teach me. It won’t be much at first, nor likely very good, but I’d like to try.”
“Anything you’d like, Minnie,” he said. He wouldn’t mind what she did, as long as it made her happy. “I told you when we married that your life is yours. You can spend it on social visits, pastimes, or simply being with me. It’s your choice.”
“Thank you, Tommy,” she said quietly. “Is this what you always pictured for your life?”
“Eloping with the daughter of a shipping magnate?”
She laughed softly. “No, working as a blacksmith. Being married — in one way or another.”
“Yes, actually,” he said. “Besides football, my other love was always artistry, working with my hands, and I knew I wanted to take on a trade. Jack Cartwright, the blacksmith, was a friend of my father’s, and I was fortunate to be given this position.”
“I haven’t heard you speak about your father.”
Tommy paused for a moment. “He’s had a rough time over the past several years.”
Minnie didn’t say anything, and Tommy hesitated. He didn’t like speaking about his father with anyone, but there was something about Minnie that made him want to open up with her and be honest about his life.
“My father used to work in the mill, but then he was injured and couldn’t work in the same capacity. He still has ajob with the mill, but it’s lower paying and he feels… disrespected, I suppose, even though there’s nothing to be done about it. He can’t provide for the family like he once did, and he’s had a hard time with it.”
“I’m sorry, Tommy.”
“Not your fault,” he said, needing something to keep his body busy, so he reached over and grabbed the bar of soap, beginning to run it over his body.
When she was silent, he looked over to see that she had sat up slightly, her weight on her elbows as she watched him from beneath hooded eyes.
Ah, she liked what she saw. Noted. He slowed down his movement, taking his time.
“What about you?” he asked. “Did you see a future in the small room of a blacksmith?”
Her chuckle was low and throaty. “Not exactly, but I didn’t have much idea of what my life would look like. All I knew was that I didn’t like the plan my parents had for me. To marry a nobleman or a man of a similar situation to my father and spend my life looking after him and having children. To be seen as a lady of society. My parents always wanted to better themselves, to come as close to the upper class as they could without actually holding a title. I think they always held out hope that I’d end up married to a duke or something.”
She shook her head as though the thought was unbelievable, but Tommy could see it, with her beauty.
“That’s whattheywanted, Minnie,” he said softly. “But what didyouwant?”
She looked him in the face, the force of her brilliant blue eyes upon him.
“I always just wanted more out of my life. Purpose. Freedom. Love.”
She looked down, then, as though she had said too much,becoming too vulnerable with him. But he had heard what she wanted as clearly as anything.
He could give her love. He knew he could. He just wasn’t sure whether she would ever return it when it was with a man like him.
He washed the soap off his body before sitting up entirely. “I’m getting out now,” he said, and before she could turn, he stood up, standing bare and proud before her.
