“Have Mr. Anderson and Lady Pennington gone, then?” she asked.
“Looks like they have. Mr. Emmit Townsend was only to begin alterations after Mr. Anderson had fully vacated.”
She assessed her husband. “Are you sorry?”
“I feel only sympathy and regret that Mr. Anderson is so ill. He was always such a strong presence in my life.” For a pensive moment, he gazed in the direction of the cottage. “I believe feeling he had done his duty made a great difference in his willingness to move on. I have you to thank, too. I never would have thought to dress like my father.”
“You weren’t just dressed as him.” Cassie shivered. “Everything about you was different. Your posture. Your voice.”
He grimaced. “I didn’t want you to witness that.”
“I only saw you from the window. From what little I could see, I don’t think I would have liked your father.”
“He was widely admired, but I doubt anyone ever referred to him as aimable. Or kind-hearted. Or well-meaning.”
She cupped his cheek. “Not like you, you mean.”
He turned his face further into the cradle of her palm. For a long moment, he held that position.
“My father was…” She searched for a word. “mean-spirited, too.”
“I’m sorry,” he said sincerely. “I thought that might have been the case when you referred to him as Mr. Wainwright.”
“At his command,” she sighed. “The times he wasn’t at Willowhurst were the happiest. Promise me we will raise our own children differently.”
“I swear our children will know they are loved.”
She sighed, placing her head back against his shoulder only to raise it again when the coach slowed. They came to a stop next to a very familiar clearing.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you, but first, may I ask a delicate question?” Harbury ventured.
“Yes,” she cautiously replied.
“It’s important to me that you feel at home on the estate. Everywhere on the estate. That you understand, that, while I may occasionally see something that reminds me of Lady Pennington, that she does not linger here. Not any longer.”
She frowned. “I didn’t hear a question.”
“Are the priory ruins forever spoiled for you?”
She studied his face. “Why did you take me there?”
“Truthfully?” He visibly swallowed. “In the moment, I was thinking only of you. I thought they would make you smile. I’d completely forgotten everything that had come before.”
She sighed. “Then I, too, promise to forget.”
“May I take you there?”
“Now?”
He nodded. “I have something I’d like to show you. Something new.”
“Something new?” She cocked her head. “In a ruin?”
He smiled enigmatically. “Yes.”
“Very well, then,” she replied.
