“You don’t need it to have fun.”
“You’re right. You are more than enough.” She hugged him, and he held her tightly, burying his face in her silky hair.
“Never change, Esther. I need you to be who you are.”
She rested her cheek on his chest. “You have no idea how much I needed to hear that.”
“Any time you need to hear that, let me know.”
He kept holding her for no reason other than he enjoyed having her in his arms. When he let her go, her eyes gleamed with that special light he was in awe of.
“What were we doing?” he asked, brushing a curl from her cheek.
“Memory problems? How convenient.”
He laughed and took her hand. “I will certainly remember these days in Brighton with you.”
They reached the high road, hand in hand.
“Where to?” He checked right and left.
“Well, your house is on the left, but I might have gone right first and walked around the building to return to the left.” She turned around, her expression blank.
“What does your instinct tell you?”
“That I should lock myself in a convent and start horticulture.”
He laughed again. It was a common thing with her. “You would be bored in a day.”
“Better bored than disgraced.”
No, she wouldn’t be disgraced because he would become her suitor, if she wanted him to.
He tugged at her hand. “Right or left?”
“I say right. I think I remember the Chain Pier.”
The Chain Pier stretched over the quiet sea like a giant snake. Rust covered the metallic parts, and mould turned the wood green.
“It’s a shame it hasn’t been maintained,” she said. “I would have loved to see it when it was new and shiny.”
“I came here with my parents every summer. The pier offered all sorts of entertainment, from street food to jugglers, singers, and fortune tellers. My mother loved sweets. She and I would buy the lot and promise to make it last until Christmas, but it never did. We would finish everything in a day. Father preferred the music. He had odd tastes Mother didn’t share. She told him his tastes were ancient and the music he liked was sad, and…” He scrubbed the back of his neck. “I talk too much. You probably don’t care about that.”
“I care a lot. You were a lovely family.”
“Yes. We were happy, especially when we came here.”
That happiness had seemed lost to him for years, something that happened only once in his life until he’d met Esther. Being with her had the same simple, happy quality as those lost days.
“Father became another man out of London. We spent days together riding on the beach. My parents and I would lie on the carpet in front of the fire to read a book. Mother loved novels. Father preferred historical essays. She always won when we had to decide what to read together. I miss them. Life is frightening without them,” he added in a whisper.
She stroked his arm. “I understand. My mother and I don’t often agree on everything, but she always helps me when I need her, and being a duke is different.”
“When I make a decision, I always wonder what Father would have done. I wish to find someone as my father did. Someone who makes life less frightening.”
She squeezed his hand, and warmth and hope spread through his chest. “It’s not my place, but may I say something?”
“Please.”
