Page 119 of A Convenient Fiction

“I thought I was protecting you from it. Keeping you separate and apart.” He took her hand gently in his. The ruby in her ring glinted in the dim light. “And yet, I gave you this cursed thing.”

“Why did you?”

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “I suppose a part of me wanted to marry my past with my future. To reconcile them somehow. A nonsensical impulse. At the time I’d no idea that it was possible.”

“I don’t believe it was nonsensical,” she said. “Indeed, I have a theory.”

He stroked his thumb over her knuckles. “Have you?”

“Mmm. I think this ring is a symbol of who you really are. Not the gambler. Not the man who came to Lower Hawley to woo Henrietta. The real Alex Archer. The boy who saved Neville Cross from drowning. The man who saved me. I think, in giving me this ring, you were pledging yourself to me. Your true self.”

Alex swallowed hard.

“Have I got it right?” she asked. “Or am I being too fanciful?”

It took an effort to find his voice. “You’re not being too fanciful.”

The next morning, they went for a walk together on the beach. It was early hours. So early that Laura felt free to discard her hat and gloves. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “No one is about.”

Alex didn’t have the heart to scold her. He was too enamored of her. Too indulgent by half. “If you stay in France much longer, you’ll get in the habit of flaunting propriety. And then what will happen when you return to England?”

Laura came to a slow halt. “When I return to England?” She faced him on the sand, her shawl slipping down her arms. “You make it sound as though you’re not going back.”

“As to that…” Alex suppressed a grimace. He hadn’t intended to tell her just yet. Not until he’d had a chance to study more on the subject. But there was no keeping it from her now. “I’ve had an idea. Something that will affect Hayes’s perfumes—and the Hayes family, as well.”

A shadow of worry crossed her face. “Go on.”

Alex settled her shawl more firmly about her shoulders. “I’ve thought of a way we can make it all work. The distillery in Grasse, your family, and our finances. But…it would mean leaving England.”

“To live here?”

He nodded. “We could find a house somewhere close to the distillery. Close enough that we could manage production ourselves.”

“And sell the products…where? Hayes’s Perfumes is practically unknown in France. It’s England where our brand held sway.”

“And that’s where we’d continue to distribute it. Imagine the packaging: Hayes’s Rose Water—now made exclusively in France. The ladies of London would snap it up, not to mention countrywomen like Henrietta Talbot. Thanks to Empress Eugénie, they all follow the latest French fashions.”

“In gowns and hats, perhaps. Things the empress is actually known to wear. Rose water and lavender water aren’t of that category, surely.”

“They could be. It only wants a little creative advertising.”

She knit her brows. “Do you truly think that would work?”

“To a certainty? I don’t know. But I’d say there’s a greater than average chance of success. Hayes’s Perfumes is still a recognizable name.”

“It would mean convincing Teddy and Aunt Charlotte to come here.” Laura’s face fell. “They’d never do it.”

“Your brother would.”

“How can you say so? Until last month, Teddy scarcely wanted to leave his room.”

“Have you seen the style of his landscapes? The experimental ones he was painting at Margate? They’re all light and movement. If he lived in France, he might be able to study under a painter in the same style. Someone with more experience. I can’t imagine your brother would turn down the opportunity.”

She paused to consider. “What about Aunt Charlotte?”

“The weather here is perfect for her health. All this sun and fresh sea air? Invalids have relocated for less.”

Laura searched his face. “And what about us?”