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‘You don’t need to answer, only believe me when I say that I’ll endeavour to do better in the future. As for the past, I hope that you can forgive me in time.’
She held on to his gaze, the intensity in his dark eyes sending a wave of heat through her body, as if all her nerve endings were tingling in unison. His neglect she could forgive. As for the rest, well, he’d promised to make up for it now and he seemed to be genuine. Maybe marriage to him wouldn’t be so bad after all. Maybe they could even be friends...
‘Will you take me home? Back to Lacelby?’
‘Yes.’ He offered his hand, the way he had before she’d accused him of lying. ‘As soon as I can, I promise.’
The sound of a citole floated up from below, accompanied by sounds of laughter as she placed her fingers gently in his, her breath hitching at the contact of skin against skin.
‘Very well, then, I forgive you.’
Chapter Six
‘Barely a cloud in sight.’ Jerrard glanced up at the sky as he mounted his courser the next morning. ‘Makes a change.’
‘Not for long, I expect.’ Laurent sounded uncharacteristically pessimistic, probably due to the vast amount of wine he’d consumed the night before, Matthew thought, exchanging a knowing look with Jerrard. His friend had done enough celebrating for all three of them. ‘We should make progress while we can.’
‘I know.’ Matthew made one last, unnecessary adjustment to his bridle. He was stalling, giving Constance the time she needed to say a proper goodbye to her family, but Laurent was right, they were wasting the day. Now that he’d reunited with his wife and found out where Roul d’Amboise’s political sympathies lay there was no more reason to tarry, especially while the weather stayed dry. If he were using his common sense, then they would have left an hour ago, only for some inexplicable reason he wasn’t using his common sense and the realisation of it bothered him.
‘I’ll fetch her.’
He gritted his teeth and made his way determinedly across the courtyard towards the front door of the manor, half-afraid of the scene he might find. The lengthy speeches that had taken up half of the previous night’s banquet had shown him how loved and valued Constance was in her uncle’s household, so much so that he’d felt almost churlish at taking her away from them. Despite his own personal aversion to emotional displays in general, however, it had been strangely satisfying because of what all that emotion implied. No matter what she’d said about not wanting to leave Lacelby five years before, Constance had obviously been happy living with her uncle and aunt. She’d been welcomed into their family and loved. Whatever her
own objections, surely that was what her parents would have wanted for her?
Given the lateness of the hour at which the banquet had finally drawn to a close, it had been more convenient for them to sleep in separate chambers, ostensibly to give her one last night with her cousins, but also in the hope that she might cry herself out, along with everyone else, by morning. The last thing he’d wanted was a crying woman on the journey beside him today, though to his relief, as he approached the front door, he could see that Constance at least wasn’t crying. Her eyes were as red-rimmed and puffy as if they might have been earlier, but she was doing her best to put on a brave face now. Which was doubly impressive since her aunt and female cousins, not to mention the youngest boy, were all openly sobbing. Again.
‘Constance?’ He set a hand on her shoulder, gently extricating her from her eldest cousin’s bear-like embrace. ‘It’s time to go. We have a lot of ground to cover before dark.’
‘Yes.’ She didn’t look at him, leaning forward instead to give her aunt one last kiss on the cheek. ‘Thank you for everything.’
‘Don’t speak of it.’ Her aunt waved a hand in front of her face as if she were struggling to restrain yet more tears and then gave him a stern look. ‘Take care of her.’
‘I promise, my lady. Thank you again for your hospitality.’
He bowed and took a firm hold of Constance’s elbow, preventing her from turning back as another cousin called out.
‘Are you all right?’ The question came out more gruffly than he’d intended, but somehow the feeling of her arm beneath his fingertips made his chest feel tight.
‘Yes.’ She sounded tense again. ‘I just didn’t think leaving would be so hard.’
‘They’re your family. It’s perfectly natural to be sad about leaving them.’ Maybe not in the case of his family, but for others...
‘Isabella’s getting married next summer.’ She gave him a sidelong look, eyes burning with the same defiance he’d seen there yesterday. ‘I want to come back for her wedding.’
‘Then you should.’
‘Oh... Good.’
She sounded faintly surprised and he stopped walking to face her.
‘Did you think I would forbid it?’
‘I don’t know. Maybe.’
‘Constance, I thought we got past this yesterday. Are you feeling uncomfortable again?’
‘A little,’ she admitted. ‘It’s been a difficult morning and everything’s just happened so quickly. There’s still so much we have to learn about each other.’
