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Using it to leave him for good.
Something in his gut warned him that he would never see Dinah again.
A knock sounded at the door. Henry sat up straight, picked up his quill, and made as though he was hard at work. Of a truth, heoughtto be hard at work. Several matters of business had been brought to him with the morning post—items which needed his attention immediately.
“Enter,” he called.
“Henry,” David said, stepping into the room, “might I have a word with you?”
“Of course.” Henry put down the quill once more, having written absolutely nothing with it during the brief seconds it had been in his hand.
David crossed the room, taking the seat directly across from Henry. He clasped his hands together, leaning forward, and placed steepled fingers against his chin and mouth. He seemed to be weighing his words before speaking them. Henry gave him time to sort through his thoughts.
“Emily and I,” David finally began, “have been...consideringsomething. Seeing as the ball was such a success...”
His brother didn’t continue. After a couple moments of silence, Henry encouraged him. “Yes?”
David coughed nervously and shifted about in his seat. “Emily and I have decided it is time we remove ourselves from London. We were hoping for your blessing in taking up residence at Kingcup Estate. Emily wishes to be nearer her parents so they might continue to mend the relationship between them, and the boys are anxious for the countryside.”
They were leaving? He almost asked why, but then just as quickly realized that David had just explained why. To be near Emily’s parents. To allow the boys fresher air and room to run.
“I see,” was all Henry could seem to say. Not only was Dinah gone, but now David, Emily, and his nephews were leaving, too. It was rather a lot to take in. Still, he wouldn’t stand in their way. “If you feel this is best for your wife and boys, you should go to Kingcup Estate. I will write the staff there this very day, telling them to prepare for you.”
David’s face brightened. “You mean it?”
“Certainly.” Why wouldn’t he?
David cast his gaze heavenward. “Don’t grow moody again, Henry. Emily will think you’re mad at her, and she’ll feel too guilty to leave.”
“I’m not growing moody. I simply have a lot on my mind right now.” Though if David didn’t acquit this room in the next few minutes, he very well might grow moody enough for all of London to notice. Henry picked up the quill once more and turned his gaze to the paper on his desk.
David stood and slowly moved toward the door, but halfway across the room, he stopped and turned back around. “I was not so young and blind all those years ago to not be aware that there was a time you seriously considered marrying Emily yourself.”
Henry’s hand froze, his quill suspended above the paper.
“I think, at the time, I hoped if I ignored what I knew, it wouldn’t come between us. Was I wrong?”
“No.” The short, clipped word was all Henry could manage to say.
David ran a hand down his face. “Did Emily really break your heart all that badly?”
“No,” Henry repeated. If his brother had any sense, he would take himself off post-haste and stop this drivel.
“So, this is about Mother, then.”
Henry slammed the quill down onto the desk. His eyes came up, and he scowled at David. And yet, this time, David didn’t squirm under the dark glare.
“I was so young when she left,” David continued, instead of retreating to the farthest corners of the house as Henry wished he would do. “I don’t truly remember her. I don’t think I know what it was I was missing. I didn’t know enough to know if I ought to be angry or hurt. Until...until after David Jr. was born. Then, watching Emily cuddle with him, rock him, love him...then I knew. For a while, I didn’t understand what was suddenly wrong with me. I just knew I was angry.”
Henry had never known any of this. Their mother was one topic that had always been strictly off-limits. It was an unspoken agreement between them. One he was not pleased David was breaking.
Dinah would have been pleased, though. If she’d stuck around long enough to see it.
Henry clamped his jaw down tight on the bitterness that filled him.
Whatever his brother’s experience, Henry was in no mood to hear it now. Nonetheless, he found he couldn’t speak, couldn’t stop his brother. The emotions rolled through him too powerfully, pushing him deeper beneath as though he were drowning under the waves of his own hurt and memories.
“Father and I spoke about her just before he died,” David said. “Did he ever speak about her to you?”
