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With the clothing on, he and William walked down the grand staircase and to the foyer. While William sent a footman to retrieve his carriage, Isaac felt his friend rest a hand on his shoulder. He turned to William, who looked more assuring than Isaac could ever hope to feel.
“Everything will be fine,” William said. “I know it will.”
“I can only hope so,” he utteredas the carriage came trundling to astop.
With a firm handshake, Isaac went into his vehicle and headed home. Through the almost hour drive, he tried to put his words together, and the speech was set in his mind; he hoped Louisa would believe him. The carriage drove into his lane, and he stepped out with his heart somewhere in his throat.
Handing his coat and hat off to the footman, Isaac spotted a maid and asked her to find Miss Stone and then send her his study. The woman paled enough that Isaac felt prodded to ask,“Is something wrong? Is she ill again?”
“No, Your Grace,” she said. “As far as I know, Miss Stone resigned her position this afternoon.”
Isaac felt rooted inplace. “I beg your pardon? She’sgone?”
“Yes, Your Grace,” the woman said, nervously. “Perhaps Mrs. Wickham will be better suited to explain it. Should I get her for you?”
“No,” Isaac said hollowly. He turned to the stairs and mounted them with leaden steps.
He got to hisroom and sank into his seat, stunnedand reeling. Regret crashed into him, even harder than when it had days before when he had realized his bungled explanation about Helena.
I should not have left for those four days from sunrise to sunset. Good God, how much more of an idiot can I be?
Dimly, his eye landed on a folded paper on his desk, and he reached for it. When he opened it, his name at the top, written in an unfamiliar hand, drew his attention.
Isaac,
I hate to do this, I hate to leave this way with so many things unresolved between us, but perhaps it will be the best way. I cannot stay here and love you, knowing that you do not feel the same for me. We would be so close butso far, and it would tear me apart. I must leave. I do not know where I am going, but I will find a way. Thank you for giving some wonderful if bittersweet memories. Please keep the pupasa memory of me.
Always,
Louisa H. Stone.
Fire darted up his spine; no—this was not how it was going to be. He was not going to let her leave his life withouta fight. He wracked through his mind to figure outwhere she would go and rememberedthe next estate where her friend resided.
He rushed out of the room, and nearly ran into Mrs. Wickham and threw a hasty apology over his shoulder beforerushingdown the stairs, taking them three at a time until he got to the bottom. He did not waste time sending for his carriage. He took one of the many back doors and ran to the stables.
A stable handnearly tripped over his feet at the sight of him. “Saddle a horse, as fast as you can,” Isaac ordered and stood aside as the man rushed around. He glanced at the crushed letter in his fist and prayed that Louisa was still near enough for him to reach her.
***
The tears she had held back for days had streaked down her cheeks and had dampened Amelia’s shoulder, but her friend had not moved away while Louisa exercised the pain from her heart. Even with the tears dried,Louisa still rested on her friend’s shoulder and breathed in deeply.
Amelia had not asked Louisa a thing about why she was there, she had only taken one look at her friend and had burst out into tears. They were on the back porch of the Winston estate house, and thankfully, no one had interrupted them, which Louisa was thankful for.
Her friend kept rubbing Louisa’s backs and whispering calm, comforting words to her—but Louisa doubted that anything would settle her heart. Staring blankly out into the lawn beyond, Louisa felt weak. With no sight of Isaac in the last few days, she had grown ashamed and tormented—clearly, he had wanted nothing to do with her, and itstung.
Nowthat she was leaving his home and Isaac behind with little more than a few words, Louisa knew that shewould soon be forgotten. That piledmore hurt on top of the wretched feeling that was already there.
“Are you better now?” Amelia asked.
“No,” Louisa replied thickly. “And I doubt that I will be better anytime soon.”
“What happened?” Ameliaasked while she gently eased Louisa upfrom her shoulder. “Did he do something bad?”
Pressing the back of her hand on her face, Louisa shook her head. “The only thing that happenedwas what I had expected to happen. We are not on even footing, Amelia. I knew it from the beginning, but I chose to ignore it instead of following my common-sense. And now I am paying for it.”
Amelia looked both angry and heartbroken. “I am so sorry, dear.”
Sighing out loud, Louisa deemed her face dry enough, and she reached for her bonnet. “I am too, but these things happen, Amelia. I should have set my cap lower instead of stretching for something I cannot and would never get.”
