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“Sadie, it is perfectly fine. I have been Lady Walford for less than a day. I am impressed it has taken you until now to slip the name you are accustomed to.” She was not used to such fawning. Stratton Hall did not stand on formality, and she did not want Sadie to think she’d lost the warmth of her family home when she’d become Lady Walford.
“Can you please open the drapes? I wish to linger for a while but not in the dark. It is a glorious day. I would like to see it.”
Sadie pulled back the fabric, exposing a picture-perfect view. Catherine could see the fountain in the center of the courtyard. She’d used to love sitting on its edge, listening to the endless fall of water. Nicholas had pushed her in a time or two. For that matter, so had Daniel and Laurence. Oh, Dear Lord, where was Laurence now? He’d left for the colonies with such haste, in such despair. Where was her beloved brother now?
“A small breakfast in my room would be lovely.” She might as well. She had certainly missed sharing this morning’s meal with Nicholas. He had always been an early riser and hungry as a bear. He’d be long done. “Would you mind attending to that?”
Sadie beamed. “Of course, my lady. I know all the things you love. I shall go speak with Cook and have it for you shortly,” she said and ran from the room.
Catherine sunk into the luxuriously deep tub, only the blue sky now visible. Laurence. What would he think of Nicholas’s return? Would Laurence be happy for her? His pain was so profound she did not think her happiness would enter into his world. Daniel’s death had driven Laurence to enlist in Upper Canada. He was not prepared to live in such a wild land, nor was he born to be a soldier. And now that they were at war, surely it was suicide. Suicide. She ducked her head under the water to wash away the taint of the word.
Laurence. Daniel. Nicholas. The men in her life. The boys they had been, the men they had become, defining the woman she was. Perhaps if she’d had a woman in her life, they wouldn’t have had such influence on her. She sat up, stroking wet locks from her face, staring out at the trees beyond the spray of water. What did any of that matter now? Their lives had been altered in those woods the day Daniel had died. What did fate intend?
She lay back against the sloped copper, staring at the high ceiling. She mourned the loss of Daniel every day. Laurence’s absence was an endless ache. Yet because of the tragedy, Nicholas had come home. Alive. To her? This morning, her heart had dared to hope.
She closed her eyes and relived each touch. Nicholas had loved her with his body.Please let his heart follow suit.
