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“Edgar. Listen to yourself. You’re talking about what happened with you and that Sophie woman. This is completely different.”
Maybe that was true. Mari kept telling him to trust that she knew her own mind. If he asked her to marry him, and she said yes... he would believe that she meant it.
“You’re right, Mother.”
“I generally am.”
“I have a ring.” He pulled the diamond band from his pocket.
“Oh that won’t do,” said his mother. “Too vulgar. Wait here a moment.”
She left the room but then returned almost immediately. “Take this instead.” She held something that glinted gold in the lamplight. “My wedding ring. I removed it the very same evening that he... that he shot you.” Her jaw clenched. “I never wore it again. I loved that ring when he gave it to me. I know you might find this difficult to believe but there was a time, a long, long time ago, when we were happy together.”
Edgar had never heard her say anything like that. All he’d seen was the conflict. The drinking. The silent suffering.
“He changed so swiftly,” she said. “The devil took him. Here.” She shoved the ring forward. “I want you to have this.”
He accepted the ring. It was a simple gold band with a brilliant red ruby in the center, ringed by small diamonds.
It was perfect. The ruby would match Mari’s hair.
“She said she would return to the house tonight, to tell the news to the children in person,” said Edgar.
“Then home you go. And Banksford?”
“Yes, Mother.”
She drew herself up. “Don’t you dare come back until I have a wedding to plan.”
Anything broken may be mended. While webreathethere is yet hope.
He and his mother had actually talked to one another as people, not as symbols of past hatred, past fear.
Mari had been right about everything.
He climbed into his carriage with hope soaring through his heart.
He had a goddess to propose to tonight.
The only problem was that he was merely a duke.
Chapter 32
“What’s wrong?” Mari asked when Robertson answered the door at Number Seventeen later that evening. The butler’s face was even more somber than usual.
“The children are missing again, Miss Perkins. And they’re not hiding in any of their usual haunts.”
“We’ve searched everywhere.” Edgar strode toward her, his face lined with worry.
“It’s my fault,” wailed Mrs. Fairfield, following at his heels. “I shouldn’t have brought their former nurse here. They think she abandoned them yet again.”
“No, it’s my doing,” said Edgar, his eyes bleak. “I came home and I told them your news, and then I was called back to the foundry, and—”
“What did you tell them?” Mari asked urgently. “Edgar, what did you tell them?”
“I told them that Lumley was your father and that you were an heiress and that you wouldn’t be their governess any longer.”
Mrs. Fairfield gaped at him. “What’s that you said?”
