Godric shot his friend a scowl. One more comment like that, and Cedric would be in trouble.
The September sunwas warm and the sky cloudless. The insects chirped, and the sound eased away the silence. It was a fine day for riding, for living. Away from the stuffy drawing rooms and evening engagements, Emily breathed again. She belonged here in the country with its green sloping hills and endless blue skies.
A light breeze tumbled along her skin and riding habit as the trio trotted along the edge of Godric’s lands. Emily looked back and saw just how far they’d ridden. The manor was a stone dot in the distance. Godric caught her admiring the view, and she smiled.
“Your lands are extensive, my lord.” She sighed at the enchanting sight of the English countryside.
“That’s not the only thing that’s extens—” Cedric began.
Godric smacked the butt of his riding crop on Cedric’s horse’s flank. The beast shot off at a mad gallop with Cedric shouting curses, leaving Emily wondering what he had been about to say.
Fifty feet ahead of them, Cedric slowed down and glowered childishly in their direction. He stayed a good ways ahead, leaving Emily and Godric alone.
“How long have you lived with your uncle, Miss Parr?”
“I…I don’t think I would mind so much if you called me Emily, Your Grace. I dislike being called Miss Parr.” It was improper, of course but with everything between them, propriety was the least of her worries.
“If you wish, Emily, but then I must insist you stop ‘Your Gracing’ me.” The sun paled against the bright shine of his eyes and Emily’s heartbeat fluttered in response.
“I moved in with Uncle Albert a year ago, after my parents died.”
“I heard they were deceased. May I ask how?” Godric guided his black gelding closer to her. Her mount playfully nipped at his horse’s front flank.
“They were lost at sea. My father was headed to New York to see his shipping company there. My mother insisted on accompanying him.” The pain of her parents’ loss was deep, one she’d buried only a short time ago. “I had been staying with family friends when I received word. The next day my uncle came to collect me.”
“What were their names?”
Emily’s throat constricted. “Clara and Robert.”
“And you have no other siblings?”
She shook her head. “None. My mother miscarried twice after me. They stopped trying after that. Too much pain.” Why she was sharing such intimate details with a man she barely knew was beyond her.
Godric looked away from her. “My mother died in childbirth when I was a boy. The babe died with her.”
There were no words that could ease the hurt of losing a loved one, especially a parent. One felt lost, with no chance of salvation. Nothing could replace the sheltering warmth and security of a parent. To be robbed of that was akin to losing one’s innocence.
Godric spoke again. “You have not really grieved, have you?”
It was less a question and more an observation. How odd that talking to Godric about her tragedy should be so easy. He was a stranger, yet already few barriers stood between them.
“No, I haven’t.” They stopped their horses. She let her reins loosen in her fingers as her horse ducked his head to steal a bite of grass.
“I think that a part of me will never really accept that they’re gone. It is as though I expect them to roll up in a carriage at Uncle Albert’s any day now to take me home.” Emily’s voice wavered a little.
Godric’s eyes darkened. Emily noticed the faint shadows beneath his eyes. Out here, beneath the sun, without the pace of the day, he looked bone weary. “You must have loved your mother very much.”
“I loved her the way I’ve never loved anyone else.” He spoke so softly, it passed as more of a shared thought.
A desire flipped in Emily’s heart. Before, she’d wanted to hurt him the way she’d been hurt by his cold, calculated kidnapping. But now…now she saw a man who life had wounded deeply and she wanted to erase the worries that creased his brow. It reminded her of an injured badger she and her father had found in the garden a few years before. It had broken its leg and when they’d tried to help it, it had bitten him, drawing blood. Godric was very much like that animal. Hurt and blindly striking out in his own defense.
“I imagine she loved you just as much.”
“Thank you, Emily. I’m sure wherever they are, your family must be missing you just the same.”
He meant it. His sincerity manifested in the glimmer of his eyes and the lift of his lips into a grim smile. A man weighed down by countless sins, believed in heaven and an afterlife. For the briefest second she couldn’t help but wonder perhaps if rogues could be redeemed?
Godric reached over the small space between them and slipped his hand around hers. Neither had bothered to wear riding gloves. His bare hand enveloped hers. The warmth of his hand, so much larger than her own, offered a comfort she didn’t expect—a state of peace she recalled from evenings with her parents before the fire, settled on the floor as they laughed at the humor columns in the paper. Godric’s thumb stroked the sensitive plane of her palm, yet the seemingly innocent contact teased her body with a desire for something she did not understand. With that simple truth, all thoughts of her uncle and her parents evaporated. His touch made her want to follow him to the ends of the earth to see where it might lead.
