Hera had always been zealously covetous of Zeus, and heaven help her, she missed her man.
* * *
WHEN KENDRAarrived home, she stopped only long enough to switch her toga for a riding habit and grab a key from Trick’s desk drawer. Then she ran to the stables, mounted Pandora, and fairly flew over the Downs to the cottage.
Once inside, she could almost smell him. Since this morning when she’d awakened in his home, something—his vibrancy—had been missing. Instead of feeling free, she’d felt bereft.
But here in the cottage, she could feel his presence. Unlike Amberley House, this clearly wasn’t designed by his father. Trick’s personal style was stamped on the walls, the floors, every piece of furniture.
It was astonishing the loss she felt, given she’d known him only a few weeks. Just when she was beginning to form a fragile bond with him, he’d left. She strode straight to unlock the drawer and dig to the bottom.
The poetry was gone.
She riffled through all the papers to make sure. Gone, all of it. Her knees buckled, and she sank to the floor, her heart sinking along with her. Not only was her one link to him missing, he was clearly intent on keeping her at arm’s length.
Rushed to begin a long journey to a foreign land, he’d nonetheless taken the time to stop and remove the pages. Remove any possibility that by reading his words, she might discover who he was, deep inside.
She couldn’t allow him to isolate himself like that. Not if they were to live a lifetime together.
She should have gone with him.
Twenty-Eight
“HE LEFT,”Kendra told Caithren the next afternoon. “He had no choice.”
“Of course he didn’t.” Cait stopped beneath one of Amberley’s many arbors and played with the ends of her dark-blond hair. “But why didn’t you go along?”
“He didn’t want me.” Kendra squinted at her sister-in-law in the shadows. “Isn’t this the loveliest garden?” Her gesture encompassed more than the vine-covered walkway. “The head gardener told me it was designed by Salaman de Caux himself.”
“Salaman who?”
“De Caux. The celebrated Frenchman. Have you not heard of him?”
“Nay. My garden at Leslie was filled with herbs and vegetables.” Cait’s lips turned up in a self-deprecating smile. “Nary a posy in sight.”
Amberley House’s gardens were the most extensive Kendra had ever seen. Geometric configurations of flower beds, knots, and borders surrounded a lake where fishes darted beneath the clear water. Avenues lined with painted and gilded stone lions flanked a massive bowling green. Walls of fruit trees divided the charming wilderness garden from those more formal, like the privy garden they were heading toward.
As they strolled from the arbor into the sunshine, her gaze trailed to the massive mansion that loomed over it all. “I’m afraid Trick’s father depleted his entire fortune building this place.”
“Has Trick said so?”
“Not in so many words,” she said, hesitating to say more. Confiding Trick’s financial instability might lead to speculation about his continuing highway robbery.
“Then I wouldn’t assume so,” Cait said. “The estate is very impressive, but then, Trickisa duke. And you’re very good at changing the subject.”
Kendra flashed her a wry smile. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.” She reached overhead to pluck off a fragrant flower, worrying its soft petals between her fingers. “Part of me still cannot believe I’m married. Do you know, even as we rode away that day, I was sure Colin would come riding after us to say it was all an elaborate joke. I’d convinced myself the parson was in on it—that somehow the ceremony wasn’t valid.”
“But it was.”
“I was furious. I still am. I don’t feel like talking to my brothers—any of them.” Her voice dropped. “Then I found myself alone with Trick, and still I didn’t quite believe it.”
“How did it go? The first night, I mean.”
“Not well.” She looked away, studying the way the light filtered through the leafy canopy of a yew. “Did it hurt you very much that first time?”
“I suppose it did, but only that first time, of course. And I was in no state to take notice of it overmuch.”
“Well, is Jason very…big?”
