This was the room the Duchess of Swynford used for family. He knew suddenly that there was a more formal room closer to the front of the house that was used for social calls.
He could see himself running around the room with Lark or one of his cousins. The scar on his knee, which he’d noticed while bathing a few days prior, had been caused by his running into a low table at the center of the room. He could see his father reading while lounging on the settee off to the side. He could see his mother working on her needlepoint or writing a letter to a friend. This house was not very old, Hugh suddenly knew; it had been purchased by his father when Hugh had been a boy.
“You recognize me and this room,” said the duchess.
“I do, suddenly. I feel more things coming back to me. Images, memories. Did there used to be a blue chair right here?” He gestured at a space on the rug.
“You and Lark broke it when you were about ten by climbing on it. That was twenty-five years ago.”
“There does not seem to be much rhyme or reason to when things return.” Hugh sighed and sat on a chair. “Things may return in dribs and drabs. Or I will never recover my memories. There is no way to know.”
Lark entered the room then. Hugh looked up and saw his friend as the adult he was now and not only as the child he was starting to remember. Lark had accompanied him home but had busied himself making sure the carriage and horses were taken care of before coming inside.
Hugh understood that Lark was handsome, but in a different way than Hugh. Where Hugh was athletic, Lark was almost dainty. Tall but thin, with long eyelashes and long fingers. He had an elegance about him, even now as he took off his gloves and walked into the room. They’d grown up together but had diverged at some point, too. Hugh wished he knew why.
“I am glad you found your mother,” Lark said.
Another memory hit Hugh then. He stared at Lark. “We had a conversation in this room about two weeks ago.”
“We did, yes.”
Hugh closed his eyes.
Mother says I must marry soon, although I do not understand her rush.
She wants grandchildren. And she is not getting younger.
The same must be true of your mother, and yet she is not exercising that same pressure on you.
I am not a duke.
But you will be if heaven forbid something should happen to your father. Do you intend to marry?
When I must.
I cannot fathom committing myself to some chit just to satisfy my mother.
“What did you discuss?” asked the duchess.
“Hugh’s allergy to wedlock,” said Lark.
“I think,” Hugh said, “that it is not an aversion to wedlock per se but a reluctance to marry one of the empty-headed debutantes I had met this season.”
Lark grinned. “Ah, there you are. That is exactly the sort of thing your old self would say.”
Hugh nodded. He had not seen Adele that day. She’d sent word through Wilton that the countess needed her attention, but Hugh knew she was avoiding him. He had felt quite disappointed by that; he’d hoped to see her one last time before he left.
Had he bought into her thinking that last night really had been the last time? He had meant it when he’d say they’d take each day as it came because the thought of never seeing her again was unbearable.
“Are you all right?” his mother asked. “You looked quite pained just then.”
“I apologize. I feel all right, but this situation is very confusing. There are some things I know and some things I once knew that still seem to be hidden from me. Putting it all together to create an understanding of who I am and what my life is… it is a unique challenge.”
“I can only imagine,” said his mother. “Perhaps a meal would help. I can call on Mrs. Fairchild to fix up a meal.”
“I am a bit hungry,” Hugh conceded.
After they ate, Lark offered to escort Hugh on a walk to Grosvenor Square for some fresh air. He explained as they left the house that they would undoubtedly run into people who knew about Hugh’s disappearance, but Lark had spent the better part of the last thirty-six hours leaking that Hugh had merely been under the weather and adjourned to the country to recover. “So expect to hear many men greeting you by saying they are happy to see you in good health.”
