For so long, Benjamin had wondered why a woman as intelligent as Noelle wasn’t more like him, and now he could not help but wonder the opposite. While he could not foresee any future for himself that did not involve utmost dedication to duty and responsibility, he was intensely grateful she had been spared the same fate.
The pleasure she took from life was infectious. She was a force impossible to deny. He had visited the bedside of a goat, for God’s sake. Was willingly sitting in the open air in the middle of the winter with a warm woolen scarf wrapped tight about his neck. A scarf Noelle had knitted for him, not knowing if she would ever witness him using it.
“I am ashamed,” said Leontes onstage. “Does not the stone rebuke me, for being more stone than it?”
Benjamin was glad they had spent time together outside the counting house. The sleigh, the picnic, the play. He could not recall a happier day. She could even make a snowy evening seem warm and inviting. He would remember this forever.
He tried not to think about the moment he would have to say goodbye. Surely she understood why he couldn’t stay. He did not choose to be a duke, to have a seat in the House of Lords, but it was not a responsibility one could shirk.
His throat tightened as he realized he hoped for her approbation. Her acknowledgment that he had no choice, that of course England must be his priority in all things, would perhaps ease the pain of having to walk away.
“Oh, peace, Paulina! Thou shouldst a husband take by my consent,” said Leontes onstage. “This is your son-in-law, and son unto the king, who, heavens directing, is troth-plight to your daughter. Hastily lead away.”
The audience erupted into applause.
Benjamin blinked. It was over?
He got to his feet with the others, unable to believe he had spent the entire play casting surreptitious glances at Noelle.
Her friends suddenly surrounded them.
“That was wonderful,” exclaimed one. “I love when the bear chases Antigonus off the stage.”
“The best year yet,” Noelle agreed with a smile. She glanced up at Benjamin. “Did you enjoy the evening?”
“Even more than I anticipated,” he admitted.
“Let’s go caroling,” bubbled another of Noelle’s friends. “It’s a Christmas tradition!”
Benjamin had no idea if “Christmas” in this case referred to the incorrect name of the town or the holiday that had passed over a month ago, but he couldn’t summon the urge to correct them. It was their village. They could do as they liked. He wouldn’t be a humbug.
But he couldn’t join them.
Noelle smiled up at him, her eyes sparkling. “Do say you’ll come. Carols are ever so much jollier after a bowl or two of mulled wine.”
Looking at her, he was tempted. She lived and loved so openly and freely. Who wouldn’t wish to share in her joy?
“I can’t,” he said honestly. This was his opportunity to visit the jeweler holding his mother’s locket and find out what condition it was in. “Do have fun with your friends. Where shall I meet you tomorrow?”
“How about half ten, in the greenhouse? I am meeting Miss Mitchell to give my opinion on her newest scent.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t mean to ambush me with perfume again, do you?”
“One must take risks,” she admonished him with a twinkle in her eye.
“I shall take that under advisement,” he said gravely.
Before her friends could renew their efforts to include him in their fun, he edged away from the crowd and picked his way down the snow-packed lanes toward the jeweler’s shop.
His heart beat faster and faster in trepidation the closer he came to the jeweler. It was a moment of truth. Either Grandfather had finally been true to his word, or the old man had taken the locket to his grave.
Hands shaking, he rapped upon the jeweler’s door.
No answer came. His frenzied knocks received no answer.
The play. Of course. He clenched his chapped fists in frustration. The entire town had filled the amphitheater. Perhaps even now, the jeweler was off wassailing and would not return for hours.
He stared doubtfully at the rustic cottage. It was clear that the jeweler worked on one side and lived on the other. Less clear was whether finding a duke encamped upon her front porch would be enough to convince her to answer his questions.
