Benjamin gritted his teeth. He had no wish to actually enter the aviary. He did not want to be caught by the tidal wave of the crowd.
Worse, however, would be for the solicitor to cry foul and claim he had not delivered as promised. Benjamin had not come all this way to fail now.
He stalked through the entrance, scouring atop branches and behind decorative shrubs in search of the elusive bird.
The crowd poured in behind him.
Rather than follow Benjamin along the carefully curated path through the aviary’s painstakingly pruned flora, they streamed to an empty corner on the opposite side of the aviary containing nothing but a plain, spindly sapling listing lonesomely in a bucket of dirt.
Benjamin frowned.Hadhis grandfather’s will said “pear tree?”
“It’s a brilliant partridge!” a voice called out.
“She looks perfectly at home,” called another. “Placing her on a pear tree is a right lovely touch.”
His body flooded with relief. The partridge had been spotted. The ordeal was over. He had christened the one-bird aviary with all the pomp and circumstance required of him, and was free at last to reunite with his family. The locket and its portrait could finally return home. He could be hours away by nightfall.
Benjamin darted desperate glances around the aviary in search of Noelle, but it was no use. The entire town was attempting to cram itself inside.
He would say goodbye after he retrieved the locket. Perhaps that was better anyway. Poetic. She would be the last thing he saw before he left. The only memory of this town he wished to keep.
He squeezed his way through the crowd to the exit. Once his Hessians touched the ground out-of-doors, he took off running without a backward glance. If the queueing townsfolk found it odd to spy a duke loping away from his own celebration, Benjamin did not care.
Only one thing mattered.
The winter chill stole the air from his lungs and the snow-covered streets slid beneath his boots. In mere moments, he arrived at the jeweler’s out of breath and triumphant.
She was waiting for him behind the counter of her jewelry room.
His heart was pounding. “The aviary is open.”
Miss Parker’s eyes crinkled. “I heard.”
Even from several blocks away, the crowd’s excitement was audible.
He stepped forward. “May I—”
“Here.” She retrieved a thin silk pouch from a hidden nook.
He held out his hands, surprised they were not trembling. He had prevailed. He hadwon.
Miss Parker upended the pouch and dropped its contents into Benjamin’s outstretched palm.
He had promised himself he would immediately clasp the locket about his neck for safekeeping, but he needed to gaze upon his parents’ faces once more. The hollowness he’d carried inside all these years would fill with love once more. With family. He unlocked the clasp and opened the locket.
There they were. Faded with time, but finally back in his hands. His pulse slowed. He should be full of warmth, of victory. The emptiness should have receded. He had everything he always wanted.
And yet the hollowness remained.
“Is something amiss?” asked the jeweler with concern.
He snapped the locket closed. “Nothing. Thank you for giving me my family back. I will take good care of them.”
Before she could ask any more questions, Benjamin strode out of her workroom and back out onto the front stoop. The blustery wind blew over the town and through his chest.
He lifted the chain to his throat and clasped it about his neck.
No. This would not do.
