Noelle hooked her arm through his and led him into the crowded chamber. “Right now.”
Chapter 4
When Benjamin arrived downstairs for the reading of the will, he was already in a foul mood.
Notfoul, perhaps. Restless. It had begun last night when he was shown to a recently renovated bedchamber in an unfamiliar part of the castle. Though the room and its fire were welcoming, he could not help but feel a stranger in a place where he had spent a good chunk of his childhood.
The feeling had not abated. He had tossed and turned, torn between his anger toward his grandfather and the wholly unacceptable rush of longing he felt every time he thought of Noelle. Cressmouth was torture.
He was glad this particular trial was almost over. Scant moments remained. Sit through a short reading, collect the locket, be on his way.
At least, that was what he had expected prior to finding himself in an enormous chamber stuffed with countless spectators. Despite what appeared to be the presence of hundreds of chairs, that opportunity had vanished long before Benjamin had entered the room. He was forced to stand with his back against the wainscoting like a wallflower at her first dance.
“Why is the solicitor primping on a dais in a ballroom as if this were a stage?” he growled to the person next to him.
Belatedly, he recognized the woman as the jeweler who made tiaras fit for royalty, not that there could be much call for extravagance in the middle of nowhere.
Benjamin wished he hadn’t recognized her at all. No good could come of making personal connections with townsfolk. He would be leaving them behind within the hour.
Leaving Noelle behind was hard enough.
“This town loves the stage,” the jeweler replied cryptically.
He snorted. “All the world’s a stage, and the townsfolk merely players?”
“Shakespeare.” The jeweler inclined her head. “Very nice. Old Fuzzy Wig would be proud.”
Benjamin perked up despite himself. The castle clerk had been dearer to him than his own grandfather.
He scanned the room in vain. “All these people cannot possibly be named in the will.”
“We are,” the jeweler answered with pride. “Mr. Marlowe would never forget one of his flock.”
Benjamin shot her a wry glance. “Because my grandfather was such a good shepherd?”
“Because he loved a menagerie,” she corrected with a grin. “He would have turned this castle into a zoological circus if Old Fuzzy Wig would have let him.”
Benjamin was unsurprised to hear that his eccentric grandfather had not become any less odd with age. Nor was he surprised that this characteristic should be met with an indulgent smile and nostalgic tone of voice. Grandfather had been devoted to Cressmouth, and Cressmouth alone.
He was saved from this line of thought by a glimpse of golden blonde hair. Noelle was here.
Of course she would be. The entire town was here. But it was not the entire town who made his heart beat faster and his mind empty of reason.
She looked just as beautiful in the morning sun as she had by candlelight the evening before. Even more beautiful, if such a thing were possible. He should look away. And he would, any moment now.
He loved the way she wrinkled her nose any time her gold-rimmed spectacles started to slide. He loved the way she laughed, the way her whole face lit up, the way joy seemed to emanate from her entire body. Not that he could see much of it. She was surrounded by friends and well-wishers.
Benjamin was a moth drawn to her flame, but this community was her butterflies. Colorful and energetic where he was distant and staid. Cressmouth was where and how she thrived. Noelle did not need him disrupting her happy life.
He wished he had not run into her. It would have been easier for them both if he had glimpsed her from afar and slipped away with her none the wiser. Now that he had seen her, had spoken to her, he should let that be enough.
But his feet were moving in her direction as though logic held no sway.
Imbecile. He wasn’t edging sideways through a packed crowd just to be closer to a woman who distrusted him, he told himself. He had simply noticed that Noelle stood directly beside Mr. Fawkes, who Benjamin was thrilled to see still ornery and kicking.
When he got within shouting distance, Mr. Fawkes and another older gentleman were too engrossed in a lively conversation about the causes and treatments of gout to notice Benjamin’s arrival.
Noelle, however, noticed right away.
