And so the four of them climbed the stairs that wound their way through a narrow corridor outside the domed room before emerging onto the balcony. It was wide and solid and supported by the sturdy marble pillars that surrounded the floor below. The marble balustrade about the outer edge was solid and slightly more than waist-high, even against Justin’s height. The small marble pillars that held it up were spaced closely enough that not even the thinnest child would be able to squeeze between them. The whole thing had been built with safety in mind, though it was beautiful too. Above them the dome soared. Below them the mosaic floor was laid out in all its splendor.
Maria was holding very tightly to his hand, Justin noticed. Lady Estelle was standing to one side of them, Ricky at the other.
“This isfun, Juss,” he said. “But if this is Everleigh—for everly and everly—where is yourhouse?”
“This is it, Ricky,” Justin said. “This is my house.”
Ricky turned to stare at him. “No-o,” he said. “How do you keep it clean?”
“I have a lot of people to clean it for me,” Justin said.
“That’s silly,” Ricky said.
“Those people earn their living working here instead of hewing stone in the quarry,” Justin explained. “Lady Estelle, are you all right?”
She had moved forward to grasp the top of the balustrade with both hands, though she stood back from it the length of her arms. Her knuckles were white. Her head was tipped back and she was gazing at the dome.
“My stomach feels as if it may be standing on its head,”she admitted. “And I believe I must have misplaced my knees while I was outside with Maria. But yes, thank you. I am perfectly fine. Provided I do not look down. The balcony seems far higher from up here than it looks from down there.”
“This rail is made of stone,” Ricky said, moving toward her. “Stone is ever so strong. We could all of us push at this all day long and it wouldn’t budge. Even if Wes was pushing too. That floor down there looks pretty. Hold my hand and have a look at it. I’ll keep you safe. Won’t I, Juss? I kept Juss safe when he come to our house after Wes had hit his face raw and bust his nose. Wes didn’t ought to’ve done that.”
“I will take your hand if I may, Ricky,” Lady Estelle said, suiting action to words. “Thank you. I remember from yesterday how strong it feels. And I will look down.”
“If you tried to fall you couldn’t,” Ricky said. “I wouldn’t let you, and this stone rail wouldn’t let you.”
“You are quite right,” she said. “The floor does look pretty from up here. And the dome takes my breath away.”
“You got to breathe,” Ricky said. “Or you will faint. I’ll carry you down the stairs if you do—don’t worry—but there’s no need. You got to breathe.”
“There.” She inhaled audibly and exhaled. “This is a lovely room. The very heart of the house. At the center of it and very beautiful. Oh, look, Ricky. The sun must be coming out. Look at how the whole room is lighting up.”
“It’s the prettiest thingever,” Ricky said.
Maria turned her head to look up at Justin. “I feel as safe as I always used to,” she murmured. But instead of smiling, as she might have done, her eyes filled with tears, and she bit her upper lip and turned her head away.
Love was no soft emotion that brought endless bliss, was it? Why, then, did one allow oneself to feel it at all? Because the alternative was unthinkable?
“Shall we walk around the gallery?” Justin suggested.
***
His guests had been here for two weeks, Justin realized the following day. All were planning to leave within the next few days. He hoped no one would go away disappointed. He had not organized any grand activities for them—excursions beyond the confines of the park, for example, or parties or even a ball that included his neighbors. If he had had a countess, she might have thought of that and the necessity ofentertainingtheir guests.
If he had had a countess...
The days were running out, and soon, if he was to keep the promise he had made to Lady Estelle out at the lake, he was going to have to propose marriage to her again. Would she accept this time? Sometimes he thought she might. At other times he could not imagine why she would. What did he have to offer her except allthis—Everleigh, a title, wealth? And his heart, for whatever that was worth. He did not have any of the... thelight, for want of a better word, that filled her and surrounded her like an aura. It was the word she herself had used, now that he came to think of it. It was something she had said he lacked.
He did not even know how he was going to go about asking her. How did one make a proposal of marriage in such a way that it would tip the scales in one’s favor?
But he was distracted from that problem by Wes’s arrival, two days after Ricky’s.
Unlike Ricky, Wes did not come at a time when there were other people outside. And he did not come to the frontdoors or even to the kitchen door. A groom brought word from the stables that Mr.Wesley Mort had come for his brother and would be obliged if someone would bring him to the stables so that they could be on their way and not trouble anyone any further.
A typical Wes sort of message.
Justin was having tea with his guests at the time in the square reception room in the state apartments. The butler came discreetly to his table and murmured in his ear.
Justin set his napkin beside his plate and got to his feet. “Excuse me,” he said loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Wes Mort has just arrived at the stables. No, please.” He held up a hand to discourage those of his guests who had also begun to get to their feet. “Wes is nothing like his brother. He would be mortified beyond belief if he were to see anyone but me coming from the house. It sounds as though he intends to leave here as soon as Ricky joins him. He would leave sooner than that if he could. I’ll go alone.”
