It was Mr.Trimble who came to collect Rhys from school when his mother passed, driving him home in a heavy blanket of silence that was respect and grief because Rhys’s mother had always been kind and good and loved by all.She was considerably younger than Rhys’s father and should have by all rights outlived him by a decade or two.
It was around then that Rhys overheard the young viscount, Alec Sherbourne, discussing the closing of the Langley Park stables with his father.The earl was ready to part with the horses, but Alec protested, saying it wouldn’t be right to make such a significant change so soon after Mrs.Harmon’s death.
Less than one week after the funeral, Rhys had stood in the shadows outside the stable listening to father and son discuss the pros and cons of putting the decision off for a year, possibly two.The earl didn’t want to be persuaded to wait, but eventually, reluctantly agreed that they would shelve the decision for the time being.
Nothing more was said about the stable and horses for another three years and then one day in early spring, Rhys’s father phoned him at school to say that the earl was making significant changes at his country estate, and emptying the stable was one of them.
Rhys had been expecting this call, but it had caught his father off guard and, in hindsight, Rhys wondered if he should have prepared his father.But what would he have said, and how would it have helped?It was hard enough grieving his mother and studying for his exams, without trying to manage his father’s future.
His father moved to Wales while Rhys was finishing his term and Rhys never had a chance to say goodbye to the place that had been home for nearly fifteen years.He hadn’t been the one to pack up his room, and he hadn’t been able to say thank you to the Trimbles or Mrs.Booth for their care and concern.
Wales for Rhys was difficult.He didn’t speak the language, and his accent was prep school English, which made him the butt of jokes in the rural county his father settled.But Rhys was used to teasing and mockery as he was always one of the scholarship kids, first at Cothill House where he began boarding at nine, and then later at Winchester College where he went at thirteen.With one year left at Winchester, he knew what mattered, and that was earning a full scholarship to the university of his choice where he wanted to study medicine.He didn’t want oncology—too often it was about managing the end of one’s life—but a field where he could make a radical difference, which was how he ended up at Imperial College London.
As Rhys stripped to step into the shower, he knew he’d done well for himself, but being back at Langley Park made him realize how much he still wanted, and how much more he wanted for his girls.A stable home, love, and respect for one’s heritage, both American and Welsh.
Chapter Ten
Instead of tiringthem out, the long day in Bakewell yesterday only sharpened the girls’ enthusiasm.They might not have found anything for their mother, but that didn’t stop them from now wanting to shop for everyone else—Dad, each other, even Mrs.Johnson, who always had something good baking in her kitchen for them.
But it was raining the next morning, a steady rain that turned to tiny pellets of ice just before noon.Cat persuaded the girls to wait until after lunch to see if the weather improved, and if it did, she assured them they could go to Bakewell for a quick trip.
The sun tried to peep out at one, and that was enough encouragement for Jillian and Olivia to push for shopping.
“I checked the weather report and it’s not supposed to stay sunny,” Cat warned.“In fact, it could get very cold later.”
“Cold is better than wet,” Jillian said.“But I will go change and put on more layers.”She ran up the stairs and Olivia, who had dressed as warmly as she could, stood in the entry, tugging on her winter jacket and then her wool cap.
“I’m going to buy something for you,” Olivia told Cat earnestly.“But you can’t see.It’s a surprise.”
“Then how do we make this work?”Cat asked, smiling down at Olivia who was almost always full of sunshine on even the gloomiest day.
Olivia zipped up her puffy dark pink jacket.“You give me money and I’ll use it to pay.”
“And where will I be?How will I keep you safe?”
“Jilly will keep me safe inside the store, and you’ll keep me safe outside.”
Cat’s heart turned over.She felt so much love in that moment for this lovely little human being.“We can maybe do that,” she said, running a light hand over Olivia’s dark hair.
Jillian came down the stairs then, and overhearing the last bit of their conversation needed some clarification.“What am I doing?”
“In the store, you’ll make sure no one robs me or anything,” Olivia said calmly, wrapping her scarf around her neck.“And Cat will stand outside on guard.But that’s only when I’m shopping for her present.The rest of the time she can be with us.”
“I brought my money this time,” Jillian said, patting her coat pocket.“Olivia, do you have your money?”
Olivia stiffened, panicked.“I left it in London.We need to go get money from Dad—”
“We can manage without him today.I have enough cash on me, and I can front you some for shopping,” Cat said, opening the front door.“You can always pay me back later.”She winked at the girls.“I know where you live and where you sleep.”
Laughing, they piled out of the house into the cold, and it was cold, crisp, the chill making them shiver and walk faster.
By the time Cat and the girls arrived in downtown Bakewell, it was after two and heavy gray clouds covered the sky, promising fresh rain, or possibly snow.Despite the thick layer of cold and the sharp drop in temperatures, Bakewell had never looked more festive.Starting this week, shops would also remain open later, and every store window glowed with fairy lights and garlands.
Cat walked between Jillian and Olivia, her hands snug in the pockets of her coat, the cheerful bustle of shoppers lifting her mood despite the cold.Today, they decided to try to visit every store, even if it was just to peek in and decide they weren’t interested, but at least they’d know what was available.
“What about the bakeries?”Olivia asked hopefully.“Should we peek in those too?
“Livy, Mum is not going to be happy that we’re eating so much sweets.”Jillian hunched her shoulders and then laughed.“But she’s not here, is she?”
