“Do they keep a carriage?”
“I’m afraid not, sir.”
A middle-class family that could not afford the upkeep of a carriage. Not precisely the situation he had hoped to send Aurelia into.
He could elevate them, of course. Purchase them a large property outright, pay for a carriage and horses. Provide them with the life he wished Aurelia to live. But then, if that were the situation and the case, would it not be simpler to keep her with him? Then he could provide for her himself, in entirely closer quarters at that.
The prospect oflovingher put the fear of God into him, but she was not Kate, liable to run away at the slightest provocation, and dissatisfied with the life he could provide.
“Thank you,” he muttered distractedly to Mr. Arnold. “I will give this… some thought.”
“What do you intend to do with the information, sir, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“As a matter of fact, I do mind you asking.” Sebastian speared the other man with a sharp look. “My business is mine alone.”
“Of course, sir.” Mr. Arnold inclined his head with an awkward chuckle. “If that’s all, I will take my leave. May I give my best wishes to Her Grace before I go?”
Sebastian sighed. So that was the reason behind Arnold coming out all this way—for whatever reason, he’d taken some fatherly interest in Aurelia and wanted to check in on her.
Well, who was he to deny that?
“Tell her nothing of your investigations or your goals, if you please,” he instructed. “It’s likely she does not know of this family. Nor they of her.”
Mr. Arnold bowed himself out of the room, and Sebastian was left to the torment of his thoughts.
What was the best thing to do about her? He didn’t know—but until he did, he would tell her nothing of his plans. The less she knew, the better.
The day after Mr. Arnold’s visit, Aurelia decided to accompany Sebastian on his walk to the lighthouse for the first time.
He didn’t object.
They walked side by side silently through the sharp spring air, and she found herself marveling at how much had changed. That first week, she had been so certain she’d made a terrible mistake. Now? She relished being Sebastian’s wife—and the duchess—more than she could ever have anticipated.
But she wouldn’t let him waste the rest of his life in self-imposed exile. He had clawed his way back from grief and scandal. He deserved more than these same cliffs, this same path, day after day.
He deserved to live again.
“I have had several invitations since arriving here,” she began abruptly, her breath misting in the crisp air. “Most from London. I thought we might attend one.”
“We havealreadyattended one,” he reminded her, flicking her nose teasingly. “The masquerade. Remember?”
“And that was a success, don’t you think?” She looked earnestly into his face, attempting to read his expression. “My thought is that, perhaps, we might accept another few invitations so that we are known in London. Think how successful we have been here!”
A muscle in his jaw tightened. “What do you expect me to do to endear myself to them, Aurelia? Repair their houses?”
“Beseen,” she said solemnly. “Not so much so that we are always to be in London—I wouldhatethat—but to show our faces again. Think. Most people don’t know who it is you have married, and if we are absent for too long, then it will be even more a subject of gossip when we are seen.”
“And youexpectto be seen?”
“I expect so,” she shrugged with a single shoulder. “Lady Mary Ann will be in London next year, and I suspect we shall be invited to her eventual wedding, if nothing else. And when we eventually have children of our own, we will have to take them to London, too.”
He sighed, tilting his face back to the sky. She understood his reticence—the world had not been kind to him. But if he hid away, he was losing his chance of freedom; no good came from being closeted up in a place because one had nochoicebut to be so.
The villagers had come to accept and respect Sebastian; she had hoped thetonwould do the same. Perhaps it would take time, but she certainly had received enough invitations to convince her that she had not been slighted by every family in London.
“How about a simple music recital?” she asked coaxingly. “We can leave once it’s finished, and there’s less emphasis placed on speaking with other people. How does that sound?”
The corner of his face softened as he smiled. “How can I deny you anything when you ask me so sweetly?”
