It sounded solid when I said it out loud.
Apologize. Own it. Fix what I could. Let her be angry if she needed to be.
After the wedding.
I clung to that timeline like a promise.
Every time I saw Jane after that, she was surrounded. Helen hindering her in the kitchen. Kitty hovering, making sure Jane stuck to the schedule which was entirely unnecessary. Jane was the master of her kitchen and everything came out perfect. Lucy passing updates from the bride and groom. There was never a clean opening that didn’t feel like interruption.
And she didn’t make one for me.
That was the part that hurt most.
She was busy. I understood that. However, she didn’t seek me out.
I caught her eye once across the room as I helped to serve de. She looked at me, then looked away, returning her attention to the person beside her without pause.
She’s angry, I reminded myself.
And she has every right to be.
I didn’t push. I wouldn’t corner her the way James cornered people when he wanted something. I waited, because waiting felt like the least selfish option left to me.
So I volunteered for any assignment the Bennets would give me, making myself useful to pass the time.
As the afternoon slid toward evening, the inn settled into that strange suspended moment before a major event. Everything was nearly ready, but nothing was finished. The air felt tight with anticipation.
I found myself standing near the dining room floorboard where William and Helen had once hidden their time capsule. I had only learned about it days ago, when William mentioned it casually while we were fixing a draft along the baseboard.
“Forty years,” he had said. “We figured if we were still standing together after that, whatever was inside would feel like a gift.”
The idea had lodged in my mind and refused to leave.
Forty years.
Not a pause. Not a break. A life.
I looked toward the kitchen again, where Jane was laughing softly at something Molly said as they came out to the hallway to have a quick peek at the wedding as it was about to start. The sound reached me faintly over the noise of the room.
She laughed easily with them. Comfortably. Like someone exactly where she belonged.
I wondered if she would ever laugh like that with me again.
I told myself yes. After the wedding. After I apologized. After things calmed down.
That was the plan.
I just hoped I had not already done damage I could not undo.
Chapter Twenty-Four: What He Chose Not To Say
Jane
The last hour before guests were seated always felt strangely calm. Not quiet, exactly, but the work shifted from building the meal to keeping it ready for the guests once they sat down. We were at the lull before plating and everything that could be planned had been planned. Everything that could be prepped was either finished or waiting for its moment.
I moved through the kitchen with my clipboard tucked against my side, checking everything was set out for smooth service, confirming plating order, adjusting timing by minutes rather than hours. Molly and Erin stayed exactly where I needed them. They worked like they had been here for weeks instead of hours, hands quick, eyes attentive. They asked questions only when it mattered, and when they asked, they listened.
It was working. The system was working.
