At the door, he glanced up to see Rachel there. As he made to open the door, a maid came running after him. “Mr. Smith, Her Grace told me to give this to you.”
She thrust a coin sack at him. He took it, shook it, and handed it back to the woman. “You can tell her that I found something more precious than money, and if she has any sense, she will see it too.”
Plopping his hat on his head, William bowed, “My regards.”
The last thing he saw as he exited the house was Rachel turning away from the landing.
***
That afternoon, after hours of a draining lecture from her parents, Rachel stumbled into bed and pressed her face into the pillows. She didn’t even have the strength to cry. William was gone, and her parent had ordered her never to see him again. Even worse, they were still ordering her to marry Strathmore.
Bleakly she stared out at the window and felt the sunlight was mocking her. How could she feel happy anymore? Soon her very freedom would be tied to a lord she found repulsing, and the man she loved was banned from seeing her again.
Her lips tempted to twitch when she remembered how William had told her mother the harsh truth that no one ever had the courage to do before. She would always treasure him because of all the people she knew he was the only one who had touched her heart in all the right ways.
The door opened, and even without looking, Rachel knew that Jane had come in. Her maid rested a steaming cup of tea and a buttered croissant on the end table. “You did not have breakfast this morning.”
“I’m not hungry,” Rachel said quietly.
“Even if you aren’t, it’s not good to go hungry,” Jane said. “That’s why I brought you a simple cup of tea and a morsel, not a whole meal. Just try, please.”
After a moment, Rachel sighed heavily and sat up before reaching for the cup. “They found me kissing William and dismissed him on the spot. They did not scold me, Jane. They threatened me never to do anything like that again and that Strathmore should never hear of it. They dug into me, telling me that if I dare do anything like that again, they will lock me away in a nunnery. I almost told them that I would prefer that to whatever they are doing to me, but I could not get a word in edgewise.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Jane grimaced.
Jane snorted. “You should have seen mother’s face when William told her how he despised how she was treating me.”
“He told her off?” Jane sounded gob smacked.
“Unrepentantly,” Rachel said after she took a sip. “She went purple in the face.”
Blinking in shock, Jane shook her head. “I could not imagine doing such a thing.”
Smiling tightly, Rachel drank the rest of the tea. “I will never see him again, but I won’t forget him.”
“I don’t think you should,” Jane agreed.
“They blamed him for putting these ideas in my head. How he tricked me into liking him and that he was the Devil’s spawn for taking me off the path of righteousness. As if that path is leading me into a marriage with a man I do not like.”
“About that,” Jane asked. “What are you going to do?”
“What can I do?” Rachel asked bitterly. “They did not listen to me before, and now that they caught me with William, I am sure that they will not listen to me anymore. I am going to be married off to Strathmore, like it or not.”
“Mayhap…” Jane trailed off. “Mayhap something good will come of it?”
“If anything does, it would be a miracle,” Rachel's lips downturned.
***
Gazing up at the modest two-story house in the Waltham Cross countryside, William dared to walk up the cobblestone path, mounted the three flat steps, and knocked at the door.
When the messenger had come with the notice that an uncle of his had died, William had not thought much of it. He had never seen, talked with, or even known the man, so how was it that he had left him a house in his will?
The door opened to a woman with a warm smile and greying dark brown hair. She greeted him. “Mr. Smith, I suppose?”
“Yes,” William said. “And you are?”
“Missus Helen Wright, the housekeeper,” she said. “Please come in.”
