“Very much so,” Bridget cut in. “We are quite happily wed, which I suppose I must thank you for, Lady Susan.”
Lady Susan’s eyes narrowed, a flicker of anger in them. “Oh?”
This was the moment for Bridget to say something cutting, but she only sighed softly. “Yes. If you had not sent me into the lake—by accident, of course—I would have never married His Grace. What a happy twist of fate.”
An accident? Lewis smiled wryly at how Bridget warped the narrative of what had occurred by the lakeside. There were no accusations or insults, only a gentle acknowledgment of what had transpired between the two ladies.
“Shall we continue our turn?” Lewis asked.
“Indeed,” Bridget said.
So they did, bidding Lady Susan and the other ladies farewell.
“You are learning,” Lewis said, once they were out of earshot. “I am pleased to see your progress.”
“That was not progress,” Bridget said. “You said it yourself. I have always beencunning. I had to be. If I was not, my siblings would have buried me with all their attention.”
Lewis raised an eyebrow. “I thought you loved your siblings. They certainly seem fond of you.”
He thought of Elias’s protective, indulgent nature and of the worried looks the eldest Leedway sister had sent Bridget during his visits.
“Idolove them,” Bridget said, sounding startled. “Why would you assume otherwise?”
“You just spoke of being buried by them.”
Bridget glanced at him, her eyes wide and guileless. “Have you never been loved so much that you felt suffocated?”
Ice crept over him, and Lewis found himself lost for words. His first, instinctive answer was that he had never felt that. Then, he thought of his grandmother. At times, he did feel a little buried by her. She expected him to remain unchanging forever and to bend himself around her desires and expectations.
“Maybe,” he said, choosing his words with care. “Does it feel like you…you love someone, but at the same time, you are distressed just a little?”
“Something like that,” Bridget said. “My brother and sisters mean well. They always have, but at the same time, I want to be my own person.”
“You do not want your life to be dictated by another person, even if that person might seek only to control you out of love.”
“Yes. Precisely.”
Lewis’s face warmed with a strange pleasure at hearing the raw, straightforward confession from his young wife. It was followed, at once, by a revelation which should not have been one at all. He was doing the precise thing to Bridget that he himself disliked.
“Families can be difficult,” Bridget said.
“They can be.” Lewis paused, his thoughts still adrift and a little lost in what he had just come to realize about Bridget and himself. “I think that it must be quite lovely to have a large family like yours, though. Even though your siblings may frustrate you, you must feel so very loved. It is nice to have people who care about you and your well-being.”
“I suppose you do not have that,” she said, furrowing her brow. “You have only one relative.”
The words were a little lacking in tact, but he heard the good intentions behind them. Bridget was sympathetic, and he did not quite know what to do with this soft, thoughtful wife who behaved as if he was not entirely her enemy.
“I have enough,” Lewis said carefully.
He did not wish to lie, but that also did not mean he wanted to tell Bridget everything. Besides, she would think worse of him if he did. No matter how he told her, Lewis could not possibly soften the truth ofsometimes, my grandmother tires me, and I wish I did not have to care for her. The thoughts sounded wretched and selfish. What manner of man did not wish to care for his own relatives, much less his sole surviving relative?
“I am glad.” Bridget sounded as though she was being careful, too.
It was if they were both standing too near to the edge of a cliff, and one wrong step would send them plummeting.
“But I imagine there were times when you must have wanted more,” Bridget continued. “It must have been a very lonely childhood for you.”
“Not really,” he said. “It became more difficult once I reached manhood, truthfully. That was when I realized what I was missing.”
