His mother wasn’t wrong in such an opinion.
“I’ll have flowers sent over this morning.” Gabriel rose. “And I’ll call on her myself, this afternoon.”
His mother set aside her knitting and walked with him to the door. “Let me know as soon as you’ve set a new date. I’ll invite her and Mrs. Beasley here so that we can begin all the planning. I do hope nothing comes along this time. I’ve almost started to think the betrothal was cursed.”
His mother’s choice of words sent a frisson of something… not fear, butawareness, rushing through his veins. Gabriel didn’t believe in magic, or curses or supernatural forces of any kind.
Days after returning from London, a mere hours after burying the old duke, Crawford had asked if it was true that Olivia had gone to the mine just a few days before the cave-in. Gabriel had been unable to dissemble. Yes, Olivia had visited the mine, he was of a mind to believe that she’d even entered the first few feet or so while he’d gone down under.
“Goddamnit.” Crawford had responded to the news. “Why in the hell would she have gone there?”
“Because I offered to take her,” Gabriel had responded. “She’s known about the damnable pit of horrors for most of her life, I felt the least she deserved was to lay her eyes on it.”
“I know. Hell, I took Louella up there the first day of our courtship. I only wish…”
“What?”
“Damnable rumors are flying around. A few of the families are saying she cursed the workers with her eye. I was hoping I could refute that she’d been there, but—”
“Evans and Ben were there, too.” Damn ignorance. “There’s no fucking curse.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Stanton had run one hand through his hair. It had been a hellish month for both of them.
“She believes it sometimes. She’ll deny it left and right, but her father’s done his best to convince her.”
Crawford had paused and was watching him carefully. “You seem to have come to know my sister-in-law a great deal over the past few weeks.”
Gabriel had been unable to meet his friend’s eyes as he sat across the large desk between them. Instead, he’d unrolled a document he’d been working on that laid out all the weaknesses of the shaft they’d been utilizing at the mine. It would do no good to discuss Olivia with him.
Their friendship, likely, could not hold up to the transgressions Gabriel had committed against her.
“But of course, the betrothal’s not cursed,” his mother agreed in a placating manner, bringing Gabriel back to the present.
With hands that were beginning to show her age, Lady Kingsley then pulled her son down so that her kiss could land easily enough along his jaw. “We must get past this wedding so that you and Victoria can begin your life together, set up a nursery, and give me some grandbabies to fawn over.”
And then another damnable thought struck him. He would wait one month and then he needed to assure himself he’d not done any more damage than he originally thought.
He needed to write to Olivia.
* * *
In the weeksthat followed the collapse of the mine, Louella and Crawford surprised the entire village by taking in the Smith children. They intended to care for them and raise them as their own.
No distant family member had come forth and the only other couples who would have wanted them would have only taken one, two at most. The boys would have lost each other in addition to losing their parents.
Just when Olivia had begun contemplating their predicament, the children had been swept away to Ashton Acres. Baby Harvey, the twins. Even Luke Junior.
Of mind to help her sister with the daunting responsibility, Olivia had made the short walk to Ashton Acres a few times but quickly discovered that with all the nurses and nannies hired by Crawford, there was no need. Although she’d managed to get Louella through one particularly rough spot, it seemed important to allow the children to settle into their new home, their new family, without her interference.
She was happy for them, and for Louella and Crawford.
And yet––Olivia glanced down at the book she’d been trying to read for the past half an hour––she could not shake this melancholy.
She’d read the same page over and over and still had no idea who Miss Bennett was talking to.
So much had changed. The children no longer needed her, Eliza had gone to visit an aunt, and Mary was taking the loss of her brother hard. The other woman made attempts at cheerfulness, but Olivia knew her maid had been close to him. He had married the previous spring and died leaving an expectant wife and not much to support her.
Such sadness. The loss of life that spring would be felt in Misty Brooke for years to come.
