“I have never seen him leave our dining table the way he did the other night,” she said. “He’s always been measured. Controlled. Careful.”
Grace didn’t know what to say.
“He informed his father and me that he had made a terrible mistake,” Mrs. Bennett continued. “That he had treated someone he cared about as if she were something to hide.”
Grace’s breath caught.
“He used language I will not repeat,” she added dryly. “But the sentiment was clear.”
Grace shook her head slightly. “He didn’t— he made it clear he didn’t want?—”
“What my son wants,” Mrs. Bennett said evenly, “and what he believes he is permitted to want appear to be two different matters.”
Silence.
“He has never brought a woman into this house,” she added. “Not casually. Not seriously. Not once.”
Grace’s pulse fluttered.
“He cares about you.”
The words landed heavy and disorienting.
Grace felt the world tilt just slightly.
“No,” she said softly. “Not…not like that.”
Mrs. Bennett studied her face. A faint, almost rueful smile flicked across her mouth.
“When a Bennett man makes up his mind, Miss Hart, they are… relentless.”
Grace let out a shaky breath.
“I’m not here to offer a blessing,” Mrs. Bennett said plainly. “I don’t know you. I don’t know if you’re what my son needs.”
She held Grace’s gaze.
“But I am not naïve.”
A pause.
“My son is absolutely undone over you.”
Grace stared at her.
“He may not have handled it well,” Mrs. Bennett continued. “He may have been foolish. But this—” She gestured at Grace, standing in the doorway of her son’s house. “This is notduty.”
Grace’s throat burned. It felt absurd—standing here clutching a roast while Luke's mother dismantled every assumption she'd built to protect herself.
“He didn’t want to be seen with me,” she said quietly.
Mrs. Bennett nodded once. “Yes. He gets his idiocy from his father’s side, probably.”
Silence settled again — less brittle now, more complicated.
“He will not give this up easily,” Mrs. Bennett said at last. “If you intend to send him away, you should be prepared to be very firm.”
The corner of her mouth lifted. “He has always been stubborn.”
