‘Sat with me?’
He placed a hand on either side of her face and raised her face to look at him. His eyes crinkled as he smiled and shook his head.
‘To be honest it is all a blur but Bennet told me how you took charge. I remember your kindness to me then and I will remember your work today, Isabel.’
Isabel.She liked the way her given name sounded when he spoke it.
He let his hands drop and took a step back. ‘Would you care for a walk, Lady Somerton? Little Benning is hardly London, but I feel the need for some fresh air.’
Chapter Twenty-Six
On her way to fetch her bonnet, Isabel glanced into the sick room. As she turned for the stairs, Sebastian looked up at her from the front hall, his brow creased with anxiety.
‘How is she?’
‘She’s asleep,’ she said, adding with a smile, ‘so is Mrs. Mead.’
Sebastian held the front door open, and they stepped out into a bright, warm day.
‘Mrs. Mead has been with us since Connie was a babe. I apologise if she has seemed a little high handed today,’ Sebastian said.
Isabel shook her head. ‘She has every right to be. It was very presumptuous of me to come in and tell her everything she had been doing was wrong. I shall try and make it up to her.’
They had reached the heart of the village, marked by a pleasant village green with a duck pond and, behind it, the pretty church that had probably been the Reverend Alder’s living. Although no one was to be seen in the quiet village, somewhere she could hear children squabbling and the sound of chickens—the sounds of everyday life.
Isabel looked up as the clock in the church tower struck four.
‘Good heavens. Is that the time? It’s so peaceful here.’ She looked up at the man walking beside her. ‘I think Little Benning is lovely. And the cottage is charming.’
Sebastian glanced back at the little cottage, still visible from where they stood. ‘It may be small, but it’s mine, every stone in it bought with my hard-earned pennies and, I have to confess, it feels more real to me than Brantstone.’
‘I can understand that. Everyone needs to belong somewhere, and I can see that in your heart, this is where you belong.’
He didn’t answer for a long moment before saying, ‘Any place where you have grown up and known happiness will always have a special place in your affections, but I haven’t really lived here since I was sixteen. The army has been my home, and if I had remained just plain Sebastian Alder there would have been few enough jobs for army captains on half pay.’ He sighed. ‘Whatever line of work I could find would not have brought me back here, Isabel.’ He paused. ‘I hope that, in time, I will come to feel that I belong at Brantstone.’
She looked up at him. ‘But you do belong at Brantstone, Sebastian. It may not feel like it yet but, even in such a short time, you have made your mark.’
‘Do you think so?’
She nodded.
‘Kind of you to say that but it’s not home... not yet. What about you, Isabel? Where do you belong?’
She shook her head. ‘I certainly don’t belong at Brantstone. I never have.’
He raised an eyebrow and she added. ‘Please don’t mistake me. I like the dower house and I’m looking forward to living there. It is the first time in my life that I will have a place of my own, as you would say, a place to belong.’
He frowned. ‘I must say no one would describe Brantstone as homely, but perhaps there is more to a sense of belonging than just the bricks and mortar. Is it about feeling wanted... and loved?’
She caught her breath. She had felt neither wanted nor loved for most of the years she had spent at Brantstone. If she had been, would she think of it differently?
He cleared his throat. ‘I don’t know why you came to Little Benning, but I’m glad you did, Isabel.’
Grateful for the change in subject, Isabel looked up at him and smiled.
‘I was born to interfere.’
After the events of the last day, her original motives for accompanying him now seemed base and unworthy. This wasn’t just about ensuring that Sebastian’s sister would take her place at Brantstone and free her to move to the dower house, she had a glimpse of family and a happiness she had only dreamed of in the past.
