"You should. I was horrible to you."
"You were grieving. We all were."
"That's not an excuse."
"No. But it's an explanation." He reached out and gently wiped a tear from her cheek. "Harriet, I forgave you a long time ago. Whatever you did, whatever you said…it doesn't matter. Not anymore."
She stared at him, her expression raw and open in a way he had never seen before. "How can you just... forgive me? After everything?"
"Because I love you. And loving someone means accepting them entirely, all the good and the bad, the kind and the cruel." Sebastian smiled slightly. "Besides, your cruelty was never truly cruel. It was always grief wearing a different mask."
Harriet made a sound that was half laugh, half sob. "You see too much."
"I see you. That's all."
She reached for him then, her arms wrapping around his neck, her face buried against his shoulder. Sebastian held her while she cried…for Richard, for the years they had lost, for the anger that had finally found a place to rest.
He didn't try to fix it. He just held her, steady and present, until the storm had passed.
When she finally pulled back, her eyes were red but clear.
"Thank you," she said.
"For what?"
"For coming here with me. For staying." She wiped her face with the back of her hand. "For being... you."
"I'm not sure that's worthy of thanks."
"It is." She stood, and he rose with her. "Sebastian, I…"
She stopped, and Sebastian waited, barely breathing.
"Never mind," she said finally. "We should go back. It's getting dark."
She turned and walked toward the house, and Sebastian followed, wondering what she had been about to say.
Wondering when she would finally be ready.
***
That night, Harriet came to his room.
Sebastian was sitting by the window, unable to sleep, watching the moon rise over the gardens. He heard the soft knock at his door and knew, somehow, that it was her.
"Couldn't sleep?" he asked, as she slipped inside.
"No. Too many memories." She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. "Is it strange? Being here?"
"A little. But not bad." Sebastian gestured to the chair across from him. "Would you like to sit?"
She sat, tucking her feet up beneath her in a way that made her look very young. She was wearing a dressing gown over her nightclothes, her hair loose around her shoulders. Sebastian had never seen her like this…undone, informal and entirely herself.
She was beautiful. She was always beautiful. But this was different.
"I wanted to thank you," she said. "For today. At the grave."
"You've already thanked me."
