“Would you like to tour the gardens, Papa?” Alyssa asked, choosing to let him believe that she was Triana.
“Yes. I believe that would be rather nice.”
She smiled, for he almost sounded lucid, like the man she’d remembered from her youth, before he’drunoff and left his devastated family behind to pick up the piecesfollowing his absence. For a long time she had resented him for hurting those she cared about as well, but never would she have wished for such an outcome. Even if he’d deserved some sort of punishment for his actions, this was going too far.
Alyssa was glad to see that, even though the conservatory might have nearly gone to ruin without their efforts to recapture the former glory, the gardens had been well maintained. Everything from roses to chrysanthemums, asters,and dahliasin every color imaginable caught the eye. The footmen set the sedan on a nearby stone bench and allowed the earl to look his fill of the beautiful landscape.
A sudden breeze caught a stray curl of Alyssa’s hair and teased the strand across her face. But before she had a chance to remove it, Travell lifted his hand and gently tucked it back behind her ear.
She lifted her eyes to his, and saw…something in those blue depths, but she didn’t dare try to interpret it. When the earl spoke up, the moment was broken.
“I think I’d like some lemonade.”
“Of course, Papa.” She swallowed. “Would you also like to take luncheon outside today?”
He nodded. “That would be rather pleasant.” She turned to one of the footmen who jogged back to the house to put in the master’s request.
She sat down on the stone bench beside the earl and reached out to take her hand in his. The other footman wandered a short distance away, to keep an eye on things and allowing them some privacy, while Travell remained standing, his hands shoved in his pockets.
Alyssa called on what she recalled from her youth and the stories that Triana used to share with her about her father. “Do you remember when we used to catch caterpillars and wait for them to turn to butterflies in the spring? We would put them in jars and poke holes in the lids giving them a twig to cling to and grass so that they wouldbelieve they were still outside.”
She was glad when that caused Lord Trenton to chuckle. “You always wanted to know how everything worked. When it turned into achrysalis, you always asked me when it would come back out. At the first sight of those wings pokingthrough, you looked asifsomeone had handed you the moon.”
Alyssa looked up to see Travell was smiling as well. “Indeed. I found it all so fascinating.”
The earl glanced at her and his eyes were so hopeful. “Shall we catch some today?”
“I’m afraid we can’t yet, Papa. It’s September. We have to wait for springtime.”
His face fell and he frowned. “Oh, yes. Of course,” he muttered, and Alyssa feared that she would lose any progress they’d made. He seemed to grow more agitated when he was confused, so she tried another tact.
“Since it’s autumn, perhaps we could try fishing in a few days. Would you like that?”
The earl blinked, but she was glad to see the sudden puzzlement on his expression had vanished. “I have been known to toss a pole now and then. But then, you never liked to touch the worms. Your brother wouldalwayshave to bait your hook.”
“Horrid, wiggling things.” Alyssa gave a mock shudder as she glanced at Travell once more. This time, he was glancing down at the ground. No doubt such recollections tore at his heart, for the man before him was not the one he knew from such touching memories.
She wished she knew what he was thinking, so when the footman arrived with a maid and a teacart laden with tea, sandwiches, and dainty cakes, she found her opportunity. As the servants fussed over their master, Alyssa pulled Travell aside.
“Are youall right?”
He shoved a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. “Hardly.”
“I know it’s difficult,” Alyssa returned. “Perhaps you should return to the house and spare yourself the grief of—”
“It’s not the memories that are tearing me apart,” he shot back harshly. “It’s the fact he could forget them so easily. It makes me angry that he could leave us all when we needed him.I want to knowwhy.” He shook his head. “But everything I want answers toislocked inside that muddled brain.”
Alyssa’s heart broke. She hadn’t even considered the fact that Travell was doing all this, not just for his father’s sake to spare him the horrors of an asylum, but because he needed closure. “I see.”
He snorted. “No doubt I sound like a selfish bastard, but it’s nothing that he doesn’t deserve for abandoning his daughter he held sodear, and then running off the night of her debut and causing such a scandal that, until she married Gabriel, was still suffering the effects of it.”
She couldn’t argue, for it was the truth. Even so, she reached out to take his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I know it’s difficult now, and it might even get worse, but I’ll do what I can to help. You and Triana were like the siblings I never had.”
Travell’s eyes darkened to the color of a stormy sea. “That may have been true at one time, but I haven’t looked at you as a sister in many years.”
Alyssa’s breath abruptly caught, but since she didn’t want to mistake his words as the longings deep within her heart,shepurposely misunderstood, “I’m sorry to hear that, for you have always been dear to me.”
She removed her hand from his and he let her go. Doing her best to steady her racing pulse, she returned to the earl.
