“Frau Lindemann lives just three houses down,” her mother said, consulting a letter from one of her friends who’d emigrated several years earlier.“And the Schillings are around the corner.We’ll have company soon enough.”
Indeed, by the following day, they were inundated with visitors, despite a steady rain pouring down on the pavement.The inclement weather didn’t stop the families from Hanover and Holstein who’d fled the French occupation, old friends and new acquaintances, people eager to welcome new arrivals and receive news from the homeland.
Lise smiled and poured tea for some, coffee for others, and tried to focus on conversations about London society and the challenges of establishing oneself in a foreign city.But always, beneath every interaction, she was thinking of Jonathan.
Here, he lived and went about his life.She knew that he’d made it home safely, because he’d sent a letter.Not directly to them, for fear of the French intercepting, but to the bailiff in Eutin, who in turn sent word to her father.She’d been so relieved, only wishing she could write back, but the danger was too great.
All she could hope for was that nothing had changed with him.That he still loved her and wanted her.He’d been angry when she’d left him in the forest.And it had been difficult to forget his expression, as though she’d betrayed him.
At night, lying in her new bed in this strange house, she pressed her hand to her belly and almost wished she’d had a tangible sign of their union.But her courses had come as expected three weeks after their encounter in the forest, bringing relief and devastating disappointment in equal measure.
While still in Holstein, she knew she would never bear Jonathan’s child.Never have that piece of him to hold and cherish.Now, in London, everything was possible.
But not if she didn’t let him know she was there.As she fell asleep, Lise vowed the next day, with or without her mother, she would make contact.
“There is no hurry.”Her mother’s response to Lise’s fervent wish to pay a visit to Lord and Lady Castleton was met with mild resistance.“We are still settling into our new residence.”However, Lise would wait no longer.
“You may settle in for the next few weeks, Mama.Regardless, either you go with me today, or I shall go alone.But go, I shall.”
“When did you become such a willful woman?”Yet Frau von Ostenfeld had a glint in her eyes.“Very well.I suppose I’ll have no peace until you see Lord Bowen again.”
“It is merely courtesy,” Lise said.“To pay his parents a visit and to express our happiness that their son arrived safely back in Britain.”
Her mother gave her a long, knowing look.“What about the rain?It’s not terrible now, but the clouds are quite dark.”
“If we wait for an entirely clear day, Mama, we shall not set foot out of our house until I am old and gray.”
Thus, as soon as it was the polite hour to pay an unscheduled, uninvited visit, they showed up at the Castleton residence on St.James’s Square, dressed in their best.Lise had thought it to be the longest day ever.At precisely three o’clock, she and her mother descended from the hired hackney.
Despite knowing that Jonathan had his own home, and in all likelihood would not merely by chance be at his parents’ townhouse, still, she was on tenterhooks.In mere minutes, she would find out for certain that Jonathan was well.That he’d made it safely back from the Continent.And hopefully she would learn the story of how he came to kill a French captain or if that had been one of Friedrich’s lies.
In truth, she wanted to know whether he thought of her as often as she thought of him.That information, however, would hardly be gleaned from the viscount’s parents.
Lise’s hands were icy despite her gloves, her heart hammering so hard she thought her mother must surely hear it as they went up the front granite steps.
The townhouse was just as imposing as she remembered, the black-painted door gleaming in the weak November sunlight.A butler answered her mother’s knock, his expression carefully neutral as he listened.
“We have newly arrived,” her mother said in English, her accent so thick the butler leaned forward as if to better catch her words.“Meaning we have no cards.”
Lise felt her cheeks warm and spoke up.“Is his lordship or her ladyship receiving visitors this afternoon?If so, please let either one know that Frau von Ostenfeld and her daughter are here.”
“One moment,” he said, granting them entrance.“Please wait in here.”He opened one of the double doors to the drawing room and gestured them inside, before closing the door behind them.
“I don’t know why you jumped in,” her mother said.“I was doing fine.”
Lise shrugged, allowing the thick carpet and elegant furnishings to remind her that she’d been an honored guest here once.That she’d dined across the table from Jonathan.And fallen in love, while knowing at the time that it could never come to anything.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Jonathan was somewhere in the house, perhaps in the study with the engraving of Lübeck?
“Miss von Ostenfeld?Are you really here?”
Lady Castleton was in the doorway, wearing a glorious day gown of crimson and silver, along with an expression of recognition and surprise.
“And this is your mother?The resemblance is so sweet.But how on earth can you be here in London?What extraordinary timing.”
Despite thinking the countess’s remark exceedingly strange, Lise made the proper introduction of her mother to Jonathan’s lovely mother.Within moments, they were being asked to sit and were awaiting the tea service.
“This is an unexpected pleasure,” Lady Castleton said.“Are you visiting England?”
