“I mentioned calling him out, and Lise got upset,” Henrik said, now cradling his injured hand, which would surely be swollen within hours.Returning to his horse, he mounted.“Let’s get out of here before you’re recaptured.I’m not up to battling a detachment of French soldiers at present.”
Wincing, he added, “God, that hurts.”
Jonathan said nothing while he swung himself into the saddle of his borrowed horse and followed Henrik onto the road leading out of the city.They traveled in silence along the late afternoon streets, past the merchant houses, leaving the uplifting Gothic spires behind them.
As they went through the Hüxtertor gate and onto the road that would take them north toward Eutin, Jonathan felt the dull ache of leaving Lise behind.He’d experienced it before, more than once.This time, knowing he’d forever lost all chance to have her as his own, he couldn’t make peace with it.His gut churned, his thoughts circled, trying to find a solution while she was yet unmarried.
But she’d given herself to Friedrich, and by Henrik’s account, she wished to marry the man.
Those two facts kept blocking every hope his heart came up with and every plan his brain tried to create.In silence, they rode.He knew Henrik was upset.Lise’s brother would have to explain the hurried wedding to his parents.Jonathan groaned.
“I wrote to your parents about Friedrich being a collaborator.Now you’ll have the terrible task of letting them know Lise will be his wife regardless.Perhaps kinder had they not known.”
Henrik merely nodded.After a few minutes, he said, “I would have told them anyway.I wouldn’t let them think their son-in-law was a champion of our people.If you could’ve seen the house Friedrich has managed to purchase.It’s a luxury any honest man beginning his working life could never afford.”
The sun was dropping lower earlier, marking the upcoming autumn season.In another hour, the sky seemed equal parts amber and copper.It should have been beautiful.Instead, it felt like riding through the rusty ruins of something precious.
Nearly an hour passed before the anger and disappointment bubbling inside Henrik could no longer be contained.
“I don’t understand it.”The words burst from him, dragging Jonathan from his own brooding thoughts.“Acting so recklessly, so brazenly.It isn’t like her.Lise has always been sensible.Not straitlaced or dour, I don’t mean that.But I would never have guessed she could behave so improperly.Even when we were children, she followed the rules while I broke them.And yet she would throw herself at a man before marriage, risk everything ...”
He trailed off, shaking his head.The entire situation obviously baffled her brother.
Jonathan said nothing.A hot flush of shame crept up his neck.Perhaps Lise’s brother didn’t know her as well as he thought.After all, there was nothing sensible or proper about their entanglement in London.Not only had she allowed him to bring her to climax, she had offered to reciprocate.And then in the garden and the hayloft, she’d been brazen and passionate.
Had she been equally forward with Friedrich?The thought made him sick, but he could say nothing without making her sound like a willing, light-heeled wench, while also damning himself.In Henrik’s current state of mind, he was likely to call Jonathan out, right there on the side of the road.
“I suppose,” Henrik continued, his voice troubled, “Lise must truly love him.I always thought theirs would be a marriage of convenience.Friendly, a good match, favorable for our families, nothing more.But if she would risk her reputation by going to him and staying with him, knowing the consequences, then it must have been because she was ready and willing to become Frau Albrecht.”
He fell silent a moment, then added, “Maybe I should have told her about Friedrich’s collaboration with the French.But what good would it have served?It might have driven him to violence or to throwing her out of his home.Now that she’s compromised, why burden her with the knowledge that her future husband profits from Bonaparte’s occupation, that he betrays his countrymen for gold and property?”
Jonathan kept his own counsel.He wanted nothing more than to leave Europe and see the shores of home once more.He would find Finch and go drinking.And wenching,dammit!And then drinking some more.
“We’ll likely rarely see her after this,” Henrik added quietly, more to himself than to Jonathan.“My parents won’t wish to mingle with Friedrich, and by association, not with Lise, either.My mother will be crushed.”
The muscles in Jonathan’s jaw worked, and then a question escaped between the waves of regret.“Why do you think she loves him?”
“What do you mean?”Henrik snapped.
“Besides the obvious.”Jonathan’s voice was carefully controlled.A part of him didn’t wish to delve further, but something seemed so wrong, after all the conversations he’d had with her.“Why do you believe Lise is in love with Friedrich?”
Henrik frowned.“In the drawing room, she asked me to remember the Great Oak.Have you come across it in your surveying?It’s an old tree in the Dodau Forest, near our estate.”
“I know it,” Jonathan ground out.“Go on.What about it?”
“Young women go there to dream of their beloved or some nonsense,” Henrik said with disdain.“She reminded me how she used to go there with the other girls and make wishes.To be honest, I thought she only went there with me and sometimes Friedrich.But she said she’d wished for her beloved, and now her wishes had come true.”
Even as he spoke the words, his speech grew slower as though he was thinking about the past.But Jonathan knew the truth instantly, his heart starting to hammer, and wasted no time.
“Stop.”The command was so sharply delivered Henrik instinctively pulled up on his reins.His horse tossed its head, dancing sideways.Jonathan had already halted, his borrowed mount stamping impatiently.
“What is it?What’s the matter?”
“Your sister was giving you a message, telling you she doesn’t love him.”Jonathan took in a long breath, and for the first time since learning about Lise’s ruin, he felt something other than devastation.
“I don’t understand,” Henrik said.“Why would she lie and ruin her life?”
“The Great Oak.”Jonathan’s words came faster now, urgent.“She told me once that she hadn’t done what the other girls did.She never climbed that tree and made any blasted wishes.She said she thought it was foolish and didn’t believe in such things.”
