Unexpected tears filled my eyes, and I saw myself as I truly was—selfish and thoughtless. After all the years I had ignored him, he would still do anything for me. “You have always been so kind to me, even when I have not been kind to you. Why do you persist?”
“Because I want you to be happy.”
His words, so simple, warmed my heart.
“Thank you.”
“She doth not live far from here. I’ll take you there now, and we can be back before anyone misses us.”
“Are you certain?”
Isaac nodded and motioned for me to walk with him along the garden’s path.
I cast a glance toward the others, but no one seemed to notice as we walked toward the street and turned to the right.
“Your aunt told me your cousin is named Rachel.”
“Who is her employer?” I asked.
“A merchant named Josias Reed. He is a very wealthy and influential man.” Isaac looked back the way we had come. “He is at the wedding. ’Tis a good time to seek her out, while the others are celebrating and distracted.”
The Reeds’ house was only a few doors down. It was also on the water’s edge. It wasn’t as elaborate, but it was still substantial and foreboding, with slanted eaves and diamond-paned glass windows.
“I will wait here for you,” Isaac said.
“You don’t need to wait for me.” He had already done so much, and I remembered my resolve to turn him toward Grace. “I can walk back on my own. Mayhap Grace would like some company.”
He shook his head. “I would never leave you.”
Something about the way he said those words made my heart pause. “I care for you deeply, Isaac, and always have.” He needed to hear the truth. “But ’tis Grace wholovesyou.”
He frowned, clearly baffled by my words. “Grace?” He shook his head. “Why do you tell me this now?”
“I—” I paused, not sure he would understand. “Susannah brought her cousins to the ordinary and wishes to see us both married and in our own homes. I do not want Grace to marry someone she doth not love.”
His gaze was hooded as he regarded me, and then he finally said, “Do you wish to marry one of Susannah’s cousins?”
“No.” I shook my head, adamant.
“Do you ever plan to marry?”
He was so serious, so intent on my answer, I had to look away. “I know not.”
A few seconds passed before he said, “I will wait for you.”
I stared at him, wondering what he meant. He would wait to marry me—or wait for me to speak to my cousin?
Not knowing what to say, I turned and walked along the side of the house to the back door, my heart feeling funny.
After I knocked, it took a bit of time, but a young woman appeared behind the half-opened door. I could see the family resemblance in the blond hair and the slant of our noses. She wore a simple gray dress with a white coif, and had a large shawl over her shoulders, held together in front with her hands. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen, but she looked tired, as if she had been ill.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“Are you Rachel?”
“Yes.” She glanced behind me, toward Isaac waiting on the edge of the property. “And who are you?”
“I’m Hope Eaton. I believe we are cousins.”
