The admission was quiet, but he did not withdraw it.
There are matters I might ask after, but I will not presume to do so unless you choose to speak of them yourself.
A longer pause this time.
You need not account for anything you would rather leave unwritten.
And then, more carefully still:Only— do not mistake my restraint for indifference.
The pen stilled briefly before he added the final line.
I hope you are well.
No flourish. No excess.
Only truth, set down as plainly as he knew how.
He extinguished the lamp and lay down without further thought.
* * *
“Oh! Arabella, you must tell us everything!”
Arabella turned at the sound of Cissie’s voice, her gloved hand still resting lightly upon the back of the painted bench. Themorning had begun with movement, with chatter, with the easy rhythm of a day spent in company, yet now, standing beneath the filtered shade of the plane trees in Hyde Park, she found herself pausing, as though something within her had quietly asked her to listen.
“To tell you everything,” Arabella repeated, smiling as she resumed her seat. “You must be more specific, or I shall be forced to invent details to satisfy you?”
Jane laughed softly, adjusting her hold on her parasol as she lowered herself beside her. “You have already invented enough by marrying a duke without warning half of London.”
“That was not invention,” Arabella said. “That was necessity.”
“And a very efficient one,” Cissie added, settling opposite them. “Though I cannot decide whether to admire it or be scandalized by it.”
Arabella’s smile lingered, though it softened at the edges. Around them, the park carried on in its usual fashion. Carriages rolled at a measured pace along the drive, their wheels crunching softly over gravel. Ladies passed in pairs or small groups, their gowns a shifting display of spring colors, their conversations low and constant. Somewhere beyond the trees, a child’s laughter rose and fell, carried by the breeze.
And yet, beneath that ease, Arabella felt it again. That quiet sense that something stood just out of reach, waiting to beunderstood if only she would allow herself to stand still long enough to see it.
“You are very calm about it,” Jane said, studying her. “I think I should be in a state of constant alarm.”
“Then it is fortunate that you are not in my position,” Arabella replied lightly.
Cissie leaned forward, her expression bright with curiosity. “Do you not feel it at all? The suddenness of it? One day Miss Barker, the next a duchess.”
Arabella considered that. “I feel… occupied,” she said at last. “There is a great deal to be done when one becomes a duchess overnight. It leaves very little time for alarm.”
Jane’s lips curved. “That sounds like you.”
“It is not entirely untrue,” Arabella admitted. “The London house alone would occupy a small army, and I have only just begun to understand how it functions. Have you been to the country seat yet?”
“I have not, but that is where he is this week. An issue with tenancy or something that he needed to attend to himself.”
“And how is His Grace?” Cissie asked, her tone casual, though her gaze sharpened slightly. “Does he function as efficiently as you seem to be?”
Arabella let out a small breath that might have been a laugh. “He functions very well,” she said. “Though not always in ways that are easily anticipated.”
“That sounds ominous,” Jane murmured.
“It is not meant to be,” Arabella replied, though she could not quite suppress the flicker of warmth that rose unbidden at the thought of him. It came without warning, as it had begun to do of late, settling low and steady rather than sharp and fleeting.
