I grimaced. “Until I ruined it?”
He laughed. “No, not ruined. You made it better. With you, I get to see some of what it would be like to have a marriage. It is more than I ever expected to have.”
“If you wanted”—I touched the edge of his lapel—“I could become an extremely unpleasant wife and make you feel better about being alone in your old age.”
He shook his head, and his laughter deepened. “No, I really don’t think you could.”
“You only say that because you don’t know me very well.”
He placed his hand over mine and pressed it firmly against his heart. “We both know that isn’t true.” The way he looked at me made me feel well known indeed. And even though his answers didn’t make sense to me, I could feel the truth in them. Which meant myhusband had secrets I didn’t know about yet, and they were secrets he would rather not reveal. Someday, I hoped he would share them with me, but I wouldn’t drag them from him.
My eyes slid down to his lips. Should I kiss him as my reward for being brave enough to ask about his past? He hadn’t minded any kisses thus far, and I was being very good and not pressing him to reveal more than he was willing to share.
I lifted onto my toes and leaned forward. His eyes widened in surprise, but his free hand went to my waist.
And then there was a rap at the door, and Mr. Stoddard, the butler, stepped into the study without waiting for an answer. He immediately reddened at the sight of us. With a stuttered word about the wine stores, he quickly turned and left.
David’s arm was still around my waist, but after a few seconds of indecision, he dropped it. Blasted butler. Couldn’t he have found some other time to speak to David about the wine?
David cleared his throat. “I have one more thing for you.” He strode to the corner of the room, where a large box sat. He picked it up and handed it to me. Despite its size, it wasn’t very heavy. “Julia bought you something.”
“Julia did? I asked.
“Yes.” He put a hand on the back of his neck. Was he nervous? What exactly was in this box? “Or rather, we both did. But it isn’t only from me.”
I set it down on his desk, untied the thick ribbon wrapped around its middle, and lifted away some tissue paper, bringing an instant grin to my face. Dark-blue wool and black buttons stared back at me.
“Do you think Mama will allow me to accept this? From a man?” I asked.
“I told you it is from meandJulia.”
I pulled the coat out of the box. “This is a much more suitable color than green.”
“I thought so too,” he said. “Blue has always brought out the fire in those stormy walnut eyes of yours.”
“Did Julia say that?”
“No.” He shook his head. “She isn’t as poetic as I am. She only said it would look lovely with your dark hair. You’ll have to thank her in the morning. I’ll walk you to your room.”
I nodded, knowing full well I wouldn’t get kissed after he made that statement.
m
Two days after David sent my letter to the solicitor, Julia and I spent the afternoon working on the orchard. We’d picked a naturally wild spot not far from Tate Hall. It had a stream running through it, which we could use to make a pond.
David had ordered plum trees as well as two pear trees and a fig tree. The fig tree had been Mr. Allen’s idea, and Julia’s eyes had lit up at the idea of it. David claimed he needed to go over accounts and other estate plans every morning, but by afternoon, he often meandered out to us or found us in the library going over our ideas.
Much to my chagrin, we’d decided against flowers. Flowers would have given Julia much more time out of doors than her small orchard would, but flowers hadn’t excited her like fruit trees had, and I’d pressed the idea of the pond, which she seemed more in favor of. If she didn’t have flowers to keep her outside, perhaps David could make a boat, and a boat would provide more outdoor activities for the two of them.
Walter and Anders were indeed glad to be hired to prepare the land, and since it was too early to plant trees that hadn’t even arrived yet, we’d started clearing the ground for the pond.
We’d been working for over an hour when Julia decided to try to pull out one of the larger gorse bushes on her own.
“I’ve got the Mortensen boys to do that,” Mr. Harris, the gardener, said, coming up behind Julia as she struggled. Mr. Harris’s advice on location and planning had been invaluable, even if he huffed any time Julia or I put on gloves to help with clearing the land ourselves.
I left the spot of ground where I’d been pulling grasses and came up beside Julia. “Mr. Harris, we will be helping, and we will be getting our aprons dirty. We’ve gone over this several times before.”
Mr. Harris’s deep, wrinkled face curved into a frown, but I was the lady of the house now, and even though he’d grumbled at some of my suggestions, he always did as I asked. It was a strange thing to be listened to and respected. I had David to thank for that. All the servants were extremely loyal to him and Julia and, therefore, to me as well.
