“Your children, are they well?”
“Yes, the girls are. Amelia misses you the most. She cried every day for a month when you didn’t return.”
My heart broke. That was the worst thing, leaving them. They struggled so often when their father went on missions. My deepest regret was that in saving me, I lost them.
He came to the edge of the canvas. I saw half his face. He could view all of mine.
“You’ve been greatly missed, Cecilia. Has your adventure been what you wanted?”
“Does it matter? I’m sure Lady Jane made up for my absence. She reminded me often that I’m not the girls’ mother.”
“Jane hasn’t been with us. For the most part, she’s been away at my aunt’s. I sent her away before the season. Since late March, it’s been just the girls and me in Town.”
That was a great number of months for Felton to be present with the girls, but I wondered if that was meant to convince me he was ready to accept domestic life. “Lady Jane missed the season. That’s surprising.”
“I was displeased with my sister. I asked her to leave. I did it for you.”
Jane and Felton were very close, thick as thieves. I shook my head and retreated closer to my bottle of tint. “Don’t do anything on my behalf.”
He put his hand to the cloth, the heavy canvas of my drop. The coarse weave that bore my almost completed landscape was slightly tougher than the harsh osnaburg fabric of the rags of the enslaved. That was what Helena was given to wear. We, the free daughters of Wilhelm Thomas, were arrayed in silks and linens, never that.
Not until Gladstone.
If Felton thought he could change my mind about us or his family, he needed to take that nonsense and leave.
CHAPTER31
CECILIA—BEWILDEREDAGREEMENT
“Excuse me, Lord Gantry.” I picked up my bucket and went the other direction, away from him. “I need to finish tonight. A pleasure to see you. Good day.”
He took the bucket from my fingers. “Is it wrong for me to just look at you?”
“Yes. I’ve work to do.”
“And I arrived with a request from my father.”
Tramel. My heart began to pound.
“Cecilia, my father wants to see you. He’s most anxious. The man is dying.”
“The duke?” It was all I could say for at least a moment. “He has a will of iron. You’re being overdramatic.”
Felton stepped closer. “He’s had a type of palsy. He’ll die. It’s his last wish to see you. Please do not deny him.”
Tramel helped me so much, to travel to Demerara, passage to secure Enna and Noah’s way. Every time I needed encouragement, he gave it. I owed him everything.
My husband put his hands on my shoulders. Then drew me into an embrace. “He needs to see you. Don’t let him be chased by the Obeah spirits with things unsaid or done. The hauntings of the land of shadows—”
“I don’t believe in that. I was Catholic, Felton. Then I converted to Anglican to marry you. It’s my older sister who believed in spirits.” Maybe Helena too. “I’m not sure what I believe anymore, not when the miracle of us went so wrong.”
His fingers smoothed my chin, and he tilted my head until our gazes met. “My fault, Cilia. I let the adventure die.”
Felton’s face was so blank I couldn’t tell if he believed anything he’d uttered. “You’d say anything to get me to come.”
“Yes, and the duke would, too. But you’ve returned to London, when you could’ve started your adventure anywhere, even Warwick. That has to mean something.”
It did.
