“I understand, and I insist you leave in the morning with Forrester. However, I do have one request before you leave.”
“As if you must ask. You know I will do anything in my power to assist you. I value your friendship more than I can possibly say.”
“I need assistance with my own resolution.”
Phoebe squeezed her hand. “Of course, but the new year is weeks away, can’t it wait until our return?”
“No, it can’t wait. If we wait, something bad could happen.” Iseabail’s eyes teared. “Please Phoebe, I need you to bring Forrester in here first. He will resist, but you must insist.”
Her brow puckered. “Why?”
Iseabail only said, “Please?”
She sighed and stood up. “What are you up to, Duchess?”
“This was very important to Nithesdale.”
“Alright. I will bring Forrester here tomorrow morning before we leave.”
Iseabail’s bit her lip and shook her head adamantly. “It can’t wait. I wish to fulfill a promise, and before you ask what promise, bring your husband-to-be in here.”
Not wanting to upset Iseabail further, she agreed. “I will be back with him momentarily.”
By the time Iseabail had collected Joshua and convinced him it was not too scandalous to visit Iseabail in her bedchamber, a quarter hour had passed and she wasn’t certain Iseabail would be awake. She certainly wanted to be fast asleep in Joshua’s arms. He had advised the trip would take two days by coach through the snowy weather. Two days in which he planned to start fulfilling wish number six on her list.
“Do you think we can complete the entirety of my sixth resolution in two days?” she asked.
“I think it will take us a lifetime to fulfill wish six, but it will give us something to look forward to on every coach ride we take.” He kissed her then, a kiss that was filled with a promise of so much more.
They ascended the stairs together, their hands intertwined like an old married couple’s as they made their way to the duchess’s chamber. Phoebe poked her head in first and found the large canopy bed empty. A quick perusal led her to the adjoining door that stood open.
“Iseabail?”
“I’m in here,” she said from the interior of the ducal bedchamber.
Joshua hesitated and she pulled him forward where they found Iseabail sitting by the fire wearing her dressing gown with a blue and gold plaid thrown over her lap. The room had been cleaned and restored to its previous state after the baby’s birth. Iseabail was seated in the same chair she had used during her marriage to play chess with Nithesdale.
“Where’s the baby?” she asked.
“Mary has taken him to the nursery for a bit.”
Unlike most homes of the peerage, Iseabail had relocated the nursery from the opposite wing of the castle to directly across the hall from her room. She had made it perfectly clear to the staff that her child would sleep in her room until the child was at least a year old, and she knew he would be safe.
“I’m sorry there are not enough chairs to go around, so I will get straight to the point. I asked you in here to fulfill my promise to Nithesdale. During his last days he shared several wishes with me. I didn’t understand one of his wishes until very recently.” She looked back and forth between them. “He wished to see the two of you married. He never told me it was to each other, but he left this for Forrester ‘to give his future bride.’”
Iseabail reached for a small silver box that had been sitting in the middle of the chess board since the day of Nithesdale’s death. She handed it to Joshua. Phoebe’s heart began to race. She looked to the man she loved and longed for something more. She wanted the life that very few people of the ton ever dreamed of having. A life of happiness and love, not duty.
Joshua was one step ahead of her, as if he knew exactly what lay inside the box Iseabail had given him. “His Grace tried to give me this box several years ago. He said a ring wasn’t as important as the heart a man gave to a woman, but if I was so caught up in what my bride should wear, I should give her a proper ring. Specifically, his sister’s wedding ring.”
“Didn’t his sister’s children want her ring?” Phoebe asked.
Joshua shook his head. “She didn’t have any children. She and her husband died shortly after their wedding from a fever. Nithesdale said it was a love match he couldn’t deny, but he insisted on a wedding gift of the ring since her betrothed couldn’t afford one.”
“He never mentioned his sister to me,” Phoebe confessed.
Iseabail gave her a sad smile. “It was another loss he didn’t want to discuss. Not because he was ashamed of his sister or her merchant husband, but because he loved them both dearly. He believed their love would live on through time. I suspect he believed the two of you shared a similar type of love.”
Joshua opened the silver box with the reverence of a man who not only felt the importance of the moment, but the emotion as well. He swallowed hard as he reached in and pulled the ring from where it had sat for a quarter of a century on blue velvet. He gave the box back to Iseabail and before Phoebe knew what he was doing, Joshua sank to one knee in front of her.
