Page 6

She nodded once, and watched as his lips thinned into a fine line of…was that displeasure?

“Then I must wish you all the best.” Harry cleared his throat and clasped his arms behind his back, looking every bit the future earl. Mina recognized the posture—it was the one he adopted whenever he spoke to his father or was expected to perform his minor duties as heir. It was formal. It was detached. It was not representative of the Harry that she had come to know and love so dearly over the years.

A chill ran through Mina’s veins. Never before had Harry looked so like his father, and it wasn’t something she ever wished to see again. The current earl was not a cruel man, but he was a cold one. Pragmatic to the core, she did not doubt that he would have destroyed any joy and warmth that remained in Harry’s soul had he been left to deal with the man’s iciness alone. To see that frigidity creeping in at that moment was horrifying to Mina, and she wanted it to stop—needed it to, for Harry’s sake.

“Why are you acting like this?” Mina asked.

Harry gave a little shake of his head. “I do not⁠—”

“Yes, you bloody well do,” Mina snapped. “You’ve thrown up your walls, Harry. You know how I despise that.”

His eyes flitted down in a moment of guilt before meeting hers. The hardness there was unlike anything she’d ever witnessed. “I am only trying to wish you well.” He hesitated briefly before continuing. “Besides, it is for the best. I was going to tell you that I have been summoned to London. I was putting off mentioning it, but now there is no reason.”

Despite his unwavering countenance, Mina strongly suspected he was lying…but she was as yet unsure as to why.

“So, you are leaving for London. When?”

“Tomorrow.”

Mina reeled. “So soon? When would you have told me if you hadn’t seen me in the courtyard tonight, hm? When you waved from the window of your carriage as you left? I think not, Henry Aaron Samuel Ashcomb.” She propped her fists on the curves of her hips and adopted a defiant stance, knowing how the use of his full name irked him. “We owe one another more than that.”

“You are not beholden to me, Mina,” Harry growled. “We are friends, not some sort of formal alliance. We have our lives and our roles we must play—those come first. We each must honor our respective fathers’ wishes.” A lock of golden hair slipped across Harry’s forehead, and Mina would have given anything to be able to brush it away. To be allowed to do so, and to have him welcome her touch. “I am to travel to London, while you…you are to become someone’s bride. We must recognize that it is past time that we grew up. These childish romps through the countryside were bound to come to an end. Why not now?”

It took Mina longer than it should have to realize that she’d begun to cry once more, only this time, it was not for what she faced in her future, but what she was about to lose. She knew in the deepest recesses of her heart that Harry was right. They were lucky their friendship hadn’t been put to a stop before then, and now that the time had come…she had to accept it with grace.

But—dash it all!—she did not want to.

Why must she choose between the proper future her father had decided upon for her, and the past that had brought her so much light and joy in the aftermath of her mother’s death?

“It isn’t fair,” Mina squeaked with a scowl and shoved her tears from her cheeks. She was surely a mess at that point—having cried off and on for the better part of an hour—but she cared not one bit. It mattered less to her how she looked than the fact that she appeared to be losing her entire life in one fell swoop.

“Nothing is fair,” Harry replied so softly that she might not have heard it had she sniffled her nose. “Children lose mothers too early. People are born into circumstances not conducive to what they desire from their lives. Society has its own expectations, and can be a cruel, fickle beast. None of it is fair. None of it.”

Mina wrapped her arms around her waist and wished desperately that Harry would hold her again; however, she knew from the uncomfortable stiffness of his posture that he would not.

And he likely would never again.

That realization was nearly her undoing.

At his heart, Harry was first and foremost a gentleman. A gentleman did not compromise an untried woman in the shadows—especially not one whose father was in his family’s employment. Right then, Mina both respected and hated Harry for that.

“I wish you the best, Mina; truly, I do. I want only joy and happiness for you in your future. It is time for you to run roughshod through another town and force everyone to love you despite their better instincts.” Unbidden, Mina’s lips mimicked the melancholy tilt to Harry’s mouth. There was a long pause where they each could only stare at one another, drinking in these last peaceful moments before they both turned their backs and walked away from what they had once been to one another. Finally, Harry said, “Goodbye, Mina.”

“Goodbye, Harry,” she whispered, though she doubted he heard because he’d already pivoted briskly on his heel and was striding back to the main house. It was everything Mina could do to not collapse in a heap, wishing she might melt and sink between the cracks of the courtyard’s crushed gravel.

As she watched Harry’s tall, lean form disappear into the shadows beyond the doorway, that it did not matter who the man was that her father had decided she would wed; she would never, ever love another man like she’d come to love Harry.

PART II

CHAPTER 4

Twelve Years Later

The carriage bounced along the winding path toward Ravenshire Manor, its sole occupant gripping the straps affixed to the ceiling with all her might. She had not traversed this route in many years, but she did not believe her memory was faulty enough to have forgotten such disrepair. Granted, most of the time she’d been on foot, but surely, she would have noticed ruts as deep as the ones plaguing her progress.

“Devil take it!” Mina cursed as she nearly slid from the seat following a particularly violent lurch. It was a miracle they hadn’t yet broken an axle. “This is untenable,” she huffed. Certain that she would lose the contents of her stomach if the trip continued on for another minute, she hammered the side of her fist against the carriage’s roof. Twice, she had to repeat the action before the driver recognized that she was knocking and the carriage wasn’t simply rattling apart from the rough terrain.

“Aye?” shouted the driver.