Chapter 28 #2
I reached for another letter and flourished it.
“Right before all of this happened, Charlie was getting impatient. He posted her engagement ring to her. It was right after that, she begged off. Eventually,”—my hand with the letter listed down—“he got angry. Told her to keep the ring, not that she really wanted it, his words. He never was truly hurtful. What he was, was deeply wounded.”
I looked down at the ring on my finger and kept talking.
“He thought it wasn’t fancy enough. He thought it demonstrated the life she’d be leaving behind to be with him, and she didn’t want anything to do with the life he could provide for her. That was the last letter he wrote to her, and she didn’t respond, until she approached him again years later.”
“But he thought wrong,” Battle stated.
I nodded despondently.
Then I slipped an envelope out of one of the journals.
“Apparently, some time later, she wrote him once more. And he wrote back.”
“What did he say?”
“She’d obviously been living for years wracked with the idea that he thought she thought he wasn’t good enough for her, so she told him all about it. From what I can tell from Charlie’s response, she shared everything about Arthur Hughes-Davies.”
His head ticked in shock. “Jesus, that was a risk.”
I tucked the letter back into the journal. “This might explain why the last two letters are gone from his stash, at least the very last one. I can totally see him destroying it to protect her.”
“Yes,” Battle agreed.
I kept sharing.
“He was again brokenhearted. And this time, even though years had passed and he was happily married, he was pissed. He was angry she didn’t tell him.
Angry she didn’t trust him. Angry she didn’t think he’d love her, no matter what, support her, no matter what she went through.
Even so, he was more pissed at Hughes-Davies, and you could tell he still cared for her greatly, because he might have been mad, but he was again, not cruel.
” I shook my head. “All of it was hard to get through. But somehow, that was the worst. Him sharing what she should have known. That his love was real, and no matter what, he would have stuck by her side if she’d only given him the chance. ”
Battle traced his knuckles over quiet tears I didn’t realize I’d shed.
And it made me feel better, especially when he whispered, “Darling.”
“That last bit, honey, was because I had to quit reading her journal around the time they were falling in love. Great-Grandad was right. She should have known. She should never have doubted him. The way she described how they fell in love.” I swallowed.
“Obviously, it was completely different. It still reminded me of you and me.”
At that, he leaned forward and kissed my nose.
When he sat back, I told him, “There’s good news.”
“Please share,” he said gently.
“She didn’t die a sad spinster. She may have lived nominally in this house, but for the most part, she was partner to a farmer who leased the south field.
They had no children, because one of them couldn’t conceive.
But from the age of thirty-two to his death when he was seventy-four, and he was two years older than her, they lived together and loved each other.
She returned to The Downs fully for the next year, after which she died. ”
“All of that is in those journals?”
Another nod from me. “She didn’t write in them as frequently after she met her Clive.
Her brother Bishop, apparently, sanctioned this and worked very hard to keep scandal from touching them and making sure they had their privacy.
Times were different after he passed away.
It wouldn’t be as much of a scandal, but even so, Cannon was charged with doing the same.
” I gave him a soft look. “From Harmony’s writings, Bishop reminds me of somebody. ”
Battle ignored the compliment.
“Why didn’t they marry?”
Finally, something made me smile.
“She was somewhat of a forward thinker for her time. She didn’t see the point, and Clive agreed.
They were committed, that was all they needed.
If she’d fallen pregnant, they would have tied the knot so their child wouldn’t face scorn and bullies.
But she didn’t, so they didn’t. That said, everyone in the village knew, and everyone loved Harmony as well as Clive, so they just went with it, and they lived happily in their little space in the world for the more than forty years they were together. ”
His eyes moved through the letters and journals scattered around me, and then to mine.
“So the mystery is solved,” he said.
“It is indeed.”
Battle looked about as deflated about the whole thing as I felt.
And that was the man I loved.
“Obviously, I won’t write about any of this in my book,” I assured.
“I appreciate that, love, but we do have to call the authorities.”
We did?
“Wait. Why?” I asked.
“There is the matter of a man who’s been missing for eighty years.”
“The only one who cared was his mother, and it is without a doubt that woman is dead.”
“It’s likely he still has family.”
“He died single and childless.”
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t family.”
“Battle, he was a pedophile, and I would hazard to guess, if he has any descendants, they would not want anyone to know that. Now his bones are turning to dust somewhere in an unmarked grave. And good riddance to bad rubbish. He’s forgotten.
Great-Granddad married a woman he loved, had a family and a long life.
Harmony found a man she loved and had a long life with him.
Maybe not the happily-ever-after of a romance novel, but even so, they both had their happily-ever-afters.
If you tell the police, this will be a huge deal. Way huger than Chelsea’s bullshit.”
Battle didn’t appear convinced.
Therefore, I kept at him.
“If you call the cops, you’ll not only bring attention to this house, this family, but also Harmony.
She took pains to live a quiet life.” I gestured to the letters and journals.
“I think we should bury this back in the floorboards, with Harmony’s letters to Charlie, and if they don’t entirely disintegrate and become one with The Downs, we can let some future generation that happens upon them read about two good people who fell in love, the world conspired against them, but they had their HEAs anyway. And the bad guy got his due.”
“HEA?”
“Happily ever after.”
His lips tipped up.
“Please don’t do that to her,” I begged. “Or Saint, Bishop, Flint, those footmen, even Aileen, Unity and Marie. All the people who cared for her in the end and took care of her. Let very dead pedophiles lie where they belong. Missing but forgotten.”
“You’re right, sweetheart, there’s no use dredging it up now.”
Yeah.
That was the man I loved.
I pushed up so I could kiss his jaw, sat back and whispered, “Thank you.”
“In the end,” he began. “We’re her family, you included in a way. We should protect her like they protected her.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let down the side,” I replied, and quoted, “Aristocrats are dab hands at holding their secrets.”
“Sorry?”
“Something Tempie said.”
“Sounds like her.” Then, “Are we going to tell the girls?”
“I’ll let that be your call.”
“I think they’ll be glad to know Harmony found happiness after all.”
That would be my call.
I just nodded.
“What now?” he asked.
“Well, I can’t type. My hands aren’t bad, but they feel tight and typing will probably exacerbate it. And I need a shower. I still have rain hair.”
No lip tip that time, he smiled full out.
“Rain hair?” he inquired.
“I saw myself in the mirror this morning. I look a fright.”
“You look beautiful to me.”
And again.
The man I loved.
Still, a girl couldn’t have bad hair for long, says me.
“So…for me, shower,” I stated. “Then I think I need a nap. After that, I need to fuck a hot duke. And hopefully, that’ll bring us to cocktails.”
“I hope you know, I will always be up for a fuck, but not with you having an injured knee and palms.”
“We just Home-Office-official, unofficially, soon-to-be-officially-official got engaged,” I reminded him.
I’d tell him later, as crazy as it was, his official, but unofficial, soon-to-be-officially-official proposal was the best thing ever.
“I suppose I could eat you without causing further injury,” he mused.
I rolled my eyes.
But my pussy got happy.
He bent and kissed my nose again.
When he sat back, he said, “Shower for you. And nap. We’ll play it by ear after.”
“Doable,” I replied.
He smiled and got up.
He also helped me tidy all Harmony’s and Aileen’s stuff before he helped pull me out of the sofa.
And more helping, this being me to the bathroom even if I was totally fine to walk.
I didn’t share that.
I asked, “Are you okay with Chassie and Christian?”
He heaved a sigh. “I’ll always see her as the curly-haired, six-year-old my mother, and essentially my father, left me to raise. I understand she’s an adult. That doesn’t mean my heart will ever come to terms with it. But my head must, for Chassie.”
Man, he was going to be such a good dad.
“Yes, it must, for Chassie,” I agreed, feeling all melty, because my guy was so great. “And Christian, because he really is a solid bloke.”
He focused on me. “Do you understand half the shit that comes out of his mouth?”
“Not even a quarter of it.” I paused, “But Chassie does.”
“It’s like the skies opened up and dropped the perfect man for her in the gamekeeper’s cottage,” he noted.
It was just like that.
“Much like they opened so you could walk into my study,” he continued.
Aw!
I loved him so much!
This made me kiss him.
He let me.
Then he forced me into the shower.
I took a nap and woke to my villainously handsome Battle taking off his glasses, making him look the handsome villain, before he left his laptop on the coffee table between the couches where he was working to join me in bed.
I got magnificent head, which led to an equally magnificent orgasm.
But Battle refused to allow me to return the favor.
Ah well.
It was almost time for cocktails anyway.