Chapter 4
“Goodness, my lady, who could be pounding upon the door?”
Estelle glanced at Mattie, her lady’s maid, as she whirled from the window, startled as well by the racket.
She’d only just changed out of her traveling dress into a sprigged day gown, her upswept hair loosed to tumble down her back, and had thought to lie down for a nap as Linette had suggested.
Yet Estelle wasn’t tired at all. How could she be after seeing Valentin again?
She felt so abuzz with excitement that she could scarcely gather her thoughts.
She waved for Mattie, a young woman no older than herself with dark brown hair and a burst of freckles across her nose and cheeks, to answer the door. Estelle drew closer, too, though she remained to one side and couldn’t see who stood there.
“I’d like to see Miss Easton. Will you please wake her?”
Valentin! All thought of walking in a ladylike fashion to the door fled her mind as she darted forward, her heart racing.
“I’m here! Not sleeping at all!” She stared at him and Valentin at her, while Mattie glanced wide-eyed from one to the other as if she didn’t know quite what to make of this unexpected exchange.
“Forgive me, Miss Easton—Estelle. Would you care to accompany me to view the gardens? With your maid, of course. More guests arrive today and we may not have another opportunity before the coronation for the two of us—”
“I’d love to accompany you!” Estelle didn’t wait another second, but took his proffered arm as they proceeded down the hall. Meanwhile the maid grabbed a shawl from the half-unpacked trunk and uttered a small shriek in her haste to catch up with them.
“Did you hear that, Adam?” Sitting up in the huge four-poster bed, Linette tried to listen for a moment but her husband merely drew her back down beside him to gently nuzzle her neck.
“It’s a castle, my love. Full of commotion no matter the walls are thick. Perhaps Estelle and her maid shared a laugh together. They’re right next door, and you saw how excited she was to be here.”
“It wasn’t a laugh,” Linette insisted, though Adam was going out of his way to distract her with a kiss just behind her ear. “More like a startled shriek, though I can’t imagine why—oh, Adam.”
She closed her eyes, her husband drawing her closer to press a tender trail down the side of her neck to the sensitive hollow at her throat. As a physician, his mastery of anatomy—her anatomy—never ceased to thrill her. She laughed softly, which made him lift his head to stare at her.
“Have I told you today how beautiful you are?” he murmured, which made her nod and thread her fingers through his dark brown hair.
“Moments ago, husband.”
“Ah, then, so I did. Have I told you today that your happiness means more to me than anything in this world?”
Linette saw that he’d grown serious, though he gazed at her with such love as to take her breath away. “Yes, this morning when we awoke…as you’ve done every morning since we wed. Adam, you’re so wonderful to me! If only I could give you a child—”
“Shh, love.”
Adam silenced her with a kiss so sweet that she knew without him saying so that he’d be content if they forever remained just the two of them.
Yet in her heart she longed so for a healthy baby.
She hadn’t told anyone in her family, but they had already lost two pregnancies.
Even with all of his skill, Adam had been unable to do anything to prevent it.
She knew as well that deep down, he blamed himself somehow…
“Let’s rest now, Linette.” Adam had raised his head and shifted his weight to once more lie beside her, drawing her into the shelter of his arm. “You remember it wasn’t my wish that we make this journey so soon after our loss at Easter.”
“I know, but how could we deny Estelle seeing Valentin again? Did you see how she looked at him? How he looked at her? Do you think it’s possible they could have fallen in love simply by thinking about each other for so long?”
“You captured my heart after only one kiss. Anything is possible…except, it seems, you closing your eyes for a nap. Perhaps we might think of another way to occupy ourselves…”
Linette smiled against his lips that had found hers again, and wound her arms around his neck to kiss him eagerly, hungrily. Nap? She didn’t recall saying anything about sleeping away the afternoon!
“Oh, my, it’s so beautiful here! Look at all the roses!”
Breathless from hastening with Valentin through hallways and sumptuous rooms to reach the gardens, Estelle thought to let go of his hand but he held her fast.
Her heart had skipped a beat when he’d first entwined his fingers with hers, she imagined because they were rushing so, but perhaps that hadn’t been the reason at all.
He gazed now at her flushed face, her cheeks bright pink, she was certain of it.
Mattie, one of Corie’s lady’s maids since Estelle had no use for such help at the parsonage with her father, appeared flushed, too, from hurrying after them.
Almost lamely, she held out to Estelle the pink paisley shawl she’d carried even though the afternoon had grown warmer, the expansive gardens awash in bright sunlight.
“No thank you, Mattie, I’m fine,” she murmured, realizing the young woman’s gaze had dropped to Valentin’s hand still holding hers.
Estelle looked down, too, wondering if anyone else might be watching them from a castle window, though in truth, she didn’t care.
She felt in a glorious dream with Valentin standing so close—dear Lord, right next to her!
The sunlight turning his hair to gold, the masculine planes of his face so handsome, his chest rising and falling as he caught his breath, too.
Yet why wouldn’t he smile? Other than the slight curving of his lips when they had first arrived, she hadn’t seen him look anything but serious. As if he bore some invisible burden upon his broad shoulders, even now his gaze upon her so somber.
Without a word, he drew her toward a white marble bench set against manicured boxwoods and indicated that she sit, only then releasing her hand.
Strangely, she felt bereft without the touch of his fingers clasping hers, a feeling she’d never known before.
While Mattie went to stand at a discreet distance, though well within view, Estelle looked up at Valentin, whose eyes hadn’t left her face for a moment.
Their steely hue had darkened, but then he seemed to square his shoulders beneath the tailored fit of his dark blue coat.
“I don’t know where to begin. I’m just grateful you’re here after so many months when I wondered if you thought of me—though I hoped you did.”
“I wondered the same thing, too!” Estelle blurted, all those months of pent-up frustration and worry causing the words to spill forth unchecked.
“You didn’t write to us, well, other than that one letter telling us you were safe.
I knew you and Donovan had spoken right before you left, and I was certain he must have offered to help you.
He’s a wonderful man and so caring toward all of us.
How could he not offer to help you after you saved my life? ”
“He did help me, Estelle, though I asked him not to. I sensed even then that peril might come to your family, but he insisted upon it. I had little money—certainly not enough to take us very far. He paid for Robert’s and my passage to Northumberland where we lodged with a military friend of his—”
“So you went first to Northumberland!” Estelle burst out, her imagination already dancing with all the places Valentin must have gone as a fugitive. “How long did you stay there? Where did you go next?”
“Bratavia. I wrote to Donovan the day before I left to inform him of my decision. I returned home to prevent another visit from my uncle’s henchmen.
Donovan had sent a letter to warn me and to let me know what happened to you, to Linette—shot by one of those bastards, God help me, I’ll never forgive myself! ”
His face had grown so haggard of a sudden, so tortured, that Estelle could only stare at him, stunned, his revelation whirling in her mind.
Valentin had returned home? If he’d no longer been a fugitive, then what had happened to him when he arrived? A terrible chill crept into her heart as intuition gripped her, the afternoon no longer so bright, the roses no longer so fragrant.
“I couldn’t bear that any further harm come to you or your family.
Nor could I bear you asking me tonight at dinner about all the places I traveled, when I’d come home instead.
I thought you should know what had happened, though I understand why Donovan spared you the truth.
It’s a miracle to me every day that I’m still alive. ”
“Oh, Valentin, forgive me for my foolish questions! When we didn’t hear from you for so long, I feared trouble might have found you, but I never gave up hope you were alive and well. Never!”
She’d jumped up from the bench, his expression so stricken that she didn’t want to think of the horrors he must have endured thanks to his uncle, not the least of which was the loss of his father! She took his hands in hers, tears filling her eyes.
“I never had the chance to thank you for saving my life, Valentin. I’ve dreamed about this day. Now I’ve learned our debt goes so much deeper than words could ever express…”
She couldn’t go on, her voice catching, though something told her in the tension visibly easing from his shoulders that he’d found some relief from sharing the truth with her.
In the gauntness of his face that she’d noticed earlier—not knowing why!—relaxing, too, his eyes no longer darkened to a turbulent gray.
Almost self-consciously, she released his hands though she was loath to, his grip so warm and strong.
If only she could go on holding his hands, and Valentin, hers, she found herself wishing. Yet they had already breached the proper decorum expected of an unmarried young lady and young gentleman—no, fairly thrown it out the window!