26 Home #3
“Being a man, the head of the family and responsible for the well-being of wife, several growing children and a household of servants is never easy. He has gone from the master of a very modest household in Norwich to the vastly larger burden of Staineybank and all the ducal holdings, scattered over several counties. Naturally he is overwhelmed. Anyone would be. It is bound to make him jumpy, but he is not naturally arrogant, I think. Now the duke is very much of the overbearing type. He has mellowed a little with age, and he is fond enough of ladies that he will never disrespect them, but he wants his own way in all matters, nevertheless. Richard may go that way, too, to some degree. But your Cal — he is not like that at all. Hold tight to him, Cora, and do not let go.”
“That is precisely what I mean to do, for as long as I live.”
When everyone else had left Briar House, Cal took Cora for one last circuit of her new home.
“I thought this might do for our bedroom,” he said diffidently. “If you like the idea.”
“Will you be happy living in a house?” she said.
“It’s quite a small house,” he said, with the smile that still, even now, made her stomach flip-flop alarmingly. “This room’s also the closest point to the forest.”
“We could move the bed to the other corner, nearer the windows” she said. “Then you would be able to see and hear the trees better.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he pulled her onto his knee. “Will you like it here, do you think? There’s still time to change your mind.”
“I shall like it very much. So long as you are here and happy, I shall be happy too.”
“Cora… will you answer a question honestly?”
“Of course.”
“Has everything changed, now that we’re known to be man and wife? Can you still be free? Can you still fly?”
She sighed. “No… at least, not in the same way. Not like an eagle, high in the sky. I can still flutter about near the ground, I think.”
“Like a butterfly?”
“Yes! But it no longer matters. I have realised, you see, rather belatedly, that we can none of us be completely free, or at least not without a great deal of loneliness. I cannot leave behind the baggage of my life — the children, principally — without losing some part of myself as well. I could have been happy with no one but you, but I think it is better if the children have some place in my life, too. A very small place, one would hope, for I do not intend ever again to allow them to monopolise my thoughts quite so much, but it is better for them to have their mama to hand whenever they need me.”
“So I think, too,” Cal said. “At least living out here they won’t be constantly on the doorstep. We’ll be near enough to dine at Staineybank once or twice a week, as the duke insists, but far enough away that we can live our own lives.”
She sighed. “That sounds perfect.”
“And you can still be Mrs Merrington if you want.”
“No, I think I shall quite like being Mrs Garth. I am not the same person I was before, so a new name seems fitting. Will your nephew dislike you a little less now that you are respectably married?”
“I doubt it. It’s the money the estate still pays me that he hates.”
“At least we can have Violetta to stay now that I am not disreputable any more,” Cora said. “You are a respectably married gentleman, so having your great-niece to stay is perfectly unexceptionable. Have you told her you really are her Uncle Cal?”
“I’ve written to Garth, and he’ll tell Vi, but I’m terrified she’ll turn up on the doorstep again.”
“She is bound to. There will be no avoiding it, until she marries Lord Vincent, anyway.”
“Do you think they’ll make a match of it?”
“Perhaps, although they seem impossibly young to be settling their lives. One needs to be at least fifty before one knows precisely what one wants.”
“And what do you want, Mrs Garth?”
“I think I should very much like you to kiss me, Mr Garth.”
“Happy to oblige.” He pulled her nearer, but then drew back a little. “Cora, you will always tell me if you’re unhappy or want to be properly free, won’t you?”
“I will.”
“Because I love you more than anything in the world, and I want you to have whatever your heart desires.”
She put a finger to his lips. “I have that already, because I have you, the love of my life. It has been a long wait, but here you are and here you will stay… I hope?”
“For all eternity, my love, and we will just have to make room for Roland as well in the afterlife.”
“Must we?”
“I’m afraid we must. But we were about to do something… now what was it?”
“Hmm… I cannot quite remember…”
But her lips knew what was required, and set about their pleasant task with enthusiasm. There was no more sound in the room, only the gentle soughing of the wind in the trees outside, and the distant call of birdsong.
THE END