He didn't kiss her. Not yet. He let the tension hold, letting her feel the absolute certainty of his gaze. He pulled back slowly, picking up a dry towel from the chair to dry his hair. "Go to sleep, Norah," he said, turning toward the door. Tomorrow the sun comes back and I have something to ask you.
He left the room, leaving the scent of rain and a devastating silence behind him. Norah sat at the desk, her heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her ribs, the ink drying on her pen,
The storm broke by dawn, leaving the sky a pale, bruised purple that slowly burned away into a brilliant cloudless blue. The air was scrubbed clean, sharp, and crisp. Gabriel did not go to the fields that morning. He sent a message to Norah's room at 10:00, asking her to meet him by the new reservoir. Norah didn't wear a new dress.
She hadn't bought any. She wore a simple dark blue wool gown she had mended herself. She walked out across the lawns. The artificial trench that had once been a symbol of Croft's cruelty and the laborer's suffering was gone. In its place was a wide, deep reservoir.
The water dark and still, held back by a formidable wall of earth and stone. It wasn't pretty. It was brutal, functional engineering. It was exactly what the land needed. Gabriel was standing on the earth and dam looking out over the water.
He wore his dark coat, his boots muddy from the morning walk. He turned when he heard her footsteps crunching on the gravel path. “It holds,” Gabriel said, gesturing to the water. two million gallons. The tenant farms won't lose a crop to drought for the next fifty years. Norah stood beside him, the cool breeze pulling at her hair.
It's a good piece of work. The men should be proud. They are. Gabriel looked at her. He didn't look nervous.
He looked resolute. Like a man who had finally finished clearing away the rubble and was ready to lay a cornerstone. He reached into his pocket. He didn't pull out a velvet box. He pulled out a heavy iron key on a simple leather string.
He held it out to her. Norah looked at the key, frowning. What is this? It's the key to the main estate vault. Down in the cellars, Gabriel held her gaze.