The Duke’s Guests Laughed as the Maid Fell Into the Lake — She Said, “I’ll Remember Every Face”
Chapter 31
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"Be brave," she whispered to herself, and turned away from the window.That was when she heard it. Down in the stable yard, old Bramble was making a noise Clara had not heard in 16 years: a high, excited, joyful whinny. The old mare was pushing her head over her stall door and calling out again and again like a young horse.Clara turned back to the window. A carriage had stopped by the stable gate. A man was climbing slowly out of it. He was old and thin, with a white beard and skin burned brown by a hot foreign sun. He walked with a stick; his coat was too big for him. He limped across the yard to the old mare's stall, and Bramble pressed her soft gray nose into his chest and held it there.The old man put his arms around the horse's neck. Then he lifted his head and looked up at the house, up at her window.Clara's hand flew to her mouth. She did not remember running down the stairs. She did not remember the maids gasping as she flew past them in her wedding gown, or the front door crashing open, or the gravel cutting into her silk slippers. She only remembered the stable yard, and the old man turning toward her, and his face. She had never forgotten a face in her life, and she had never, ever forgotten this one."Papa," she whispered.John Doyle dropped his stick and opened his arms. She ran into them like she was 10 years old again. They stood in the stable yard and held each other and cried while old Bramble nuzzled them both, and the servants gathered at the windows, wiping their eyes."They told me you were dead," Clara sobbed into his coat. "They said there was no record, nothing.""There wasn't, my darling." His voice was rough and thick. "When the fever came on the ship, a man in the next bunk died, and in the confusion, they wrote his name down for mine. I survived, but as far as the world was concerned, John Doyle was dead. I worked on a sheep farm in the outback for 14 years under another man's name. I thought you had forgotten me. I thought everyone had.""Then how...?""A young man from England found me," her father said. "Three months ago. He'd been searching every farm in New South Wales for a year with a drawing of my face in his pocket. He gave me a royal pardon with my own name on it, a ticket home, and a letter." He smiled through his tears. "The letter was from a duke. It said his bride had never stopped believing in me, and that he would be very honored if I would walk her down the aisle."Clara turned around. Thomas was standing at the stable gate in his wedding coat. He was smiling."You knew," she said.