The Lonely Duke Waited Months for His Bride — Then She Arrived With His Missing Son
Chapter 10
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"She was kind," Benedict said, "and more impatient with my solemnity than anyone else I knew.""I think I would have liked her.""She would have liked you. That is not something I expected to say."Marian looked at the portrait. "You are allowed to miss her.""I know. Yet I have sometimes feared that caring for someone else would be an act of disloyalty.""Would she have wished you to be lonely?""No.""Then perhaps the loyalty is in remembering the life you shared, not refusing the life still before you."Benedict turned to her. "Are you happy here?""More than I expected." She tried to smile lightly. "Perhaps more than I ought."He took her hand. It was a simple gesture, scarcely improper with Honoria examining a painting nearby, yet Marian felt its meaning more strongly than any declaration. He did not thank her for Oliver; he did not speak of household needs. He stood beside her as though the silence between them was a place he wanted to remain.Marian looked at the portrait of Celia once more. She was not jealous of a dead woman; what frightened her was the living possibility that Benedict might ask her to fill a place in his life without ever seeing that she needed a place of her own."Benedict," she said quietly."Yes?"She had nearly asked him whether he was beginning to love her. Instead, she squeezed his hand and answered the question she had been afraid to ask herself: "I am glad I came.""So am I," he said.Neither spoke of marriage. For the moment, the gallery held three truths without forcing them to compete: Celia had been loved, Oliver was still loved, and something new was growing between the two people standing beneath her portrait.The rain began before dawn on the first of September and did not stop. By the following afternoon, the mill race ran swollen and brown, carrying broken branches against the stonework. Finch ordered the machinery stopped and the workers withdrawn from the lower platform. Benedict arrived with Joseph and two men from the yard to ensure the last of the workers were clear.The narrow maintenance walk ran from the bank toward an old stone pier that supported part of the sluice mechanism. It had been inspected in summer, but the current had undermined the timbers beneath it."Keep everyone off the lower section!" Benedict called.He had almost turned back when a young worker emerged from the upper side, his path blocked by a fallen rail. Benedict crossed the near section, which Joseph had used safely moments earlier, to steady the man as he climbed past the obstruction.The worker reached the bank. A heavy crack sounded beneath Benedict's boot. The timbers gave way.He caught the stone pier with both arms as the walkway dropped into the water. His left leg struck the masonry. By the time Joseph reached the edge, Benedict had pulled himself onto a narrow ledge just above the surging surface."Stay where you are, Your Grace!" Joseph called."I had no immediate plan to leave."