Page 47 of Snowdrops and Winterberry
“Even when we aren’t together,” Adam said, “we’ll still be family. Family is who you choose.”
“And we’ve chosen each other, haven’t we?”
He nodded. “And you should choose Mr. Simpkin.”
Robbie twisted and looked up at her beloved Howard. “I really should.”
“You really should,” Howard said.
“And I have a suggestion of something else the two of you ought to choose,” Lord Jonquil said, pulling everyone’s attention to him. “We mean to have Adam visit us here whenever he can. And we’ve every intention of keeping in touch with Mr. Simpkin—I have a very important garden here, after all.” He smoothed his cravat and silk waistcoat, making a humorous show of feigned arrogance. “We can send word to the two of you as soon as we know when we are to expect a visit from our favorite duke. When at all possible, you can travel here to Brier Hill to see him.”
What a blessing that would be.
Robbie looked to Adam. “What do you say?”
“I would like that.” He could be very monarchical when he chose to be. And yet beneath that solemn tone was an eagerness he couldn’t entirely hide. “I could tell you about the people at the castle.”
“And I could tell you about the places we’ve traveled,” Robbie offered.
He nodded. “And you could sing me the song about the boy the size of a thistle.”
Robbie tucked him up close to her. With his handmade Twelfth Night crown and their wassailed tree and the joy of a Christmas celebration fresh around them, she sang.
Saw ye my wee thing? Saw ye my own thing?
Saw ye my bonnie boy down by the lea?
He skipped ’cross the meadow yestere’en at the gloaming.
Small as a thistle my dear boy is he.
Chapter Nineteen
January 1787
Life for Robbie Simpkin wasnearly perfect. She and her beloved Howard had traveled the kingdom building gardens and herb sheds and anything Howard was hired to create. They worked side by side, ate many a supper in the gardens they created, and had made a home in their carriage house. The hope she had clung to during their time at Brier Hill now wove through every moment of every day. She had her Howard and was living the life she’d barely allowed herself to dream of.
And they were at Brier Hill again, at the invitation of Lord and Lady Jonquil. Adam would be visiting the kindhearted couple, who had sent word to Devonshire, where Robbie and Howard had been. The heavens were kind, and she and Howard had a gap in work that coincided perfectly. They’d finished the job they’d been undertaking, climbed into their movable house, and made directly for Northumberland.
They were waiting in the entryway, Howard standing with his arms around Robbie. They often stood in precisely that position. Robbie hadn’t realized how much she’d wanted to just be held all these years, not until he had come into her life. Their not-actually-Christmas miracle continued to prove itself a blessing.
Lord Jonquil, who had gone to Falstone Castle to fetch their young duke, was expected at any moment. Lady Jonquil paced the entryway, returning repeatedly to the front window, watching for a carriage that had not yet arrived. She held a wee bairn in her arms, one who cooed and gurgled ceaselessly. If Robbie were not mistaken, the newest addition to Brier Hill would grow up to be a very talkative gentleman.
The lady’s eyes met Robbie’s as she passed her once more. “You likely think me an anxious mess.”
“On the contrary, I simply think you’ve missed our tiny duke.”
“Likely almost as much as you have, my dear,” Howard said to Robbie.
“He’s such a dear lad. How could anyone not miss him when separated from him?”
Lady Jonquil sighed. “Ihave missed him more than I can say. I wish we could see him more often. I worry that the years will pull him further away from us.”
“But he does write to you,” Robbie said. “That’s a fine thing.”
“His letters are as brief and efficient as any I’ve read before,” she said. “How easily I can hear him saying, ‘I do not understand the purpose of long, rambling letters.’”
I do not understand the purpose.The only thing Robbie had heard Adam say more often than that over the years she’d been at Falstone Castle was the wordridiculous. Oh, how she’d missed him.
