Page 5 of The Duke's Last Dance
Catherine got off the bed and stopped her when she realized what was in the box. It was a small brooch and some faded letters.
“What are they?” Amelia questioned her response to them falling out of the box. “What importance do they have to you?”
“This is the brooch that Lord Lockhart gave me years ago… I thought I had lost it somewhere in the country. I scoured that house looking for this for years…” Catherine held the small brooch in her hand. It was cold to the touch, as if it were upset that it had been forgotten about in the wardrobe.
“Why did he give it to you, if I may ask?” Amelia was now interested in what had happened between her and Lord Lockhart.
So, Catherine told her the story of Lord Lockhart’s promise. The idea that she would someday marry Nicolas continued to make her heart flutter just a little, but she now wondered if that promise could ever be fulfilled.
“Why do you look so upset?”
“I have not seen nor heard from Lord Lockhart in years. He has disappeared.” Catherine shook her head. “I have to wonder who caused him to disappear, or what caused him to disappear. I would not have thought him the kind of man to leave Town so suddenly when he turned eighteen…”
“Perhaps he was called away for business of some kind with his father’s business partners,” Amelia offered a suggestion.
Catherine was not completely sure that would have worked, but it would have at least explained why Nicolas had completely disappeared.
“Well, if he has disappeared for that reason, then that would explain why he has not written me. If he disappeared for other reasons, I have nothing that could explain why he has not written to me,” Catherine wondered. “I suppose ‘tis rather childish to think he could hold that promise… keep it like he said he would when he made it to me.”
“I do not think it childish, ma’am. I believe there is something to a promise made in childhood. It may not come around as you think, but sometimes, even the most serious of childhood promises can be fulfilled instead of left as childish dreams,” Amelia stated.
Catherine laughed and started to put the letters into the box.
“’Tis childish for him to have promised to marry me so long ago. What if we never see each other again? Will he hold out hope that I have not married for when he comes back, or will he give up and marry someone else, expecting that I had long ago done the same?” She spoke as she put the brooch into the box.
“Well, if that is the case, then he is not the first man to leave a childhood love to grow dust.” Amelia held her hands out for the box. “Would you like me to put this back where it fell from, or is it time it has a new place in your wardrobe?”
“Put it back where it fell from, Amelia, please.” Catherine gladly handed the box over with a laugh. “I see no need for it to have a new place, and now that I know where it is, I can move it if I need to.”
“Of course, Lady Catherine.” With that, Amelia took the box.
It was placed back on the shelf, and Catherine could not help but smile. Nicolas Lockhart… wherever he was, she hoped he remembered her as fondly as she remembered him.
Chapter Two
He sat looking at the letter in his hands. For the last three years, he had been in the military, and this last year, he had been at sea. While he had been able to see so many cities – he had spent a good six months in Paris, and he was now heading back to London – he knew that coming back to Town would be the best thing.
The letter was from his mother. She had been writing him every week since he left, and she had been informing others of what he was doing and where he was. Nicolas honestly doubted this, as he knew that his father was incredibly controlling. If he did not want people knowing where Nicolas was, then his mother was powerless.
While he did not want to return to Town, the way his mother wrote to him had a sense of urgency that had been lacking in the other letters. She told him of his father’s illness, that the doctors were not hopeful that he would recover. Even though he had enjoyed being away from his father’s watchful eye – the controlling man would do anything to make sure thathiswill was followed instead of allowing Nicolas to do as he pleased, especially when it came to his life – he knew that it was only right of him to leave for Town as soon as possible.
The ship would soon be docking in Town, and he was excited. It had been a while since he had been in England, in Town even, and he was ready to come home. His mother’s letter gave him a good excuse.
Now, he could see the docks, and he watched Town come closer to the ship as they pulled into the dock. This was his home. There was no mistaking that. It was, however, different than when he had last been here. The last time he had been on these docks, he had been leaving for his first post just a week after his eighteenth birthday. He had not been allowed to say goodbye to Lady Catherine when he had left, and he often wondered if Lady Catherine knew where he had ended up, what had happened to him.
Catherine Radcliff, the daughter of the Earl of Camberton, had captured his heart as a child. Even when he had been eighteen, and she had been fifteen, he remembered the promise he made her quite fondly. Marrying her was not something that his father looked at as an option, but he knew his father had never quite enjoyed watching Nicolas become a man.
He was not obedient enough for his father, and he was willing to say that it was enough of an issue to have him forcibly sign up to serve in the military. In the end, the military had been good to Nicolas, but he was still mad that his father saw it as a way to keep him from his childhood sweetheart.
The ship docked, and Nicolas grabbed what trunk he had brought from Paris. He had not shipped out with much, and now, he was glad for that. He had been able to buy a few things here and there in the places he visited, and he did not have to worry about needing another bag to start.
His mother had said that there would be a carriage waiting for him when he returned to Town, and he was able to easily find one. It was always easy to find a waiting carriage near the docks; families made sure that there was someone to take their loved ones from the docks back home.
He shoved the bag up into the carriage, not caring that there was room on the top or the luggage rack for it. It had simply become a habit to shove it in wherever he could because it was so small.
He was about to hoist himself up into the carriage when he saw a familiar face walking towards him. Lord Edward Radcliff had somehow found the docks at the exact same time that he was disembarking and getting ready to head back to Ashwood Manor.
“Well, if it isn’t Lord Lockhart. How have you been?” Lord Radcliff stopped to talk to him as he walked past.
