Page 77 of Unchaining the Heart of the Marquess
Frederick, Tatham, the Duke, and Duchess all made their way toward Pentford. Frederick and Tatham rode horseback, while the Duke and Duchess took the carriage. Once they arrived at the estate, Frederick and Tatham planned to ride ahead and prepare the Evans’ brothers for the Duchess’ visit. Frederick had felt it would be too cruel to have her turn up on their doorstep with no warning.
Frederick and Tatham rode through the village in silence. Things were relatively quiet as most people had returned from Sunday services and were sitting down to eat their midday repast. As they rode up to the front of Llewelyn’s croft they found the entire Evans family sitting outside around a table in the side yard. The sun shone down on their dark heads as they bowed in prayer, and once again Frederick was struck by the similarities that he had never noticed before.
How could I not have seen it all along?
Dismounting, they approached the brothers. When the family lifted their heads at the end of the prayer, Llewelyn caught sight of them and arose from the table to greet them. He looked at Tatham and then at Frederick. A mixture of joy and pain crossed his face. “You know,” was all he said before he enveloped Frederick into an embrace. “Oh, my boy. You finally know.”
Frederick could feel the man’s tears upon his cheek, and his heart went out to him. He wrapped his arms around his uncle in return. “Yes, I know.”
Llewelyn did not release Frederick for several moments, drawing the attention of the entire family. The rest of the brothers came to join them wondering what had gotten into their elder brother. “Llewelyn?” one of them asked, uncertain what to make of the situation.
Llewelyn pulled back and turned to his brother’s. “He knows.”
A mixture of emotions crossed each brother’s face, much like that he had seen on Llewelyn’s face. Grinning, each brother took turned embracing him and pounding him on the back in familial affection. When the brothers had each had a turn, they led Frederick and Tatham over to the table and ordered their families to make room for two more places. All around the table, Frederick saw little pieces of himself in the tiny features of the children.
They really truly are my family.He was awestruck.
“We have been waiting for this day for a long time,” Llewelyn informed him with a smile.
“Our mother, God rest her soul, swore that you had never died. She had the sight, you see, and she could feel your soul still on this side of the veil,” one of the other brothers named Cole informed him. “When Devon came and told us what the old midwife had to say, we were not surprised to hear it. Mother was never wrong about such things.”
“I said we should have raided Chescrown that very night and taken you from your bed,” another brother named James admitted, “but Devon would not hear of it. He was determined that you should learn the truth the right way, through the woman that took you from us.”
“It is actually she that I have come here to speak with you about,” Frederick interjected.
“Oh?” James asked his brow raised in surprise.
“Yes, I have brought the Duchess with me to Pentford. She wishes to make reparations, and I seek your permission for her to come here to do so.”
“No,” the brothers refused as one.
“Even if it were my wish that you do so?” Frederick asked meeting each brother’s eyes in turn.
“After everything that that woman did to us, to our family, you just want us to forgive her?” James asked angrily.
“Yes, I do, for my sake. As much as I know it angers you, and rightly so, she is still the only mother I have ever known. That love does not go away simply because I discover that I do not share her blood. What she did was wrong, and we cannot get back the years that we all have lost as a family, but during those years, I had another family, and it was real. I will not abandon them no matter what truth lay behind the lies, they are still my family. But, so too are you and I want to find a way to make this work.”
The brothers sat in silence considering his words. Llewelyn studied his face. “You are so like our Sarah,” he whispered in wonder.
“Do I look like her?”
“Oh, yes, very much so, but it is more than that. You have her kindness, her generosity of spirit, her fire. Having you here at our table is like having a piece of her back, and if forgiving that awful woman for what she has done to us is the price of having you here with us, of having that piece of Sarah back with us, then I for one am willing to pay it.”
A murmur of agreement went around the table. “You would do that for me?” Frederick asked, humbled by their unconditional love for a man they barely knew.
“My boy, there is not anything that we would not do for you. We have loved you since before you were born and have continued to do so every day since. Alive or dead, you are one of us. You always have been, and you always will be,” Llewelyn replied with tears in his eyes.
Tatham stood from beside Frederick, tears streaming down his cheeks, and raised his mug. “To my son, to our sweet Sarah, and to love!”
“To love!” The chorus rang out from every man, woman, and child around the table, the men downing the contents of their mugs as one.
The remainder of the meal was lively with tales of their youth, riotous laughter at their antics, and tears at their losses. The Evans family were warm people, who believed in family above all else but had generous hearts that could not bear the suffering of others. It had been these qualities that had led them to poach deer to feed their neighbors, and it was these qualities that enabled them to forgive the Duchess her crimes against them.
Frederick knew that they would never forget the pain of all their lost years together with him as a family, but for his sake, they were ready to let it go. It was beyond humbling to be a part of something so selfless as the act of such forgiveness, even more so as it was a token of their love for him. To forgive such an act took great strength and courage. He could not help but be proud to share the blood of such men.
When they returned the next day with the Duchess, Llewelyn spoke for all of the brothers, laying the Duchess’ crime at her feet. He told her of the pain that she had caused, the years of grief and heartbreak, then anger when they had learned the truth. He held nothing back and by the time that he was done, the Duchess was crying so hard Frederick feared she might run screaming from the croft, but she didn’t.
When Llewelyn was done laying forth her crimes, he sat and quietly looked at her for a moment. Then spoke again, this time more gently and with such compassion that Frederick could hardly believe what happened next. “It is my understanding that you, too, lost a love that day. Your own sweet babe.”
