Page 13 of The Duke Who Loved a Widow
He had left her, telling her in no uncertain terms what he thought of her. Even if they met again, she doubted very much that he would speak with her. In his opinion, she had been negligent and put her child in danger.
Wrapping herself in her robe, she sat in the winged chair next to the fire, which still burned brightly. She lit a candle, took her notebook on her knee, a graphite pencil clutched in her hand, and began writing.
In the distance, a figure did stand,
All alone, she held out her hand
The shadows crept around her feet
Tell me oh stranger, shall we ever meet?
The words flowed with images of her getting lost in a strange land and a figure on the horizon who was always in the distance. She could never get any closer to the stranger and their identity, try as she might. Poetry was her refuge, the place she poured out her emotions since Edward’s death. Something had changed, and Arabella knew the themes were about searching for and finding something. If only she could discover the right path.
Eventually, her eyelids grew heavy, and she fell asleep in the chair. The housemaid found her asleep there, covered with a blanket, when she came to make the fire the next morning.
Chapter 5
Have I only been back at Castle Montbury for three days? It feels so much longer.
Occasionally, he loved being back at his childhood home. He realized how much he’d missed seeing Elinor and little Freddy, and he smiled to himself, knowing how much little Freddy enjoyed spending time with him. Yesterday, the child walked around the lake with him, and he remembered a small boat he had used as a child. He was determined to find it out and see if it could be renovated for Freddy.
He enjoyed being close to dogs again. His old dog had died just before he decided to spend more time in London, and he’d never replaced him. Now, in his study, blazing fire in the hearth and the prospect of a walk to the lake, he missed the company of a dog.
His thoughts drifted to the child in the woods and the injured spaniel. Ripple, his dog at his side throughout his teenage years, had been a spaniel with a roan coat, which blended into the woodland. His mother’s dogs were all descended from Ripple.
Robert remembered he’d called her Ripple because she fell in the lake when she was a young pup and refused to come out. She swam and swam, finding sticks in the water, her little eyes and nose bobbing above the water. His father had called the dog Rip, but seeing the ripples all around her on the lake, he’d changed it to Ripple.
I really must locate that old boat for Freddy, he thought.
The table was piled high with estate ledgers. They didn’t look like anyone had looked at them since his father died. However, the estate was doing well, the crops at Home Farm were making a tidy profit, and the dairy herd was thriving. He’d like to see more planning around which crops to plant each year and more rotation, but it was hard to find fault with Michael Morley’s estate management. His father had been shrewd in his choice of steward, and his mother had trusted Morley to continue his management of the farms, moors, and woodland at Montbury.
He’d visited Morley yesterday. The steward had recovered movement in his arm and leg after the seizure, but his days as the manager of a vast estate were over. Robert needed a replacement, and preferably one who knew the local area. All he could do was assure Morley of a home for the rest of his days in his cottage and the pension due for all those years of faithful service to the estate.
A knock on the door and his sister put her head around it. “Robert, I suspect you will never leave this library. You’ve been stuck in here now for nearly three days. Mama is beginning to suspect you are hiding from her.” She giggled and came over to look at the ledgers.
“All’s well?” she asked.
“More than well. Mama has been very effective in her oversight of the estate, and Michael Morley is an excellent steward. The question is how to replace him.”
“Hmm. Several of the younger staff left to work for Sir Joseph Thraxton over at Horton Hall. He’s expanded his lands and offers good wages. You might be able to lure one of them back.”
“That, my dear sister, is an excellent idea. There doesn’t seem anyone on the estate staff who could fill Morley’s shoes.”
“I came to tell you that Freddy and I will be walking down to the lake, and we plan to gather fresh hawthorn leaves and see if we can find wild garlic for Cook. Why not join us and get out of this dull, fusty library?”
“You know I love a dull library. I need to give these ledgers another half hour, but after that, I might walk out to find you.”
“Freddy would love that,” she said. “Ah, how could I forget? There is something else.”
She went over to the door leading out to the outdoor terrace and waved at someone.
“A surprise brother. Something that might keep you at Montbury.”
A few seconds later, Freddy and Jackson entered the library, followed by a spaniel with an almost bluish-black coat. The dog sniffed around her and walked up to Robert, licking his hand and sitting down in front of him, looking up at him expectantly.
Elinor clapped her hands in glee. "It looks like that’s settled,” she said, laughing. “Mickle has found a new master.”
“Elinor, I can’t have a dog. I’m only here for a few days and then back to the townhouse in Mayfair.”
